Mussels from Brussels

Mussels and beer - Nate's perfect meal

With Eddie and Lisa in town, we finally had a reason to go back to the Belgian Beer Cafe in downtown Brisbane. We had a jaunt through South Bank and watched the dragon races before getting on the ferry to cross the river to the restaurant.

Eddie using their fancy new camera to capture the dragon boat race on the Brisbane River

Taking Roxy on her first boat ride (she slept through it!)

Roxy's milk-drunk face.

Nate's mussels-drunk face (father-daughter resemblance, no?)

(latter two pictures taken from Eddie and Lisa's camera)

The next day we took a short trip to the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens just outside of town. After a windy bus ride there, we had a great lunch (and not so great milkshake) at the cafe and wandered around for a bit.

Har har - prickly Americans

Lovebirds on their way to live with real Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea

Nate showing the Little Macho Chili plant who's boss

Breastfeeding at Mt. Coot-tha? Check!

Watching the cockatoos causing a ruckus around the Japanese Garden

Yesterday (Thursday), we saw Eddie and Lisa off as they begin their new life in Papua New Guinea. They will be fighting the good fight for a couple of years (at least) at a malaria research laboratory in Madang (on the northern coast of the island). It's pretty exciting to have them in the same time zone again, even if they're two plane trips away! We're hoping to visit them at some point in the future - waiting to hear if the snorkeling is worth the price of admission (i.e. getting malaria).

Eddie and Lisa with everything they packed for the next two years

Next up for a visit from my mom! She gets here on Sunday to meet her youngest grandchild in person and to celebrate said grandchild's 2-month birthday! Needless to say, Roxy's pretty excited to meet her Nana.

We've got a short break after my mom leaves before we get to see our graduate advisors Peter and Penny. They're in Canberra on sabbatical and will be here for a short visit with colleagues and to take in a rugby game.

Not too long after that, newlyweds Andy and Darshana come a'calling! They're coping with the recession by taking a month-long vacation to Australia and Thailand. I like the way they think. They get here mid-March, just as we're getting into autumn.

We're loving all of these visitors, so plan your trip! The Australian dollar has tanked against the American dollar - bad for us, good for you! Now that we're on the other side of summer and jellyfish season is ending, it's the ideal time to visit Queensland!