Sorry I have been a bit busy in Brisbane so will do two days together. We found the drive along the Bruce Highway from Forest Glen to Birkdale busy with traffic but quite manageable but then it got a bit scary once we reached the Gateway Bridge with six lanes of traffic and a steep climb up with the van. It soon settled down again once we turned off the toll road and we were soon at the caravan park. After setting up and having lunch we went to the Queensland State Archives at Runcorn about 25km from the park. There I was able to photograph some original documents of inquests held into the deaths of two of my Nana's brothers who died suddenly and also some land aquisition documents related to a possible brother of my great grand mother. We then went to my cousin Lyn's house for dinner and her sister Robyn joined us as her husband was on a conference in Bendigo.
Today, after farewelling Robyn at our van, Lyn went into Brisbane with us and we went to the State Library to try to do more family history research - with no luck - while John went to the Art Gallery and the GOMA. For those who don't know these public institutions are all near each other in the cultural precinct on South Bank right by the Brisbane river. Our first experience was of not being able to park in two of the car parks because they were being painted as a final stage of repairs after the floods. There were other signs of work still in progress to repair the river bank area including newly placed plants - we realised how lucky we were to be there on a beautiful sunny day without a flood. After two hours of our visit we had lunch at the library cafe and then took Lyn home so that she could collect her grandchildren from school. We then went to the RACQ office at Capalaba Central shopping centre to try to obtain some road information for our trip home - with limited success, and did a little shopping. Lyn had kindly invited us to her house again for dinner and we had a very pleasant evening, as we did the night before, discussing old times and social issues.
