About six months ago FFM started asking when we could go to the beach. Um. Uh. Soooo, there weren't any plans anywhere at all on the horizon to go on any beach vacation as a family in the foreseeable future. Of course when FFM found out we were going to Australia one of the first things he asked was if there was a beach there. Yippee! In Melbourne we knew it would be chilly, it was early spring after all. Brisbane, however, was another matter. It's farther north, we were going to be there later in the spring, which all added up to (hopefully) warmer weather. Sara kindly booked us into a 3 bedroom apartment on the beach, and we were off.
Mooloolaba is about 1.5 hours north of Brisbane on what is known as the Sunshine Coast. When we lived in Brisbane we spent a lot of weekends in the area north of the City and it was our favorite weekend getaway (like you need to getaway from Brisbane, but you know).
Life was rough. Let me tell you. We had to do things like put on slightly damp swimmers and eat breakfast on the balcony. Scarlet even resorted to wearing FFM's sunnies one morning because the sun was so bright.
It wasn't super warm, and it was a bit windy, but that did not stop our intrepid adventurers from going wave jumping. Cooper would take breaks to go build sand castles and dig giant holes but FFM didn't even notice that there was sand after he dipped his toes in the water.
After about 2.2 minutes of holding Daddy's hand he'd had enough of that and was ready to take on the Great Pacific on his own. Waves would come crashing in and bash into his chest and all I could hear were peals of laughter. Occasionally a bigger wave would topple over his head, knock him sideways and upside down and he'd pop up out of the water screeching with joy.
While getting washed away FFM remarked that "These waves are PERFECT" and asked such things as "Daddy, can we go out to where the waves start?" He kept inching deeper and deeper. I'm not sure if he's pointing at incoming waves or trying to get Daddy to take him out deeper...both I suspect!
The day prior to our departure we headed back to the Hodson's in Brisbane to repack and clean up.
Then *sigh* it was time for our great adventure to come to an end. A month is a really nice amount of time to be on vacation to a place you really enjoy. You don't feel rushed to see the sights, you have time to linger over and revisit the places you really like, and if you're lucky it's plenty of time to visit old friends.
I wasn't ready to leave (I admit, I'd move back to Brisbane in an instant if the right job for Travis came along) but it also sure was nice to come home to Colorado. We thought we were prepared, but it still was a bit of a surprise to come back to gold and orange trees and grasses starting to go dormant. We left in the peak of summer and of course now it's fall. But, my roots were showing, FFM was seriously shaggy, it's time to blow out our sprinklers, and to repair that window that got broken while we were gone (no worries, it was just a screen door, the house did not get broken into, phew!). It was definitely time to come home. At least for a little while...
Phase 1 homemade penguin costume complete. Now the hard part begins. This is the first year F has requested a specific costume vs.seeing one in a store and choosing it.
If you ask FFM what his favorite part of our trip to Australia was he'll quickly answer, "the trams!" Our transportation obsessed lad really enjoyed our main mode of conveyance around the city.
We made more trips on the classic City Circle tram, and one day asked a fellow tourist to snap a shot of us so we could compare our 2011 ride to our 2009 trips. My, how he's grown!
One day, on our way to the grocery store for dinner supplies, we rode our tram to its terminus. We had a very friendly tram driver (most of them were) and we were two of the only three remaining passengers left on the tram. We got near our stop and had to wait for another tram to clear the station before we could get off. While we waited the driver came out of his booth and asked if FFM would like to "drive the tram." Boy, I think it rivaled Christmas morning! He got to sit in the driver seat and push the red button that makes the "ding ding" tram sound. Heaven for little boys!
There was even some time for kite flying at the beach. A special treat, it's hard to fly kites in Colorado with our thin air and gusty wind.
Remember I said there's always something going on in Melbourne? We were there during Fashion Week when waify girls and very well dressed folks abounded. There was a clear tented runway you could see right from the city sidewalk.
Everything looks good in Melbourne. The architecture is amazing, bridges are never plain, and they light up their stadiums in clever ways... the LEDs of course change color and strobe patterns.
On our last weekend we journeyed to the Southern Ocean coast. We'd driven the Great Ocean Road in 2009 so took the highway west and visited the Otway forest. You can walk way, way, way up high in the trees on a skywalk and enjoy the forest and wildlife from above. The walkways are metal grids so if you look down you can see straight through them. FFM looked straight down, I did not.
Leaving the forest we headed out to the coast and caught a bit of the Great Ocean Road on our way to see the Cape Otway Lighthouse. Even when it's chilly the coast is just beautiful.
The lighthouse was a stop requested by FFM. We don't have any lighthouses in Colorado, so he's been anxious to see one in person (I guess he was too young to remember the ones we've dragged him to in the past).
On our way to and from the lighthouse we saw more wild koalas than we have ever seen before. So many that we lost count! Most were snuggly and sleepy, but a fair number were clambering around being fairly active while munching on some eucalyptus leaves.
On our last full day in Melbourne we revisited one of our favorite spots, the Melbourne Museum. There we learned about the roots of the city, saw the indoor/outdoor rain forest, and learned the FFM is four wombats tall. Man, you just can't beat learning things like that!
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