Cruising Brissie on the "Kitty Cat"

After a nice Sunday morning brekky out on our veranda, we decided to take the City Cat up the river to hit the city sights. Marina affectionately calls it the "Kitty Cat". To the left is a picture of the girls just after we boarded this fun method of public transport. Part of the strategy was to keep Callie and Margaret up and awake so they could adjust their body clocks to Australian time. First stop on the way was the weekly Sunday Market along Eagle Street Pier. This market appears every Sunday morning in the heart of Brisbane along the river and has a wide variety of arts and crafts. By the time we had arrived it was about 85 degrees, so our first stop was a round of fresh-squeezed lemonades for everyone. In the end the damage wasn't too bad- Margaret purchased a new purse, and Meagan new sun glasses and earrings. From there we made our way to the outdoor Queen Street Mall, which is an open air mall with a cobblestone walkway. Along the way we stopped by the historic St. Stephen Catholic Cathedral, which happened to be conducting late morning Mass. The back doors were open so we popped in for five minutes to see the beautiful architecture and hear the celebrant reading from the Gospel of John. Callie and Margaret thought it sounded very dignified with the Australian accents. You can check out the cathedral architecture at http://www.cathedralofststephen.org.au/art.htm

We didn't spend much time at Queen Street Mall but quickly grabbed some lunch fixings at Coles for our church picnic near the University of Queensland campus, similar in size and feel to the University of Washington.

http://www.translink.com.au/qt/translin.nsf/ReferenceLookup/070115_NetworkMap_Ferry.pdf/$file/070115_NetworkMap_Ferry.pdf

We started at Bretts Wharf at the upper right and made it to Guyatt Park on the lower left. You can see how the winding river really gives a nice city perspective. For dinner we ate out under our covered veranda and treated Callie and Margaret to Australian Barramundi, a delicious white fish we all enjoy.

After dinner when it turned dark the girls set out with flashlights in hand to look at giant spider webs and white-tailed opposums. They actually found both, with a white-tailed opossum scurrying along a telephone wire. Here's a picture where they found an opposum. Poor thing ... it was probably really scared with all these girls screaming and pointing lights at it!


To cap it all off, after Madeline and Marina went to bed, the four older girls went out to the hot tub with candles, music and CHOCOLATE! It will be tough to beat this day.

Tomorrow the girls get to participate in Michelle and Meagan's speech class at the Gryzesiak's home and then play a few tennis matches, followed by a cool-down in the pool. Already this trip is off to a great start!

Marc