Ekka

The Ekka is Queenslands State Fair.  This poor Aussie didn't
get to see much of it though.

There were lots of baby lambs...

little goats...

and baby chicks - or chooks.

This is our friend Alan Tibbits.  He and wife Helen live south in Jimboomba.    He cooks for all the workers at the baby animal exhibit for the two weeks of Ekka.   Lucky workers!

This is how you eat bar-b-que ribs without a knife and fork.

We watched big Toyota Heilx trucks go all the way around the
track on two wheels.

And saw motorcycles fly through the air.

Then came the fireworks!!!  Really cool!
The End

We stopped in Rockhampton on the coast for a couple of days. This is called the Singing Ship.

Rocky is the beef capitol of Queensland.  So Elder Adams asked where he could get a good steak.  We were told that the Great Western Hotel has two for one on Wednesday nights.  Plus there was practice bull riding in the arena behind the hotel.  So for $26, he got steak and I got barramunda and we watched the bull riding.

This bull didn't like his rider very much so he got rid of him fast.

Then it was on to Emerald.  This is the train station built in 1900.  It was while they were surveying for the railroad in the 1800's that they started finding sapphires on the ground.  Volcanic action had brought stones to the surface millions of years ago.

They used to grow sunflowers in Emerald for the oil.  So this giant
painting is in the town park.

The actual gem fest was outside of Emerald in the little town of Anikie.

This is Poppy's Cafe in Rubyvale.  We had scones and hot chocolate for breakfast.  Yum!

Paul even shared some of his scone with a lorikeet.

We went down into the Heritage Mine.  It used to be a working
sapphire mine but is now used for tours.  Sapphires come in every color
of the rainbow, not just blue.

The light is shining on a stone in the "wash".  That is the flow that
contains the gemstones, with granite below and clay above.

This is the chapel in Emerald.  It was great to go the church
on Sunday with the elders and the saints.  Many thanks for
our warm welcome.

This is a pretty little "Queenslander" that we spotted on our way
back through Rockhampton.  They build on stilts because of the
frequent floods and to cool the house in summer.

Thanks to the Hale's great spotting, we saw our first real "herd" of
kangaroos up close.  They were having a feed on the soccer field
on the way into Gladstone.

After a good night with the Hale's, we hit the road for home.
It would have been a better trip if we hadn't had to stop for
road construction so often.

This is a field of sugarcane. 

And the weather was perfect!  We did enjoy our trip to Whoop Whoop!

Beautiful Brisbane

Our favorite method of transportation into the city is always the City Cat.

The Riverside Dock has a great view of the Marriott - the building with the domed top.

There are always interesting skies. 

St Andrews Anglican Church

Interesting downtown

Anzac Square

The War Memorial in Anzac Square

An aboriginal man playing a didgerydoo on Queens Street.

more clouds and water

A city with a river requires many bridges.

Our favorite is Story Bridge that connects Kangaroo Point with Brisbane City.

We do love our beautiful Brisbane.

Scarborough

P-day May 7th was Labor Day in Australia.  We joined the masses at the beach.  We have wanted to go north to Scarborough - about a 45 minutes drive.  Paul served in Scarborough, England which is also a beach community in the north east.  The two are very different, but both lovely.

We began collecting shells.  I went down to the water's
edge and noticed that most of the ones down there were
moving.  We gathered the ones at the high tide mark
thinking that most of those would be empty.

We thought we might have three or four with hermit crabs,
it was more like twenty!  Sorry, guys, no pets allowed in
the flat.

The sand wasn't as nice as the Sunshine Coast, but it was a great spot - another day in paradise!                           

Joseph Smith descendants

We have been given the assignment to take genealogy packets to descendants of Joseph and Emma Smith.    One of the Smith granddaughters - Ina Inez Smith - married Sydney Wright from Australia.  They moved to New South Wales and had ten children.  From those ten, there are now over 500 descendants living here in Australia.  We went north to Maroochydore to visit with Dawn Schmith, a descendant and recent convert.  Maroochydore is on the Sunshine Coast and a beautiful beach community.  We had a lovely visit with Dawn and her family and then found a place to stay for the night.

We found a nice little resort in Coolum called the Sea Cove, dropped our stuff, and headed for the beach.

The BEST fish and chips ever!!!  The snapper was super fresh and the batter light and crispy.   Yum!

A whole tree full of cockatoos!

This area has 65 K of uninterrupted white sand beaches.  We set up
the camp chairs and settled in for the afternoon.  It was a georgeous
day!

We bushwalked through Mapleton Falls National Park.

There are several places along Mountain View Road that
gave us a great view to the Glass House Mountains.

This is the little annual plant that
Heather likes to plant in her front
yard.  Here it is a six foot bush!

 We took the interior track through the Hinterlands - through such lovely towns as Mapleton, Montville, and Maleny.  They run along a ridge that has a view all the way to the ocean in places.