Good Day MATES!!

It is currently 4pm on Tues, June 17^th.

I wrote this first entry this morning but wasn’t able to finish. Here it is. More to come later.

6/17/08 @ 9am-

It is 9am on currently June 17th. Mom and I arrived safely with all over our bags and wits about us! I hope to send a daily account of our travels to you as this is a special time I wish to share with all of you. If you are receiving this email blog, then consider yourself stuck with me. You have touch my life and helped make me a better woman that our Lord can hopefully be proud of. So, thank you dear friend. My purpose in accounting for my days while in Australia is to attempt to share this wonderful time with you. This is a trip that I will remember forever and I hope that you will gain a little piece of it through my blog.

So, to begin....

We flew in from LA on 6/14/08. It was a 13hr flight. It was so weird to leave LA at 11pm on 6/14 and arrive only 13hrs later at 6:30am on 6/16. As someone who is into numbers, that didn’t seem to add up.... but there we were, in the Brisbane airport, going through customs, baggage claim, and dog sniffing (it was a beagle… SCARY!! HAHAHA) The Aussie's were so generous and polite. Wow! What a wonderful treat for us as we arrived to a new country.

We finally saw Uncle Bruce waiting for us at 7:25am. It was a sweet reunion. Big long hugs, wonderful laughter, and a few tiny tears of joy. How blessed we are to have such a strong and loving relationship with someone so far away. We found our way to Uncle Bruce's car pretty easily. Hey, we are used to the ATL airport, so this was NOTHING BIG DEAL, as an old professor of mine used to say!! We were able to fit all of our luggage into the "boot" of his car...and it’s a Kia! Can you believe it!! I thought we might need to "hire a car" just for our things, but we did just fine. :o)

7:45am- We traveled to Uncle Bruce's house which was 1.5 hrs away from the airport. We had showers, unpacking, a little snack, and a 2-3 hr rest. At 1pm we woke up, ate a little lunch, and were off to see some things around town. That Uncle Bruce doesn’t like to waist a minute! Wow! I am envious! If I were as chipper and grand as he, who knows what I could have accomplished by now!! Anywho, he's great. We really couldn't ask for a better situation. He is our personal tour guide.

So, around 3pm, we went to a shopping mail to pick up a quick item for Mom. It was an outside shopping mail. Not a strip mall like we are used to, but like a real mall with department stores and a food court... but the ground is a sidewalk and it is outdoors. Very cool, I must say! There were lots of cool things For a good price. Mom and I have said we will return there for sure!!

We then drove to Surfer's Paradise . It is on the Gold Coast. We were able to take a quick glance at the ocean before heading to the "Q1" (I will explain in a moment.) Uncle Bruce showed us all the tall condos and a few shopping areas. This part of the Gold Coast is called Broad Beach . There a lots of swanky places. I wouldn’t be surprised if American stars hide out from the paparazzi here. Uncle Bruce says the Gold Coast is a get away for them.

We then went to this tall building called the "Q1." It is the tallest residential building in the world! Watch out Donald Trump! We've got your number now! You’re FIRED by the Aussie's!! It was spectacular. The elevator took us to the 77th floor in only 46 seconds! HELLO! It was a pretty smooth ride too! This floor is an observatory. You can look in ever direction, literally 360 degrees of beauty!! You can see for miles and miles. The pictures I sent from my phone yesterday were taken from here. If you didn’t receive the pictures, I will send more once they are loaded onto the computer. We could see the ocean for miles, as well as the city of Surfer 's Paradise and Robina. Robina is where Uncle Bruce lives. It is only a 10 min drive from his house to Q1. There are BEAUTIFUL mountains in the background of the city called the McPherson Mountains . They are part of The Great Divide, some of you may have heard of that. The mountains stretched from one side of the ocean to the other and divide the wild terrain from the proper city. Behind the mountains is the true "Outback." They call it the outback because it is out of the city and back behind the mountains. It was cool to see that and put it together after a lifetime of hearing those expressions.

We bought a few cocktails at $16 Australian DOLLARS A PIECE!! HOLY MOLY!! That is close to our $16. In America , that would have been around $16.32. That was a lot for my humble little pocketbook! Needless to say, we only had one each! We watched the sun set over the mountains and saw all the city lights come up. It was wonderful. We were missing our loved one as we thought about how great it would be to share this sweet experience.

The sun sets at 5:15pm. (It's winter, here) We went home and had Steak Diane for dinner, which was great! Thanks to Uncle Bruce! We went to bed at 8:30pm as we were exhausted from our travels.

Now, I am off to transform my sleepy head into a beautiful Prissy (as best I can, at least!) We are off to adventure some more. Uncle Bruce has planned for us to go and meet a couple that he and my aunt and cousin have been very close to. Then, we will go to and dinner rodeo show called the “Outback Experience!” I will return with more stories!! (and hopefully some pictures!)

You all know how electronically inclined I am, so it’s an interesting time trying to figure out how to get an Aussie UBS to work with an American UBS… not sure, but we shall see!!

To be continued...

All my love to you,

Priscilla