Good news…I know where my ankles are! They made a brief appearance early this morning before going into hiding later in the afternoon. But at least now I know I didn’t leave them on the plane or at home. Maybe they’ll stick around for the whole day tomorrow. In any case, with or without them, it was another wonderful day in the land of Brisbane. We started out by finishing up a few sightseeing details in the CBD: more squares, parks, and architectural highlights. Then we got lucky when we hit up the Parliament House, getting there just as their Q&A session started. This is the session where the opposition party asks questions of the seated party and then mocks, jeers, scolds, and ridicules them (even name calling goes on!) as they respond. It is quite funny to watch. A real treat, especially considering we stumbled upon it.

We spent the second half of the day strolling through the South Bank Parklands, which was much more pretty than we expected it to be. It was the home to the Goodwill Games in 2001 so we thought there was going to be a kitsch factor to it…but it was just another lovely park along the bank of the Brisbane River. There are so many of these parks along the river. It is really nice to see a city value and invest in so much public green space as well as public art. You could spend a week here just exploring all the parks along the river.

(Click on the first photo to open in slideshow view.)

After the park, we hit up the Queensland Art Gallery…a pure delight. And then we jumped aboard the CityCat ferry and rode it from one end of the route to the other (a nearly 2-hour round trip along the river). Then it was home for happy hour and dinner.

There’s something about Australia that makes me want to drink beer. I remember this from the last time we were here. I thought maybe it was just the weather, but we’re here in the opposite season from last time (late summer vs. early spring) and I still crave it. Tonight we stopped off at the “bottle shop” and got a bottle of white wine. But when we got home and I took a sip, and it just wouldn’t do. So it was back to the beer. Pure Blonde and Cooper’s this time. Ahhhh…..

So that’s it for Day #2. Enjoy the pics…

P.S. I’m going to stop reporting on Emmett’s back because he hasn’t had any problems with it for a while now. Let’s all just assume everything is fine in that area unless otherwise noted. Besides, I have more pressing issues to worry about, like my ankles.

[gallery columns="4"]