Off on our travels again.

Welcome to my new 2019 blog. You are about to embark on a journey that will take us to the opposite side of the world. Before we do that though I want to tell you about our visit to Independence, Missouri for Gary's 50th (yes, 50th) High School Reunion.
The Reunion comprised of meeting with his "old" classmates at a Sports Bar on the Friday night, followed by breakfast on Saturday morning and a tour of Van Horn High School and a dinner/dance on the Saturday night. Gary was able to reconnect with friends, make new friends and swap school stories.
Monday, we went to the movies to see Downton Abbey, along with Nancy, a good friend of Gary's. Both Gary and Nancy enjoyed the movie. I, however was disappointed with it. I think the media had hyped it up too much.
Despite visiting Independence many times in the past we had never visited the Missouri 1855 site so today this is where we headed. The site comprises of original 19 century buildings brought in from all over Missouri. I believe there were about 25 buildings altogether. Some of them you viewed from the outside, others you were allowed inside.

                                                                The school room

  

The chicken coop was interesting. The hinged sides allowed a wagon to pull underneath to easily clean out the nesting area.

You know me and cats. I found the above feline asleep in the mule barn. She/he reminded me of my Molly so I just had to go and stroke her. Being feral. I thought she would run away but she did not so for a couple of minutes she enjoyed being petted.

 The old town site also had  a herd of buffalo that could be viewed from the road. I was surprised to see them belly deep in water.

Leaving Independence, we flew to Los Angeles to visit our nephew, Eric and his wife Nancy. We had a really nice, relaxing visit with them and were grateful for their hospitality.
After a very early morning start we were on our way to Australia via Hawaii. The 4 hour stop over in Hawaii helped break up the very long flight. I do not like flying very much so this was quite an ordeal for me. Luckily, the flights were good with not too much turbulence. We arrived in Brisbane at 8pm Australia time on a Saturday night (6am U.S. time). Boy, were we tired as we did not sleep on the plane. I watched 3 movies which did help pass some of the time.
The weather in Brisbane was warm with low humidity which made it quite pleasant for walking around. After a shuttle bus ride to the hotel it was time for a 12 hour sleep to catch up on our zzzs.
With only 2 days in Brisbane we had to be choosy about what to visit. Our first day was spent in downtown Brisbane visiting the botanical gardens, the man made beach and wading pools and going for a free river shuttle boat ride.

The "beach" and wading pools were in the heart of Brisbane City and right next to the Brisbane River. I think all of Brisbane were there that day due to the children being on holiday.

The above is one of the large tourist catamarans that go up and down the river. It was far, far bigger than our boat. We preferred to ride the free city hopper boat which covered quite a distance.

The botanical gardens were not very large but rather pretty I thought considering it is very early spring in Australia.

This "idiot", I mean daring young man propelled his bike into the air and then down the railing of the steps. He did it several times without any problems, thank goodness as he was not wearing a bike helmet.

If the cyclist had had a problem I guess we could have called for an ambulance to help.

I thought the above were bats but was told they were red flying foxes. I guess they do look a little like foxes.

Now, those of you who have followed my blogs in the past know that a blog is not complete without photos of plants, animals or birds. So, here I go.

                                                               A cormorant.

                                                  A noisy miner (yes, that is its name).
Well, I think that is enough for today. See you tomorrow.