The Blues Make Us Happy

 Day 9 - Monday, Dec 29 – Brisbane in a Day

Our flight to Brisbane didn’t leave until 12:20pm so we had a little time in the morning for the kids to go swimming, albeit in the off-and-on rain. We shuttled to the small Hamilton Island airport and took the 1.5-hour flight to Brisbane. The airport requires a 200-yard walk on the tarmac to the plane and a hike up some stairs with luggage to board through the back of the plane. We did see one group board the flight ahead of us, and just as they started the walk to their plane, the tropical skies opened up and the wind was blowing lots of rain sideways. Yikes. We all prayed that didn’t happen to us, and thankfully it didn’t. 


 

We landed in Brisbane to warm, sunny weather. It was refreshing to see the sun again. Our transfer to the hotel was smooth and our driver gave us some tips on what to do, but we were only staying  for 18 hours! Out “hotel” – the Adina Apartments hotel – was the old government building for the national Bank of Australia. The lobby was strikingly elegant – like and old 1920’s ornate, official building. The apartments were superb.

But, no time to lollygag around. We went next door to a place Gordon spotted that had pizza and kababs. A kabab is apparently a wrap with your choice of meats (lamb, beef, chicken), vegetables (tomato, lettuce, onion) and sauce (you name it – from barbeque to hot red chili). Excellent choice Gordon!

After chomping that all down, we were off to the casino that was only a block away. [Note the little girl in the casino entrance with the Bluey and Bingo characters.] We did not enter the casino (kids, you know) because we were interested in the Sky Walk 23 stories high, overlooking the city with the Brisbane River running through it. Quite spectacular views. If time had permitted, the restaurant and some bars on that level looked to offer great food and drinks with a fabulous view on a sunny afternoon. 



But, we were off to one of the best highlights of the trip – Bluey’s world! If you have kids or grandkids, you must know about the kids show Bluey. It’s all the rage. It is a great show and entertaining for kids and adults alike … always with a good simple lesson to be learned. In the cartoon, Bluey lives in Brisbane, so we went to Bluey’s world, which is a guided tour through Bluey’s house as it is on the TV show. There were activities for the kids just like the ones Bluey and sister Bingo do. Ruby was extremely excited for the event, and Gordon was quite engaged as well. The older of us watched with enjoyment to see kids – about 10 in our group – having so much fun interacting with our guide and the activities. The smiles and laughter of young kids is worth a lot! Of course, we got to meet Bluey and Bingo and have pictures. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the venue. Shucks – they would be worth a lot. 


Brisbane appears to be a very nice city built along the Brisbane River. It is a large, up-scale city, and it is easy to reach the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast that are famous for lots of sunshine and wonderful beaches. 

For us, it was an Uber ride back to our bank-made-into-apartments. We had to get up early for our transfer to the Brisbane airport.

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