Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Today we were up bright and early ready to head out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, located approximately 20 minutes southwest of us. We met up with the three older Grzesiak children (Ryan, Connor, and Sarah) and started out the day feeding the wild lorikeets. What a hoot!! The kids had a great time, even though they were a little intimidated by the numbers of loud, rather obnoxious birds diving down to gobble up the food. Unfortunately, a couple of the kids were 'christened' by the birds, but it was an easy clean-up with the baby wipes I had on hand.

Uh, oh! Looks like Meagan was nailed!

Ryan, Meagan, Margaret and Callie

Next we visited the kangaroos and wallabies and, much to our delight, found them to be more frisky and active than normal. They eagerly scarfed down all the "roo food" we gave them and hopped and bounded around energetically. Usually, they lay around lethargically with piles of food in front of them, and turn up their noses at the sight of more food.

Afterwards, we quickly made our way to the Australian Sheep Dog show, which is always a favorite of ours. The dogs are so friendly and well trained--watching them round up the sheep is pretty amazing! Madeline and Marina especially enjoyed the end of the show. After the sheep are in the pen, a couple of Australian Kelpie dogs take over. They are so comical to watch as they 'nudge' the sheep, or I should say scare them, further along into the pen by means of jumping all over their backs and barking frantically. Its quite a sight!

Madeline, Marina and Sarah

Next up was the Bird of Prey show where Margaret was one of 2 people picked to participate. A barn owl swooped down over the field, landed on her arm, and patiently sat there while the bird expert talked about its characteristics and physical features.

Then we were off to take pictures with a cute, cuddly koala--not 'koala bear' like so many Americans mistakenly call it. As you can see, the girls all look adorable holding him.

We spent the rest of our time strolling around looking at all the interesting snakes, birds, dingos, reptiles, and exhibit after exhibit of koalas--Bachelor koalas, Mums and babies koalas, Kindergarten koalas, Senior koalas--you get the picture! We came home exhausted but happy from our special day out.

Marce

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

Arrival of Good Friends!

It's Sunday morning 7AM and we have just picked up Michelle and Meagan's close friends Callie and Margaret McKenzie. They arrived after a long day or traveling starting Friday afternoon at 4PM and ending Sunday morning. Here's a picture of them just after coming out through customs. Other than Canada with their parents, this is the first time they have really been outside of the States and certainly the most time by themselves. Their parents had arranged for an escort in LAX to get them from the Alaska Airlines terminal through the myriad of international flights at the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Unfortunately that person never showed up, so they found their own way with some instructions we had sent them in advance just in case they got missed by Alaska. Fortunately they ended up figuring it out and managed to find their way through LAX to the Qantas flight. Once back through security we called them on a cell phone they had to find out they were at the gate, ready to board. To the left is a picture on our deck after they arrived at our home and were talking to their parents. The weather today is set to be 85 degrees, and the plan is to take them to the Riverside Sunday market, then come back for swimming in the afternoon. We want to keep them awake as long as we can so their body clocks adjust. Make sure to check out Michelle's blog for other posts.

Marc

Michelle's Blog

I have just started my own personal blog (michellesadventuresinlife.blogspot.com), so I thought I should let the readers of this blog know! It won't be as formal as this one, but I'll try to have plenty of pictures and update more frequently. Please look at it and tell me what you think!

~Michelle

Our Friends, the Grzesiak's

This evening, the Grzesiaks (pronounced Greez-ee-aks), along with Mr. and Mrs. Bailey (a North Carolina couple mentioned in one of Mom’s earlier posts who visit Brisbane for a couple of months twice a year) are going out to dinner at a new upscale restaurant, Manx. This is their last opportunity to have some extended time of fellowship with the Baileys before they head back to America on April 1st. The Grzesiaks will drop off their children, much to the delight of all the kids. The younger ones will watch "Peter Pan," but since I highly doubt that the older ones will want to watch that movie, we will probably play a stressful game of Risk! In this blog, I thought I would introduce you to the Grzesiak family.

The Grzesiaks have four children: Ryan (13), Connor (10), Sarah (8), and Lucas (affectionately called “Lukie,” 4). They hail from Charleston, SC, and are therefore more accustomed to this hot and humid weather!! (We’re having a warm spell right now, although autumn has already begun. The temperature has been reaching the nineties lately! It’s so strange and kind of annoying, but I hope it stays this way for a while, just for Callie and Margaret’s sakes. Callie is especially anticipating the sweltering temperatures while they’re here!) Mr. Grzesiak also works for Boeing, and they’ve just returned from a 1 ½ year assignment in Germany. While there, they had many opportunities to travel around Europe and experience the varied cultures. I just love hearing about all their amazing adventures!!

They arrived in October, and we met them during their first week because the relocation specialist who helped us get settled here also worked with the Grzesiaks. Once she discovered they homeschool, she put us in contact with each other.

