Brisbane, QLD


Saturday, June 26, 2010

HOMEWARD BOUND

The surprises continued to come even in the last days of our tour. After having a surprise Birthday Morning Tea with dear friends we headed towards Brisbane but not home yet.
George was driving and we started to see the familiar outskirts of Brisbane but then he turned off towards the Redcliffe Peninsular and then pulled in to Scarborough Beach Resort, where our friend and tour guide, Ann, had booked us into an apartment for five people. You can see George on our balcony.


Bear enjoyed the view from her new deck chair and was glad to put her sore leg up after getting it broken yesterday when she fell out of the car.

Moreton Bay

Mary and I decided to take a closer look at the beach and put on our jumpers and went for a walk along the waterfront in the chilly evening.
This is the last night of our mystery tour and we were told  we were going to a restaurant for dinner. It turned out to be the famous Morgan's Seafood Restaurant. It was a smorgasbord of prawns, oysters, Moreton Bay Bugs, lobsters, mussels and hot fish, calamari, chips, potatoes, vegetables and salads. It was a fabulous meal. In these last hours of our trip Ann had organised another surprise for us.

Mary, me, Helen, Paul, Ann, George, Bill and an empty chair where Bear should be, but she stayed at home to recover from her accident. 
Ann had arranged for Helen and Paul to come to the restaurant for dinner with us. Helen and Paul are members of our Birthday Bear Dinner group but they couldn't come on the mystery tour as they had intended to, because Paul was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma and had to have chemo therapy and recover from an operation. It was great to see they could manage the long drive to this side of the city and enjoy our last night of the tour, and my birthday. What a fantastic birthday I had. Thanks to Ann.

The next morning greeted us with a lovely sunrise before we headed towards home. However, Ann had another attraction for us to see on the way home.

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Now I see why you're even more absent than me... ;))
    It seems you had a great time and the views are excellent!!
    Enjoy your weekend!!

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  2. Re your thank you to Ann and others. And so say all of us...
    Diane, I must be honest and admit that I am a little envious of both your mystery tour and your friendships that allowed it to take place.
    Remember the Redcliffe area as I felt I could quite easily live there.

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  3. Great to follow your great adventure.... Welcome Home.

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  4. That sunrise is magnificent. What a gorgeous picture!

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  5. Thank Ann on our behalf. This mystery tour has surpassed anything I would have imagined.

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  6. Wow--- Ann is the perfect tour guide... I'd love to go on one of her trips!!!! Actually---I feel like I got to go on this one with you all... Thanks so much!!!!

    That last dinner sounded wonderful... Glad that Helen and Paul could join you for that.

    Seems funny to see you all with sweaters on down there --when it's hotter than blue blazes here... ha

    What's a "jumper"???? Some kind of a coat or one-piece garment I assume...

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  7. Hi Diane - I loved looking at all your Mystery Tour posts so I am just leaving a comment on this final one. It seems that you all had a marvellous time and shared some lovely photos of great places that I'd never heard of but seem to be part and parcel of Australia's history - gold mining, national parks, strange towns called by a date instead of words! And I had heard of Bundaburg maybe in a song - someone gave me a cassette of Aussie songs called The Man from Snowy River and it was full of outback and mining songs, very catchy . the one song my son loved to sing as a kid at parties was The Wild Colonial Boy - with its Irish connections. I hope to see Australia some day - it is a fascinating country. Are you pleased to have a new Prime Minister? one of the £10 poms is how she was described on one of the papers here. Interesting times. I thought Rudd was very popular so didn't know there was a leadership heave against him. Politics are a mystery at times!
    Catherine

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  8. Diane!

    How can you be so cruel! Oysters and fresh prawns!!!!!!!!

    Betsy: Bill is wearing a jumper and it looks like pure wool!

    Cheers - great reporting except for the final "gloat" about oysters and prawns!
    Colin (HB)

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  9. What truly incredible friends you do have. You are so blessed with good friends, good family, and now a precious grandson too!

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  10. I have enjoyed even minute of your adventure. Ann really knows how to plan a tour. And there is still one more surprise?

    I love your photos of the sunset, it is gorgeous.

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  11. Hi Diane! Thanks for the comment. Blogtrotter Two discovers Sardinia! Enjoy and have a great week!

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  12. A great time and dinner and what lovely views you had, Diane! I love your photos!

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  13. What a wonderful thing to do to end your adventure !!

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  14. Bear looks exhaisted! And the divirsity of your beautiful country is simply aMAzINg! So, it seems, is ther photographer ;-D

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