Toes in the Water: Australia, Part 3!

Ahhh...if you know us, you know we're happier on the beach.  So when we pulled up to our rented apartment on the Gold Coast and saw this from our balcony, we were happy:

 

The Gold Coast is gorgeous - absolutely breathtaking.  Not to slight Okinawa, though - I think we have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world here.  But there was something surreal about standing on the beach in Australia.  Something I had dreamed of doing for a very long time was coming true!  The weather was great and the water was clear - it was going to be a fantastic last few days there.

 

As we were settling in, Mom decided to call home and check on the house (since we had been "unplugged" for the past few days).  While she finished her call, we headed down to the beach and she said she'd join us after she hung up.  Well, over an hour passed by and she still hadn't come down, so we started back, when we finally saw her coming.  As she got her feet wet, she told us she had felt a fever come on suddenly and she had to lie down for a nap, which is why she didn't come out right away.  Then we all headed back to the room and Alan and I headed out to find a grocery store while she stayed with the kiddos.  When we got back, Mom headed straight to bed...where she ended up staying the rest of the stay.  Sadly, Mom missed the entire Beach leg of the trip because she caught a stomach virus.  We even had to take her to the Emergency Room the last day there, in an effort to get her well enough to fly!  They pumped her with fluids, steroids and an antibiotic and she felt well-enough to fly the next day.  It made me so sad for her!  But, obviously, we couldn't just hang around the room all day and risk getting everybody else sick, so we ventured out a little bit.  Here's what she missed:

 We took the kids putt putt golfing on the second day to get out of the sun for a bit.  It was a fun place with dinosaurs and tons of photo props.

 

It started out well, but...

 

Anaya cheats, so it turned in to this...

 

...then this:

 

It was miserable.

 

 The second day, these giant jelly fish (along with tons of smaller ones that had tails at least two feet long) were all over the beach!  I wasn't getting in the water anymore...

 

You know you live in Japan when your kids think flashing the "peace" sign is a photo necessity...and Audie sort of reminds us of Forrest Gump here "I may not be a smart man..."

 

 

Adam was clever here - he purposely made this sea turtle out of sand right next to a little jellyfish (you can see it just in front of the mouth) because sea turtles eat jellyfish.

 

I wish I could tell you that was us para-sailing, but with Grandma down for the count it wasn't possible.  Next trip, though, we're totally doing it.

 

We went for another hike the last day and saw this warning about koalas chasing kangaroos.

 

 

 

 

That's it!  The final morning consisted of us dropping Mom off, then turning in the rental car and heading home ourselves.  The trip went by way too fast and I would love to go back again one day.  But there's no way in hell I'm taking these kids.