And so begins our odyssey...

SO! This morning, we got news that Cyclone Ului was heading for Heron Island, much to everyone's disappointment. Dr. Garton looked pretty stressed and worked very hard to figure out our options. We had a meeting later in the day, in which he informed us that the forecasts are looking better and we're gonna go ahead with our original plan. Might face a little wind and rain, but hopefully the cyclone will miss us or dissipate slightly in the next few days... Thus, we are hopping on a bus at 1 am (yep), arriving in Gladstone around 8 to hop on a ferry at 9 am headed for Heron Island with 3 meter swells, WOOHOO!

It was quite a scare, but I'm super excited we're going, even if the weather isn't ideal. This is the first group that gets to go to Heron Island, and I think it'll be a great experience regardless. Plus, we get catered food all week.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure I've coughed up a lung and a half by now. I thought it was the air in Sydney, but it's persisted through Brisbane. Perhaps the fresh island air on Heron Island will cure me.

Our hotel in Brisbane is awesome. They didn't have any three person rooms, so our triplet (me, Aerin, & Sheri) had to split. :( I made the sacrifice and volunteered to take the single room. ;) I now see why they didn't have any 3-bed rooms. Everyone gets their own queen-sized bed! My pad is pretty sweet, although not nearly as massive as the double rooms. At least I'm free to sing along to the Carpenters in peace... :D We have flat screen tvs, a nice desk, and internet in our rooms (YAY!). Oh, and a working AC unit, unlike the Travelodge in Sydney. The only bad thing is that we don't have microwaves, just an electronic kettle. I've been eating a lot of cup-o-noodles and sammiches. The breakfast is delightful though. Pancake machine, fresh fruit (watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, prunes), dried fruit (apples, apricots), and even a fruit squisher (?) to make fresh orange juice.

Saturday, we checked out the St. Patty's Day parade, complete with bagpipes! We also visited a couple festivals, then all took some naps for the night ahead... We got Jay a cake for his bday, then did an awesome pub crawl. Almost the entire group (~30 kids) was there, although a few dropped off after every pub. About 6 of us made it till the end with the birthday boy and decided to cap our night with a trip to the casino. I still have yet to play some blackjack; maybe when we get back from Heron Island.

Off to do some work before my long night/morning on the bus...