Surfers' Paradise

Today Mark had business down the coast and he asked Karen and I if we wanted to go to the beach. Well, the beach Mark had in mind happened to be Surfer's Paradise. I knew that we could keep ourselves entertained there for the day. It was a blast to say the least. Surfer's Paradise has been rated one of the top beaches in the world. The beach was white sand and surf as far as we could see. The beach was clean and not a rock in sight. September holidays start tomorrow here in Australia (something like Spring break in Alberta) so the beach was getting busy. The surfers were indeed out. Point Danger had excellent waves and there must have been 75 surfers riding the surf. I thought of Jay's son Sam all day. I am sure he would never leave this place.

Today was a day of lots of firsts for Karen. She saw whales, dolphins, and lots of hot surfers. Karen and I loved swimming in the ocean. The waves were big.

Tomorrow we are heading north to get our sailboat and then we have a week cruising the Whitsunday Islands. It's going to be lots of fun!

Karen says she likes the comments you have sent along. Keep'em coming.

Bob and Karen

How can Surfers Paradise and Labrador be on the same sign on the M1 in Australia? Confusing for a Canadian.

The Australian Grand Prix occurs on the streets right behind the beach in about 4 weeks. I was getting ready.

Karen enjoying the 25C weather.


Surf is up. Time for some fun.



This picture is at Point Danger today. The dolphins were cruising amongst the surfers and humpback whales were a bit further out.

Expert surf boarders!

Off to Explore the Coast Today

Well we are off to see some of the coast today. Mark has business down the coast today so we are riding on his shirt tail. Time for some exploring along the ocean. YAHOO!

Exploring on Foot

Good morning everyone! We have managed a turn around and slept through our first Australian night. We had a great day yesterday. Brisbane is beautiful. Right across the road from Mark and Mary's house there is a university called Griffith's. We walked across the road and around the campus. Guess what? University students look just the same everywhere. As an aside, crossing streets is very different. I keep looking the wrong direction for oncoming vehicles. They are opposite of our directions and it is very disconcerting. I now have my head on a swivel!!!!

We saw these beautiful flowers on our walk. It is officially spring here, but early. There are so many gorgeous flowers and interesting birds.

Mark and Mary live very near the Commonwealth Stadium from the Brisbane Games in 1982. There was a full high school track meet at the adjacent track which we watched for a while. It was great to see.

These birds of paradise grow in gardens around the city. They are huge and gorgeous.

Here are Kia and Katelyn in their new Canada Olympic t-shirts. Don't they look great?

We are going for a run this morning and looking forward to our day. The sun is shining and the pool is beckoning.

A Long Day of Travel gets us to Brisbane

Hi Everybody!

We made it to Brisbane. Let's see, we left early Sunday morning. Jay and Lynn drove us to Calgary to catch our ride to LAX. That 3 hour flight was uneventful although US customs took almost 90 minutes. Our bags went straight through to Quantas so all we had to do was wait for our flight. The wait was almost 9 hours. Well, that is what has to be done to get the cheap flight. So it was multiple laps of the terminals and Sunday Night Football at a bar in Terminal 4. FINALLY and mercifully we boarded a 747 Quantas flight that takes 13 hours from Los Angeles. It was weird flying for 12 hours in darkness and then the sun rose just as we lined up to land in Brisbane. Karen and I were quite tired and we slept about 8 hours on the plane. I watched a couple of movies to kill the last 5 hours. Brisbane has about 1.2 million residents. Mark and Katelyn (Mark's youngest daughter) picked us up and took us to the house. When we arrived at Katelyn's and Kia's house, we saw the "Red Carpet" on the lawn. It was actually a beach towel but we made sure we walked on the special runway when we got out of the car. We got a good going over at customs but all our gear was fine. Mary had the coffee on and then she went to teach. Mark just left to his work.

Karen sitting by the pool. It's already hot and humid heading towards 28C.

Los Angeles is BIG, real big. I think there are 7 terminals at LAX.

We travel light. Not. The orange bag was over weight by 0.3 of a pound. Blast! Luckily we were not charged.

Big Manitoba Trout

Karen and I just got back from Manitoba where we helped to host a group of nine fly fishers. The fishing was pretty good. The trout are huge in Manitoba!

We are down to just a few days before we head to Brisbane. The packing is thankfully under control.

A beautiful Patterson Lake Rainbow Trout!

Karen's largest brown trout ever!

Only a Week to Go

We are packing for our big trip right now to Australia, Tasmania and New Zeland. Karen and I are getting quite excited.

Count Down is On

We are just a few short weeks from our big trip down under. Karen and I are getting excited about the new places we are about to visit.