On July 4th (US Independence Day), our friends Chastity and Maggie Adams arrived from Florida!  Yippee!!  Their timing was perfect because certain US only holidays can really make us nostalgic for home – 4th of July and Thanksgiving especially!  They arrived late morning and we headed home for what Aussie’s call a sausage sizzle or as we would say grilled hot dogs and other 4th of July type foods.  The goal on day one was just to keep them upright and have a relaxing day catching up and eventually taking a ride on the free ferry up and down the Brisbane River.  Mission accomplished!  We had planned to get up early the next morning to catch the sunrise at Mt Coot-tha thinking Chastity and Maggie would probably wake up in the wee hours of the morning but they did so great  adjusting to our time zone that we waited later in the day to head out..  It was raining on and off much of day two which helped us ease into our adventure schedule!.  The rain cleared off long enough for us to catch some great views of the city from Mt Coot-tha lookout about mid-day and to have a  picnic at the Botanical Gardens at Mt Coot-tha as well.  We also popped in to visit the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium when the rain picked back up.




I must say, I wish I had this kind of energy and looked like this after I have flown half way around the world!


On Friday, we continued to ease into things with a trip down to the CBD (Central Business District).  One of our fave Aussie companies is Jurlique so we had scheduled a facial for Chastity while the girls and I walked around the CBD for a bit.  Katie took great care of Chastity and hopefully helped with any dehydration that came from the long plane ride over!

From there we headed to the Red Cross Cafe which is tucked under Brisbane City Hall.  While the food is simple, we love the good cause it is associated with!

After a lunch we explored the Brisbane Museum in City Hall.  It is a great introduction to Brisbane and her history.  Because it was school holidays the vintage elevator ride up to the Hall’s Clock Tower had a long wait.  We rather optimistically decided to catch one of the last trips up which was at 6:30 pm.  While it it a really cool thing to do and the views of the city at night are great, it is probably better to wait till jet lag has completely disappeared before pushing so hard in one day..  We were super glad the bus stop was just outside City Hall!.

We awoke to a perfect day on Saturday!  We walked down to New Farm Park and the weekly farmers market that is held there.  On the way to the market, we stopped at one of our favorite places for coffee, the Coffee Hut, which is situated right inside New Farm Park!  We then wandered along the walkway that leads from New Farm to Teneriffe.




From Teneriffe, we caught the ferry down to South Bank to the French Festival!

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After exploring all the French Festival had to offer, we walked down to the South Bank pool and beach.  Can you believe this is free?

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We relaxed by the pool and enjoyed the sun and people watching!  We finally headed home via the ferry and upon disembarking at Sydney Street we noticed the Story Bridge was lit up in Red, White and Blue!  It, of course, had nothing to do with our holiday back home but it sure made us think of home!

On Sunday, we ventured to quirky, cool Byron Bay.  We have heard of Byron Bay for years but this was our first trip there and boy did it not disappoint – well, other than that we were just there for the day!  It’s hard to describe the beauty and character of Byron Bay so I will just let the photos do the talking.






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So, we made it through day 5 of Adams Australian Adventure in this post….I will save part two and three for another couple of posts!  Don’t Maggie and Chastity look happy in these photos at Byron Bay?!  We think they should just move here!  Well, after the rest of their unit (Chad and Reese) comes for a visit that is!