We Cuddled Koalas (and friends and colleagues) in Brisbane

 

One of the perks of working for an Australian company is that if you work for them long enough somehow, someway, there may be a reason to travel there for work. Even if they have to make one up :). I felt very fortunate to have been feeling well enough in this pregnancy that my doc gave me the green light to travel. I absolutely loved being able to spend time in our Brisbane office and work side-by-side colleagues that I normally only work with phone-to-phone. Although, they were quick to kick me out of the office early and didn't allow me to work too hard. BD even scheduled some time with a reseller/partner of his in Brisbane. It rained practically the entire time we were there, which prevented us from seeing much of the city. Brisbane, you should know better.

While I was attending super important high-level business meetings (ahem...) BD ventured out into the city on his own. And wouldn't you know, he found a bike to rent and pedaled all up and down that river and in the evenings back at the hotel I heard about all sorts of adventures. The Brisbane River winds right through the city center, is brown from silt, and is home to certain creatures such as crocodiles and bull sharks and paddle surfers who apparently don't value their lives at all.

A colleague's dear wife, AnnMarie, took us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary one rainy afternoon. A highlight of the trip for sure, and yeah, I held a koala! His name is Bentley and he smelled like pooped eucalyptus leaves. We saw lots of Aussie animals such as Tasmanian devils, wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, dingo's and so on. There's a joke in there somewhere about my baby and a dingo, but I'm too lazy to figure out what it is. We absolutely loved the wallaby and kangaroo reserve. The animals were surprisingly tame and loved to be patted and scratched much like a dog. Aren't they fun?

 

On our last day in Brisbane we borrowed my boss's car and drove on the wrong side of the road down to the Gold Coast. It was definitely a thrill for BD to drive that little Mercedes A-class (that I was informed they don't sell in the US, pity). It poured rain the whole way there and the whole way back. But we still were able to experience the coast, watch the surfers, have an ice cream cone, and little bee scored some new clothes as well. We only got a little lost on the way home which I am taking complete credit for because I cannot for the life of me understand Google's iPhone map interface.

 

We're off now to the Whitsunday Islands!