We spent the next two sea days
viewing more of the Queensland Islands, working on the blog, and relaxing by
the pool.
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| Sunrise onboard |
Brisbane would be our last port of call before landing in Sydney for
our journey back to the states.
As we were pulling into Brisbane
we were able to reestablish our phone service and immediately started receiving
texts from our friends from the last cruise.
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| Brisbane skyline |
Keith and Sheila left us in Perth
but wanted to meet up with us when we came to Brisbane, and they were arriving
at the cruise terminal just as we had finished docking and our breakfast. We
made our way to the gangway and were among the first passengers off the ship
and found Keith and Sheila in the waiting lounge.
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| Reunited! |
Everyone was excited to see
everyone. We loaded into their car and headed for the Sunshine Coast near where
they lived and quickly caught each other up with the latest news. We delivered
greetings from previous dinner mates, Jackie and Sylvia, and told them the
latest gossip about the ship.
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| War games! |
Keith drove us past the Australia
Zoo which was inspired by Steve Irwin, TV’s famous “Crocodile Hunter,” and a
famous area attraction. We viewed the Glass House Mountains, named by Captain
Cook and drove to the beachside community of Mooloolabra where we stopped for
some beautiful beach pictures. Keith and Sheila wanted to take us to the Surf
Club for coffee.
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| Beach on Sunshine Coast |
We signed into the club and drank our coffee while enjoying
scenic beach views, and then viewed the reception room where Keith and Sheila’s
daughter had her wedding reception.Inside the club Capt. Larry found several young men doing war battle strategy with plastic battle figures. And these guys were SERIOUS! Their strategic discussion lasted the entire time we were there.
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| Beautiful beach |
After we left the Surf Club we walked down
to one of the beach’s more famous local landmarks- “The Loo With A View.”
Aussies refer to their outdoor restrooms as loos and this particular facility
is located right on the beach and provides great beach vistas. We left
Mooloolabra and drove up the Sunshine Coast to Maroochydore- the community
where Keith and Sheila live.
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| Aussie booty! |
They drove us to their beautiful home for lunch.
Situated on a quiet street and a beautiful canal with ocean access, their home
is designed with a Mediterranean-style open air breeziness that begs the
occupants to be outside.
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| The Surf Club |
Relaxing on their patio, we had some drinks and talked
about our families, government stupidity, past travels, and future travel
plans. Sheila had put together a fantastic lunch of boiled shrimp and oysters
on the half shell, avocado and fruit salad, and an asparagus-salmon quiche.
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| "Loo With A View" |
As
if we needed so much delicious food! We thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and great
conversation, but we were no sooner finished than it was time to return to the
ship. At the terminal we had our hugs, said our goodbyes and promises to keep
in touch, and expressed hopes that we could travel together again in the
future. It was the best shore excursion we could have possibly had.
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| Keith's "Outback" |
One more sea day and we’re back in
Sydney. It took us almost the entire day to repack and organize the things that
we had collected on our 32-day voyage.
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| Our Aussie friends |
We had to disembark earlier than we had
hoped so that they could sanitize the ship again, but as luck would have it the
company providing our scheduled ride to the airport requested an earlier pickup
time. The longer wait at the airport was made about an hour longer when our
plane was late arriving.
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| Headin' for Sydney |
This would haunt us with our connecting flight in Dallas
as international passengers with domestic connections must collect their bags,
go through customs, recheck their bags, and pass back through airport security.
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| Our last dinner aboard
|
And
naturally our bags were among the last to appear and our gate was at the other
end of the DFW terminal. Slowed by a congested security check, we got to the
gate 5 minutes after the flight left and were placed on a flight leaving 2
hours later. We spent the time with Jackie and Sylvia who were on the same flight.
Capt. Larry began to wonder if our bags might have gone to New Orleans on the
earlier flight, but figured in any event they would be at baggage services.
Well, only one bag showed up and the receptionist at baggage services told us
the other bag was still in Sydney, even though we collected it in Dallas! And
they want outlandish baggage charges for this service?? We filled out a claim
and were driven home by our son Joey. One load of laundry and 3 stiff drinks
brought us to the luxury of our own bed with the alarm set for 0500. Tomorrow
we drive 10 hours to South Padre Island, Texas, for the next leg of our winter
escape.
Stay tuned…
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