Our room was ready about 9:15 and we were excited to move into a wonderful room with a beautiful view of the River. We both had showers and then headed out for a walk. We walked down the river for a while, checking out the water taxi that Michael and I will both need to take tomorrow. We found a restaurant called “Pig ‘n Whistle, so we decided to go ahead and eat our big meal for the day. Michael had Fish and Chips and I had a HUGE hamburger with chips as well.

After lunch, we just started walking thru the Brisbane streets and checking out various shops that looked interesting. Michael found a tobacconist and bought a nice cigar so we headed back to the hotel so that he could relax and enjoy it (while working on outlining a book)!!

I decided that I didn’t want to sit, so headed back out to people watch and do some shopping. I had a great time visiting stores that we used to shop in when we lived here. I went into Woolworths (grocery store) and found that it was set up a lot like the grocery stores in Oxford. I also wandered through Big W (Walmart-ish) and ended up buying a CD that I was looking for. It was a Kids CD from a show called Play School. We used to play it for Brian and Jenny all the time, but only on a record, so I wanted to replace it with a CD. This put me in mind to find a music store and look for another CD that we had wanted to get. When we lived here, we enjoyed the music of an Australian Folk singer but I couldn’t remember his name. Fortunately the record store had a smallish Folk/Country section and I was able to find a “Best of” collection of 3 CD’s.

We have both really enjoyed listening to the accents and words of Australia. It is comforting to hear them again and to listen for the lilt in their voice at the end of their sentences.

I walked back to the hotel, had a long relaxing bath and then Michael and I sat and looked out our 15th story window at the boats coming up and down the river and listened to the folk music. It was beautiful as the sun started going down. We reluctantly left the window about 7pm and were both asleep by 7:05. We slept well and woke at 4:30 the next morning. Hopefully this will give us a good start to overcoming our jet lag......now, on to the new day!!!