Sailing to Brisbane

We left Willis Island for a day at sea on the way to Brisbane.  Suzan and I had shared a table with a gentleman and his wife and he corrected me on the correct pronunciation of Brisbane - Brisban with a short a, not Brisbane with a long a.  Then the captain, who I believe was Greek, came over the loud speaker and pronounced it Brisbane with a long a - just can't get us "foreigners" to say it right!  What I did get a kick out of was how many people thought I had such a lovely accent.  Suzan and I would just laugh because of course she didn't have an accent and she would tease me about my midwest "twang".

Sailing today so activities around the ship.  Suzan and went to the casino to play in another slot tournament but it looked like we needed to buy tickets so as we walked away, the lady in charge caught us, gave us tickets and asked us to come join the raffle.  They were raffling off twelve spots and even though we were the last two to join the group, we both got a seat in the tournament.  This was an event with officers and they were to help us as we "hit" our machines.  I was dead last, an officer came up and touched my machine and the screen went black and the machine seemed to totally shut down.  Because I got knocked out, they gave me $40 in free play.  Susan got $10 of free play and we turned our free play into $200 (me) and $100 (Suzan)  Needless to say our day ended on a positive note.

Dinner with Paula then I called it a night because I was fighting a cold.  I was so bummed when Suzan came back to the room with her video of disco night, which she made to share the evening with me.  It looked like so much fun.  I told her who ever in Australia gave me their cold could just take it back.

The morning we headed off to Brisbane.  We didn't do any excursions so we just went into downtown and headed straight to Starbucks - my first Starbucks since March 19th.  I texted my sister pictures of cups, then I bought 3 for myself.  We got a free grande drink with each cup so Suzan had a latte and I had a mocha and a coupon for another drink.  I so enjoyed my mocha, then we headed of towards the boat.  We got side tracked one more time by a souvenir shop so one big shopping bag later we were off to the river cruise.

Australia has been experiencing unprecedented heat for this time of year.  The temperature has been mid to high 80's with high humidity and it has been killing me.  I don't do well with heat or humidity so I am spent after walks.  We arrived at the boat dock and I looked a bit like I had just gotten out of the shower.  But the cruise was wonderful.  Suzan had not been to Brisbane so she enjoyed it as much as I did, they had wonderful commentary and there was a lovely breeze on the river.

The following are pictures along the river.  The homes are beautiful and many have their boat in front.  As we moved away from downtown it got more industrial, but close to downtown were all these beautiful homes.

From the expo in the 1980s

Suzan, who loves to shop, headed off on her own.  I headed back to Starbucks since my sister Cindy had texted back asking for two mugs.  So I bought two mugs and as I stood there, I noticed the basket of teddy bears.  Two cups, three teddy bears and another mocha later, I was finally done.  I found two nice young ladies who lived in Brisbane and I gave them my coupons for free drinks and I headed back to catch the bus back to the boat. 

It is amazing how one wrong turn can get you off in the wrong direction.  Even with Google I was having a challenge finding my way back to the park so when I finally stopped to ask directions, turned out I was just 1/2 a block away.  Back on the bus, I was happy to get back to the boat with my now two big shopping bags of stuff.

Dinner with Paula then Suzan and I went to see the Oz Boys of Motown.  They were fantastic, the best show so far.  They did Motown from the 1950's forward.  Great way to end the day.