Part Two Of Holiday Adventures!

As promised, I'm back with part two of our holiday adventures. A big BEAR HUG to all of you out there in blogland who said you missed me!! It's nice to be missed! :0)

OK ... after our time at Noosaville, we headed inland a bit to my folks at Mundubbera to spend a couple of days with them ... and do some washing so we had clean knickers and jocks for the next leg or our holiday! Tee! Hee! Hee! While I was there, Mum mentioned that she really needed a new, largish tote bag to take on the plane when she and Dad head to Alice Spring to visit my brother in a few weeks. I said I was sure we could come up with something ... so we had a scrabble through Mum's stash (and she says MY fabric stash is out of control! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and found some light denim and a bright, funky stripe. Mum then worked out how big she wanted it, where she wanted pockets and between the two of us we soon whipped up ...

The Perfect Travel Tote!! As well as the handy large pocket on the front, it has a smaller inside pocket for keys, mobile phone etc. Not bad for some 'left over' fabrics and an afternoon's work! :0)

OK ... so, fortified with Mum's DELICIOUS home cooking and with clean underwear in our ports, we again piled into our valiant little Ford Festiva and headed about 8 hours north to stay with my Beloved Geek Boy's Aunty Annette and Uncle Don. This is the first glimpse of their place ...

See that rounded 'hill'? A large section of that is the property they own and the most peaceful spot for a holiday. Our visit to north Queensland was prompted by GB and Aunty Annette's efforts at researching their family tree. They'd each done a bit separately and it made sense for them to pool their resources and since both sides of GB's AND my families are from the Mackay area, this seemed like the spot to be. And this is how GB and Aunty Annette spent most of our visit ...

Huddled over books, papers, documents and the laptop deep in research mode. In fact ... if you look behind them to the pool table, you'll see that it is also covered in photos and documents. Apparently thorough research requires a LOT of space! Tee! Hee! Hee! We had such a fun time with the family tree climbing and not only did we unearth little bits, bobs and connections for each of our family tree branches, we found a LOT of places where our family trees crossed paths! Things like ... GB's great-great-uncle worked for my great-great-grandfather; my Gramps and his siblings went to school with GB's Grandma; Aunty Annette and my Mum were in the same class for a couple of years; our two families lived in the same street (at different times, but the same street!) and this street was just around the corner from the house where my Dad grew up! How cool was that!! :0) We still haven't tracked down GB's elusive great-grandmother, but we've made some headway and ... we're still looking!!

Now, our Mackay visit wasn't ALL about being buried in books and family history notes. There were also some enjoyable get-together with some of GB's extended family AND we did a little bit of sight-seeing. Some of this was re-tracing family steps, but some was just for the sake of it, including a visit to the recently developed harbour complex.

Here we are in front of some of the fancy boats in the marina. Can you believe those COLOURS!! They were all so vibrant ... and this photo actually doesn't do justice to the gorgeous deep teal green of the water ... I wanted to dip a paintbrush in to capture it! :0)

This was the seating outside a cafe at the harbour. We didn't actually eat there, but the setting was just so darn cute that I had to take a photo ... do you ever do that? Take random photos cos it makes a cute scene ... or is that just me! :0) After enjoying a walk along the waterfront, picking out which unit in the high rise complex we would buy when we win lotto and which boat would be our 'weekender run-around', we drove up Mt Bassett to get a longer-range view of the harbour and islands off Mackay's coast, but also to see where Scott's Dad, Aunty Annette and their family lived for a time. The housing area where they lived has been demolished, but there was a goat path (really STEEP goat path!!) down to the area so we could take a look. We hopped out of the car to snap this view ...

Isn't it great! The little 'bumps' on the horizon are actually giant container ships waiting their turn to go into the terminals of Hay Point to unload or load. I think there were about a dozen when we were there. It was after admiring this view that we suddenly discovered something ... Uh oh! ...

SOMEONE had locked the keys in the car!! This photo's not the best, but it was taken through the closed and LOCKED driver's side door! :0) GB was a little red-faced and had lots of excuses, but I think I'll rub it in a little since he teased me so much when I did the same thing a while ago! :0) All I can say is thank goodness for RACQ! Tee! Hee! Hee! This little hiccup didn't spoil Aunty Annette's stroll down memory lane and she told many stories about growing up at Mt Bassett and pointed out lots of landmarks to GB when they walked down the goat track ... while I waited for the RACQ man!! Tee! Hee! Hee! All will be recorded to add to the tapestry of our family tree ... the stories from Aunty Annette, not about me waiting for the RACQ mand cos GB locked the keys in! Tee! Hee! Hee! OK ... I'm done teasing him ... for now! :0)

Although GB and I had both spent time in school holidays with family members in Mackay when we growing up, it had been over 19 years since we'd been north and I really wanted to see one of the nearby national parks at Eungella ... up in the 'hills'. So, one fine, sunny day, off we went. We wound our way up a rather scary range (poor Baby car was not overly happy about the steep ascent but managed it like a trooper!!) and were rewarded for our efforts with these views ...

There's the winding road we climbed up ...

And looking into the valley. The Great Dividing Range at this spot forms a sort of horseshoe shape and this pretty, fertile valley is in the middle ... it reminded me of a fairytale setting. :0) When it came time for lunch, we were again treated to some wonderful mountain views when we chose a cafe owned by a slightly eccentric German lady. While we enjoyed the yummy chicken and mushroom pasties, this was our view ...

This is another spot that I think it's best I don't move to cos the view would constantly distract me from DOING anything! :0) Now, one of the cafe owner's eccentricities was her way of decorating her garden ... and her outdoor fire pot and ... well ... EVERYTHING, really! :0) Everything had been coated with coloured decorator pebbles ... you know, those glass pebbles that go in the bottom of vases to add colour? Well ... here's a couple of examples of what SHE used them for ...

This peacock met us in the car park ...

And these colourful butterflies fluttered near the entrance to the cafe. I don't even want to THINK about how long it must have taken to create these things, let alone how many litres of GLUE she must have used! Tee! Hee! Hee! After lunch we had a little look around the township of Eungella, a lot of which was closed due to building damage incurred during the last cyclone season, like this poor forlorn church ...

My overactive imagination couldn't help thinking it would make the perfect scene for a murder in a whodunnit novel! Tee! Hee! Hee! It seemed funny to see many buildings in the area that were built in more of a European style, but out of north Queensland's number-one building material ... Fibro! :0) We decided there was just time to visit one more lookout before we headed down the scary range road again ...

Here's GB trying to capture the panoramic view with the video camera ... possibly not his most flattering angle! :0) And this was the view ...

Again, the colours took my breath away! Country/folk singer Graeme Connors (who fittingly lives in Mackay!!) sings a song called "Blue Skies" and the first line kept running through my head while I enjoyed these views ...

"These blue skies ... tell me I'm home. My journey is over, I'm where I belong ... So whatever I do, I will always return to these blue skies."

OK I think that's enough to bore you with for one day. I'm almost done with the holiday snaps and long posts ... well ... longer than usual! :0) I'll pop back soon with the last few happy snaps and show you all the yummy fabric that followed me home from my quilting shop hopping ... you knew I'd do that, right?! Tee! Hee! Hee! Wishing you blue skies in your part of the world, wherever you are! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS