Brisbane, November 22-24, 2008

Neither Claire nor I had met the family with whom we were visiting.  Claire had emailed them back and forth before our trip and over the last few days, to discuss our plans and arrange the logistics for our arrival.  As Rick was going to pick us up at the airport, Claire called him that morning to speak to him for the first time.  He didn’t recognize the name at first, and thought she was a cold-caller from India trying to sell him a vacation package.  We all had a good laugh once we got together.

 

Rick was the perfect tour guide to Brisbane, a wonderful city with a majestic river winding back and forth through its midst.  As we only had a few hours Saturday afternoon, we drove around through the neighborhoods important to our family, and learned how an American navy man named Charlie Oliver (Harry’s brother, and Rick’s father) was stationed here in WWII, fell in love and made a life here.  We visited Mt. Coot-tha (which affords an eagle eye view over the entire city), Rick and Robyn’s home, their new-home-to-be (it’s always fun to see a house in the middle of remodeling), and watched some intramural-type cricket at the nearby Queensland University.  After 2 ½ weeks of sometimes scratching our heads about cricket and other Australian unique things, we peppered Rick with all of our stored-up questions, and he graciously and patiently answered all of our (many dumb) questions.

 

The next morning, Rick picked us up bright and early, for we had a 9 AM car ferry reservation to North Stradbroke Island, a barrier island just off the coast to the east.  It was absolutely fabulous, a little bit of our Outer Banks, California coast, and a laid-back Nantucket all thrown in together.  As we landed on the island, instead of taking the sealed road to their house, we just cut over to the beach and drove north on it – very cool.  At their home we finally met Robyn, who walked us around the headlands of Point Lookout and took us swimming at Frenchman’s Cove (interestingly, the only one of four beaches where Rick said we really shouldn’t swim (because it’s the most dangerous and without lifeguards) was the one he sent us to swim (we got a chuckle out of that as well).  H

mmm.  However, there were supposedly no crocs, no sharks (at least not many, they said), and no marine stingers --- only “rips”, and we got the lecture as to what to do if caught in one.

 

After our swim it was back to the “Sea Stable” (they are former ranchers) to re-meet their daughter Greer, whom we met years ago when she visited Virginia and Harry.  We then commenced our plans for lunch, and Scott for once was thrilled with the food, as we were having fish, shrimp and crab, three of his very favorite things.  It was a pleasure to see Rick and Robyn both put him to work in the kitchen, shelling (well, mostly eating) the crab and frying up the fish. Scott even pulled a trick on

us with a fish bone and we all roared with laughter. Lunch was all fresh and very good, and our best meal of the trip (the most fun one by far, as we got to know each other and told stories on our family members back in the States).  Our day ended much too soon, and we all headed back toward the ferry and our journey back into the city.

 

We are now on our flight back from Brisbane to Los Angeles, and then on to Charlotte.  We will gain back the day that we lost coming over.  Rick picked us up at 9 AM this morning, November 24^th, for our 12 PM departure.  We will arrive into LAX at 7 AM on the 24^th (i.e., 5 hours before we left) after our 13+ hour flight.  We have had a wonderful 3 weeks, and it was capped by a great stay with Rick, Robyn and Greer.  We didn’t get to meet their son Rhett and his wife, so that, in addition to many other things, gives us a reason to return.  We look forward to that day.

 

Cheers!