Brisbane

While we flew into Brisbane we really spent most of our Australian vacation on the Sunshine Coast.  Sunshine Coast in North of Brisbane and has lots of great "family" type activities.  Great beaches, the zoo, and lots of artsy stuff around.  The coast south of Brisbane is known as the "Gold Coast".  Here you will find more serious surfers and lots of theme type parks for the children.  We didn't make it to the Gold Coast, but never felt like we missed anything.  The Sunshine Coast was really wonderful.

On New Years Eve, we barely made it past 7:00 pm before hitting the hay.  It actually gets dark pretty early (but light very early) during summer here.  The following morning we woke up early and hit Brisbane for the day, mostly around the Southbank Parklands area.  They had a wonderful lagoon for the families to play in (nicely enclosed swimming pools) just off the river in downtown Brisbane.  Very nice, clean city.  We also took the public transit boat (City Cat) for a tour of the city via the water.  It was a great day out.  And our first time trying the wonderful turkish bread.

The following day we headed to the Eumundi market.  This place was amazing.  Not really a farmers market, but something of a cross with an arts and craft market as well.  Each Wednesday and Saturday the little town of 500 people have a couple thousand people descend on it for the market.  It was crazy, but a fun visit.

City of Brisbane

Lily with her new Koala Bear.  She wouldn't give it up after our trip to the zoo and she is still sleeping with it every night.  Notice the "zinc" on her face.  I was trying to protect her from the sun but think I was also successful in making her look a bit like a ghost.  At least she didn't get a sunburn I suppose.  Do you know how hard that "zinc" is to wash off.  Ugh....