Bring on Brisbane: My Final Port Call Aboard USS America

After nearly a month underway, with a short two-day port visit in Okinawa worked in there, we finally made it to Brisbane, Australia. Now this isn’t my first time visiting the Southern Hemisphere; Katie and I recently visited Bali, Indonesia in April of this year, but even earlier than that, I was aboard the ship when we completed operations in the Coral Sea. This was also when I became a shellback after surviving the Navy's Equator- Crossing ceremony! Just two years ago, I was able to see Australia, but wasn’t allowed ashore due to the COVID-19 pandemic; this time I around, I’m super excited I actually get to see and experience a small piece of this beautiful country!

Tuesday, June 20

Late Tuesday afternoon, we finally moored pier-side and I was able to see the beautiful Brisbane skyline off in the distance. Around 6:30 pm, officers were finally given the “Liberty Call” and off we went.

After luckily grabbing the first available bus from the pier to downtown Brisbane, we made our way over to Felons Bar where we joined the rest of the officers for the Wardroom’s Hail & Bail! Our wardroom events coordinator found this awesome bar located right on the river and put a ton of money down for our drinks tab, but unfortunately, he didn’t order anywhere near enough food for the 80 or so officers who attended the event.

No big deal to us though; we all decided to go on a liquid diet for the evening. After bailing our Skipper and hailing a few new additions to the wardroom, a few of us decided to stick around to make sure we didn’t waste the prepaid bar tab. After a good evening with friends, Nick and I grabbed a cab and made our way to our hotel.

Wednesday, June 21

After a late start to the morning, Nick, Nate, Fonix (real name James), and I headed to a Thai restaurant Nick had received a recommendation for yesterday afternoon. Since today is the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, I was slightly worried I wouldn’t have enough warm clothes since the majority of my clothing is en route to Rota, Spain, but fortunately for me, the weather was perfect!

After enjoying a 1.5 mile walk from the South Bank district (where our hotel was located,) we made it downtown to Phat Boy where I enjoyed chicken Pad Thai and an iced Thai Tea. Following an awesome lunch, Nick and I walked back to the hotel to take an afternoon nap!

Following a short nap, Nick and I met up with Fonix, Nate, Sean, and SEG (pronounced "see-g," real name Pat) at Hop and Pickle for dinner. After enjoying a bacon cheeseburger, Sean, Nick, SEG, and I headed to SunCorp Stadium where we would get to watch Queensland faceoff against New South Wales in an 11-on-11 state-of-origin rugby match.

Now, having no idea how to play rugby and knowing nothing about Australian rugby teams, I utilized Sean’s knowledge of the game to figure out what was going on (Sean played for the rugby team at the Naval Academy.)

He told us that this game was really important to the people in Brisbane because it was the 15 best players from Queensland (the state where Brisbane is located) facing off against the 15 best players from New South Wales (the state where Sydney is located.) Regardless of where these guys played professionally, they had to suit up for their home state; this was essentially an All-Star game where the players got to represent their hometown. Queensland and New South Wales play each other three times every year, and whoever wins two games gets to claim the State of Origin Trophy and maintain bragging rights over their rival state.

Before heading to the game, we decided to walk down Claxton Street, and check out a few bars for pregame! The street was crawling with people repping Queensland Maroons jerseys! The street was absolutely packed and there was no way we were going to get in anywhere. Instead, we decided to head towards the stadium to get to our seats early!

After grabbing a few beers, we made it to our seats in the nose bleeds (still great seats though) above one of the end zones (no idea if that’s what it’s called in rugby or not.) The stadium was absolutely electric.

After an awesome pregame show from some famous Australian musician whom I had never heard of, we got to enjoy a rowdy crowd of 52,000 cheer for Queensland! The Maroons beat the Blues (New South Wales) 32-6 and we loved every minute of it! Every time Queensland scored we were screaming and high-fiving with local Australians; we are now huge Maroons fans and will always be Queenslanders at heart!

What an awesome first rugby experience! The next time I’ll get to watch a rugby game will be in Paris in July 2024 with Katie at the Olympic Games! Hopefully, I’ll be able to explain some of the rules I picked up to her!