A few weeks ago, Meagan and I started taking weekly speech lessons at their home each Monday. Following our lesson, Madeline and Sarah enjoy a lesson together with Mrs. Huf (our teacher), while Meagan and I play tennis with Ryan and Connor. I have to admit they have better tennis skills than I do, but I attribute this to the fact that they have a tennis court in their yard, take private lessons, and also play on a team. Another common hobby we enjoy is playing Risk, the world domination strategy board game. We have enjoyed countless games, especially with their Lord of the Rings version—very fun.

Madeline and Sarah have become really close friends. It’s so adorable to see them walking around their yard together, just talking. It reminds me of all the times I spent with my friends taking walks around the church building after the service, discussing school, special events, etc.

Marina and Luke also enjoy their time together. Although he is at least one year older than Marina, she towers over him!! But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re close friends. One of their favorite activities is playing in the pool together, performing all sorts of acrobatic jumps into the water as well as lots of underwater antics.

My mom has also greatly enjoyed the company of Mrs. Grzesiak. They spend a lot of time discussing life in Australia and the challenges of homeschooling a family down under, as well as other topics. My mom really appreciates having a friend who understands the same issues.

I have to get going now. I hope you enjoyed reading this! Please comment.

~Michelle

Neighborhood walks

Ahh...a quiet, peaceful house, and I'm the only one in it! Such rare occurrences in our household. Now I'm not complaining, I love our days filled to the brim with math lessons, history lessons, science experiments, piano lessons, speech classes, etc. but every once in a while I take pleasure in this special treat. Marc took the girls down to Racecourse Road for a leisure Saturday morning brekky at a cafe of their choice. Usually, on weekends when we're not out exploring, Marc and I are up and out the door before the girls are awake to enjoy one of our weekend morning dates . We don hats, sunglasses, and lots of sunscreen and head out into Paradise, with bright skies and sunshine overhead, surrounded by lush tropical plants and trees of every kind as well as beautiful birds calling out to one another. We usually end up at Ascot Continental Deli, one of our favorites. On most of these mornings, we'll get a call from one of the girls wondering, "What's taking so long?" followed by their individual breakfast orders. "Michelle would like the berry muffin, Meagan the bircher muesli, Madeline a chocolate croissant, and Marina a finger bun (with sprinkles, please)". So then we make our way back along Racecourse Road procuring each of their requested menu items from, of course, different bakeries and cafes. Most of the personnel know the routine by now and guess as to what we're picking up for our girls. It adds to the charm of our morning outings.

In addition, Marc and I try to get out at least one or two evenings a week and head down to, where else but, Racecourse Road to enjoy coffee and/or dessert. Michelle and Meagan get the delightful job of putting the little ones down for the night. :-) A necessary item for these nocturnal walks is a torch (flashlight) because the last thing we want is to get our faces caught in one of the numerous gigantic spider webs (yuck!). We've had a few close calls, though! The torch also comes in handy to spot all the bats swooping down, possums balancing along on overhead wires, cane toads hopping by in front of our path, and, believe it or not, cockroaches scurrying around underfoot--if you knew how much I hated cockroaches before our move here, then you'd realize how much progress I've made.

We'll greatly miss these lovely walks of ours, as well as the alfresco dining that we've come to love. Australia holds such a special place in our hearts; its truly a world apart.

Marc and the girls are just returning home as I finish this post. I had to laugh because the girls complained it was "too hot!" for the grueling 6 block walk home and took the easy route by catching a bus. It's 10AM and already 88 degrees, a good time for them to cool off with a swim in the pool.

Marce

Marc's Birthday Celebration at Tukka

As I write, Marc is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean (probably near Hawaii at the moment) en route to LA. He's on his way to Seattle for a 1-day meeting--unbelievable! One bonus for me is that he brought an extra suitcase to transport all the schoolbooks I recently ordered from Amazon. We have a difficult time getting our hands on books we need for homeschooling, so it will feel just like Christmas when he returns home! Hopefully, he'll be able to connect with a few family members, as well as talk to some coworkers about potential jobs. Its hard to believe we have less than 3 months before our return in June!

With Marc's busy travel schedule we haven't had any family getaways recently. But once the McKenzie girls arrive on the 25th of March, we'll head up to the Sunshine Coast for an extended weekend and enjoy plenty of beach time. Our girls can hardly wait until Callie and Margaret get here, and have planned quite a full and action-packed itinerary for their 3 week trip. We'll have so much fun showing them around Brisbane!

For Marc's birthday last weekend, Ramsis and Cecilia surprised him with a special night out at "Tukka", a one-of-a-kind restaurant in the trendy West End precinct. We enjoyed an authentic Australian meal which included some interesting and delicious aboriginal dishes like seared wallaby, wild boar, emu, and crocodile tail, matched with some fabulous Australian wines--mmm, are you getting hungry, yet? :-) Actually, we found it all quite tasty. We also indulged in some homemade damper (a kind of soda bread) and native berries and fruits such as lemon myrtle, pepperberry, gum leaf and rainforest limes. We ended with an incredible passionfruit creme brulee dessert. I'm surprised it took us over two years to discover this restaurant and experience true Australian 'bush tucker'. It was a great evening and a wonderful place to celebrate Marc's birthday, as well as all things Australian.

Marce