Sunday, April 28, was my last full fun day in Australia. Monday afternoon I’d fly to Sydney, but stay in an airport hotel to be nearby for my Tuesday morning flight back to the states.

Midmorning, I headed to the botanic gardens, where these water lilies reminded me of Monet’s Japanese Garden in Giverny.

Then I explored. This sign reminded me of the cute pub David and I found in Wilmington, North Carolina.

I didn’t go in. I simply wandered, then walked across the huge bridge spanning the Brisbane River over to South Bank for the museums.

First, the Queensland Museum Kurilpa: dinosaurs–both real skeletons and life-sized Lego creations–plus all manner of Australian wildlife, including some I’d already seen up close and breathing. Also here and here and here.

And there were butterflies …

Next up, the Gallery of Modern Art. Turns out, there was a months-long exhibit called Fairy Tales ending THAT DAY at the 5 o’clock closing time. It was approaching 4 p.m. by the time I got there, so I didn’t have time to dither. I bought a ticket. If this had been all I saw, it would have been worth the ticket price.

So cool, and more followed, including a carriage made entirely of spun sugar:

I wasn’t being gowned by a fairy godmother, but it did feel like an amazing gift to be brought to that place at exactly that right time.

I lingered until nearly closing time, then back to the hotel for dinner. I never made it down to the beautiful main restaurant.

I was happy in the 1603 Bar upstairs. Here’s dessert, night two:

Described as White Chocolate Namelaka / Matcha Parfait / Berry Mousse / Fresh Berries, some of which I didn’t even understand. Yet again out of my comfort zone and discovering good things there.

So that’s it. Goodbye, Australia! What a delight!

Obviously, I loved it. I’m not sure I ever would have gone if my daughter had not been living there and asked me to come, but I’m so glad I did. It took me forever to tell you about it–thanks for your patience–but the memories and the gratitude remain nearly a year later.

Here’s wishing you surprising delights wherever you go, and kindness along the way. We could certainly use a lot more kindness these days.

Not sure where I’ll head next. Any suggestions? Until then, as always, grace and peace to you!

 

 

 

 

 

*Remember to read this on the MovableAssets.com site. It’s way better than the emailed version!

Our last day in Cairns was April 25, Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance like American Veterans Day. A very moving dawn ceremony happened right below our balcony. What a treat to witness that.

Then the sun came up, the crowds dispersed and we headed out.

We hadn’t realized how much would be closed for the holiday, but we found a few shops for last minute gifts, took a few photos and just generally enjoyed our last gorgeous day together for a while.

The next morning Brittany and Andy were on the road at dawn, headed back to Alice. I caught an Uber to the airport a few hours later, headed to Brisbane for two nights.

I had booked a room at Hotel Indigo in the city center, which turned out to be gloriously quirky and artsy.

Here’s my fab room, complete with balcony:

Choosing this room meant a flight of stairs coming and going, since the elevator stopped at the floor below. Worth it. I even had a bit of a river view. From my balcony it looked like this at night:

I settled into my room then found the bar for an early dinner. I had the place to myself and the staff was delightful. I was coming full circle, my circuit of the eastern half of Australia ending with another solo dinner in a bar, something I’d been afraid to do before this trip. I not only survived, I had this beauty for dessert:

Calling it “Queensland Pineapple Fritters” doesn’t quite capture all this Japanese magnificence, does it? Matcha ice cream, chocolate sphere, and a meringue basket, the menu promised, but I didn’t expect this. Zoom in. There’s actual edible gold leaf on the chocolate sphere. What?!

I had expected to finish telling you about Australia with this post, but there’s still too much. I’m going to savor it all for one more month. Final Australia post coming in February, I promise!

Until then, I hope you are finding things to savor–whether new experiences or treasured memories. Life can be beautiful, but we all know it can also be heartbreakingly hard. I find that those little flashes of delight help. I’m praying that for you.

Grace and peace to you, as always.

The great barrier to enjoyment of anything is unmet expectations, and the thing about expectations is they need to be managed. The day we were to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef started out like this.

And when we arrived at Green Island for the first bit of snorkeling before catching another ferry out to the reef, the rain had stopped, but the chop was still high and the water clarity was terrible. We first went to a less popular beach where Brittany and Andy had snorkeled in the past, but no luck, so off to the busier beach and saw a few beauties like this.

I took this photo at the Sydney Aquarium, since I didn’t have an underwater camera, but the ones we saw really were this extraordinary shade of blue. Then we caught the ferry out to the reef proper.

I had brought most of my own gear, but it turned out my ancient snorkel chose that day to fail. I was sucking in a bit of seawater with each breath and it seemed to be getting worse, which is not conducive to a stress-free appreciation of nature. I swam back to the platform, dragged myself up and out of the water, took off my fins, and went in search of a snorkel to borrow from the provided gear. Then reversed the whole process and finally was breathing freely and seeing glorious color and absolutely enormous fish.

I bobbed about with a hundred or so others inside the buoyed confines of our section of the reef until lunch, by which time the sun had come out. We dried off and warmed up on the upper deck, then went down into the little sub for a tour, choosing the wrong side for seeing most of the cool stuff–oops–but a few people let me cram in and I saw enough.

By the time we caught the ferry back, the day looked like this.

We ended the day laughing together in a place with a similar array of color…

So the day wasn’t perfect. So what? Am I glad I went? Absolutely! It was time with family seeing one of the great natural wonders of the world. Thanks, Brittany, for organizing it!

Wishing you a 2025 filled with adventure, fully enjoyed!

Last time I noticed the post showed up in its entirety in the email, but formatted terribly, with the print and the photos too small, and the captions of the photos weirdly off to the side. If it happens again, be sure to click on the title of the post or the WordPress icon or where it says, “Read on Blog.” I promise it’s way better on the actual site. Thanks, as always, for reading these posts!

Now back to Australia:

Once I saw the view from the apartment and we had our first stroll through town, I knew Cairns would not disappoint. We had booked the Great Barrier Reef for Thursday, so on Wednesday we went to the gorgeous, tropical Cairns Botanic Gardens. For this Colorado-dweller, it was almost surreal to park the car and walk right into the jungle. There were intriguing paths forking off in various directions, wood walkways over boggy areas, little bridges over tiny streams, solid stone steps set into slopes. Loved it all. . .. . . even though we had to share it with spiders. . .Most of it was enormous, like houseplants on steroids.My mind went to Gulliver in Brobdingnag. We saw no giants, fortunately, just giant ferns and palms and towering paperbark trees. This arty bench will give you an idea of scale.There’s something about feeling small in the world, wherever one travels, that seems appropriately humbling. Perfect reminder while taking in the beauty of nature.Savoring beauty, whenever and wherever possible, is always a good idea. So I’m praying for you today a chance to appreciate the wonders of nature, preferably to be out in it, filling your lungs with clean, pure, outside air, something I can easily forget to do. But if you can’t today, I hope these pix gave you at least a bit of vicarious refreshment.

This Thanksgiving week, I’m thankful for all these delights, for time with my dear ones, and for you (if you made it this far), even if we haven’t met yet.