So much to see and do!

The title is my lame effort at an excuse for not adding to my blog for a few days.  We have been mildly busy and enjoying the area around Brisbane.  It is such a nice area with lots of things to do.

On Wednesday (Oct 2) we went to Mount Coot-Tha and had a lovely lunch at The Summit Café.  Lovely views of the city from a really nice place to eat.

Downtown Brisbane from Mount Coot-Tha

Thursday was a fun and exciting day.  We drove to the Gold Coast, which is a lovely area south of Brisbane with lots of hotels and beaches. 

Sea World has an amusement park there but they also do Whale Watching tours.  That was our purpose of going there.  It was well worth the effort.  We went about a mile off shore in a very nice boat.

The Whale watching was superb as you can see from these pictures.

We later drove to The Polish Place on Mount Tambourine.  From there we had a lovely view of the Gold Coast Area

A nice view of the valley to the West,

And a nice lunch in a polish style restaurant.

Yesterday, we started the morning with home made waffles on the deck.

And then it was a trip to Ipswich and the Queensland Railroad museum.  An interesting find was this locomotive made by the Baldwin Locomotive Co. of Philadelphia, PA.  It was made around WWII and part of the lend-lease program.  Since it was narrow gauge, the US didn’t want it back.  It is now stored in the shops and will eventually be rebuilt to operational status.  It is significant to Katie because her Dad used to work for Baldwin Locomotive during the war years. 

It was fun to see all of the engines there plus the other displays (we are going to ride a steam train on Sunday). 

We got to ride on the Transverser.  It is normally used to move engines and cars between the various repair shops, but is also used to transport tourists between the displays.

They even had a display of “steam punk” art.

This is actually an operational CD player!

Today the adventure continues.  More later.

Back to Brisbane

Not a lot of activity for the past three days, hence the lack of a new entry in the blog.

Sunday, we checked out of the Hotel and drove to Sydney.  We took a few pictures of the court yard of the hotel.  The Hotel was one of the early buildings in Canberra (1920s) and was a hostle for working women at first.  It was later converted to a hotel and has been added to over the years.  It is a complex maze of buildings but was a nice place to stay.

Somewhere along the way before we left Canberra I got this picture of an Australian Magpie.  It was somewhat tame because it was very close to me.

This is a typical scene along the road.

In the world of unusual (for the USA anyway) road signs.  This is a wombat crossing sign.

I was surprised to get passed by a Lamborghini.

After arriving in Sydney and a small adventure of finding a gas station and then the entrance to rental car return, we had time for some lunch before our airplane for Brisbane loaded.

Monday was a low key day.  I spent most of it catching up on my photo backup process and generally relaxing.  Katie and Sylvia did a little shopping.  These Rainbow Lorikeet’s are regular’s at Sylvia & Roy’s bird feeder.  As you can tell they are used to people being around.

We also saw this Spotted Turtle Dove at the feeder a little later.

And a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike was also in the neighborhood.

Today, we had breakfast at Cooper’s in Manly.  This a picture of Monty’s Sister and Brother-in-law.

While there, the neighbor hood Ibis paid a visit.

Here it is early spring, so a lot of the trees are starting to bloom.  This is a Jacaranda trees with its beautiful blooms. 

 

In the interesting road sign category, this one is for Koala crossing zone.

Of course when you travel with a quilter, no trip is complete without a visit to a quilt shop.  This one is in the Cleveland area….and a stop was mandatory!

Cleveland point is a pretty park.  We were there at low tide so lots of tidal land was showing.  It was a pretty area.  This is also a set location for one of the “Chronicles of Narnia” movies.

We were intrigued by this Banyan Tree.  This is the oldest banyan tree in Queensland. 

We discovered Kangaroo’s running wild at a vineyard.  There were a lot of them in the area.

A face only a mother could love?

We stopped for afternoon tea and scones and were treated to a peacock display.  I think is puts on a show for seeds!

Overall a fun day.  Until next time………….

Canberra–Day 2

It is hard to decided what to do when you have limited time in a city with many things to do and see.  Today we decided to see the National Museum of Australia (the Smithsonian of Australia) and the Australian National Botanic Gardens.  Both turned out to be interesting and provided a sense of the history and variety of this country.  We also got in some bird watching.

During our travels around Australia, just like our trip in 2000, we find the people are so nice and are very willing to go out of their way to help.  We have met some very nice people and find it very easy to have a conversation with almost anyone.

The museum tells the story of the Australian people.  It is full in interesting artifacts that help tell the story.

For example, there was the story of Harold Wright that built a wagon to house his family and then traveled around Australia during the depression sharpening knives, saws, and anything else.

There are displays of Aboriginal Art.  This is a typical piece that is done on tree bark, depicting a stingray and barramundi.

 

The steam engine played a major part in the history just as it did in the US.

And of course the history includes needle work and quilts like this early thread painting (1940s),

or this quilt top from the same time period.

Lunch menu was Fish  & Chips at the museum café.

The Botanical Gardens were full of interesting and what we would call exotic plants.  Because we happened to be the only people around when a tour started we ended up with a very personalized tour of the gardens.  Doreen Wilson was fun, and when we expressed an interest in a particular area she would make sure we saw those things.

Stag Horn Ferns

Kruanga Casdade

Banksia flower,

Warratah flower (not fully open)

Unknown but truly amazing flower on a tree,

Grass Tree (a type of orchid, almost in bloom).

Birds seen today include the Australian Wood Duck

Australian Magpie

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo

Galah

Seen but not photographed include, Pied Currawong, Noisy Miner, Crimson Rosella, Welcome Swallow.

Overall a fun day but we were both glad to get back to our Hotel room and relax.

Tomorrow will be a travel day.  We will be driving from Canberra back to Sydney and then hopping on a plane for Brisbane.