Buzzing over the huge Maroons' win, we made our way back to our respective hotels. Unfortunately for me my night was young, because little did I know that a few hours later I would wake up with a sharp gut pain and violent vomiting; yep, I somehow got food poisoning from something today. After laying on the cold bathroom floor for a few hours of struggle, I took another shower and made my way to bed around 5:30 am.

Thursday, June 22

Nick left the room around 11:00 am to head back to the ship for a “Big Top” event, similar to the one we did in Manila, Philippines. I didn’t even hear him leave and didn’t wake up until around 2:00 pm later that afternoon.

After crawling out of bed, I met up with Nate, NODS (real name Zach), SEG, and Sean for gyros at Zeus Street Greek. After enjoying an early dinner, we headed to Stone and Wood to accompany Nate at the Mustang Hail and Bail. Mustangs are the prior-enlisted officers in the wardroom; since we are Nate's liberty buddies, he invited us to crash their festivities. The most senior Mustang on the ship, known as Mustang One, CDR Belmonte, our Chief Engineer, was happy to have us join them for a night of fellowship. After saying goodbye to TJ, our Assistant Operations Officer, who played a pivotal role in me earning my SWMDO pin, we decided to join the Mustangs as they bar-hopped around Brisbane.

After meeting up with Nick along the way, we found ourselves at Ric’s, and pretty raunchy bar; they served cheap beer and mixed drinks, the floor was sticky, and the music was loud. It wasn’t really my scene, so I decided to head out. Nick, Beau, and I decided to head back to Felons to grab some pizza and a couple of beers before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Friday, June 23

This morning, Nick, SEG, and I wanted to play a few holes of golf, so we headed a few miles north of downtown to check out Virginia Golf Club. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to book an advanced tee time, or play a full 18 due to the club hosting a tournament starting at noon, but we were able to get in nine holes before lunch! It was a great time getting to walk nine holes; I even hit my first ever birdie! I hit a sweet shot with a 7-iron from the tee box on a par 3 and landed the ball about four feet from the pin! I made the putt and found Nick to chest bump him after hitting my first career birdie!

I was so excited because I am really bad at golf, but for some reason today I actually hit quite a few good shots. I texted Katie immediately to let her know that I’ve been bitten by the golf bug and that I am interested in playing more often! Lucky for me, there's a course on Rota's base right by the hospital. I look forward to imrpoving my game more once I make it to Spain!

After golf, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the club house before heading back downtown.

After golf, Nick headed back to the hotel room to talk with his girlfriend, Kristin, while SEG and I walked around downtown and through the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. While walking through the gardens we found our first huge spider! Fortunately, it was dead, because I’ve heard some of the spiders here in Australia can get so big that they catch and eat birds. Let's just say I was happy this one was dead. He was huge!

Following our afternoon stroll, SEG and I headed to Emporium Hotel South Bank where we enjoyed a few drinks with Nate and Fonix on the rooftop bar! I was sure to grab a couple of pictures of myself with the sun setting over downtown to send to Katie!

After drinks, the four of us met up with Nick, Stego, and NODS for dinner at Morrison Hotel where we enjoyed steaks! The ship serves us “steaks” every Sunday evening for dinner, but they’re either cooked to congratulations (a step above well done) or they taste like roast beef, so we were excited to get some real beef!

Following dinner, we headed to Brisbane Brewing Company where we enjoyed a few drinks before we had to head back to the ship. I even snagged a glass with Brisbane Brewing on it to add to Katie and I’s glass collection!

Our time in Brisbane didn’t feel long enough! Around 12:00 am, Nick, SEG, and I headed back to the pier to get back on the ship. We made it back to the pier around 12:45, just before liberty expiration at 1:00 am.

Brisbane was an amazing city, and I cannot wait to visit here again with Katie in the future! Next time our ship ports, I will be departing LHA6 for good and meeting her in Spain! To say I'm happy this ship tour is almost over is an understatement. But I'm almost there!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Yours,

Bryan