Sunshine Coast

Last weekend I took a semi-spontaneous minibreak up to the Sunshine Coast for the weekend with 5 other Australearn kids. Because of Brisbane's location, it is necessary to travel either an hour south to the Gold Coast or an hour north to the Sunshine Coast to get to the beach. The Gold Coast is supposed to have a reputation of being more glitzy and touristy, while the Sunshine Coast is supposed to be more mellow and casual. I cannot speak for the Gold Coast, but the Sunshine Coast is certainly on the mellow side. We took a bus, two trains, and another bus to get there (it took approx 2.5 hours) and stayed in a hostel for two nights. The beach was really, really pretty. Absolutely gorgeous area. Pictures will be provided when my internet connection is being more functional. We had fun gallivanting in the surf (only about knee high, it was too cold to go in properly). I found some very nice shells, and got to climb on some really big rocks (which I love). I also learned that Australian playgrounds are way, way cooler than American playgrounds. The first night we watched the opening ceremonies of the olympics, and then we made an effort to go out, but there were only three places and one charged an $8 cover (high to pay for 11:30 at night) one wouldn't take us because of our flipflops, and the last one had almost no one in it. So the next night we got dominoes and watched hostel (while staying in a hostel - bad call - plus it was a pretty terrible movie) and ate a lot of junk food. I also ate the most amazing cold rock (coldstone) ice cream...honeycomb flavored with nutella and timtam mixed in. Yum. Anyway, my verdict of the Sunshine Coast is that (a) it was a good weekend (b) it is a really pretty place and (c) rumors of a mellow atmosphere are not wrong.

Tomorrow is the Ekka holiday, a day off for the whole city to go dress up and enjoy the horse races. I have purchased my ticket and will post about that after I have been.

Hope everyone is well : )