The BEACH!!! We finally made it!!

Sunday was the day!! We packed up our gear to include sunscreen and togs (that's swimsuits to Americans). We headed north out of Brisbane to some beach on the right! We figured we'd drive until the consensus in the car was ready to make a right hand turn and find a beach. We made it to Caloundra, stopped for lunch at a place where a dude was playing his guitar and singing Eagles songs, Cool!! Lunch was good and inexpensive! Pasta for Audrey, greek salad for Emily, chicken caesar salad for me, chicken caesar wrap for Mark and we all shared a prawn (shrimp) and parmesan cheese foccacia. After enjoying the Eagles songs (no Hotel California, wimper wimper) we went in search of a beach. We saw several areas that people were on the beach, but being this was our first visit to an Australian beach we felt it was wise to swim between the flags. That means that the Surf guards are patrolling and it is shark protected (big nets are up further from shore) Caboulture's protected beach is King's Beach. So we went there! The first thing that we found of note was that the sand was very smooth! Of course the waves and water color were gorgeous too! Also unlike Daytona Beach (or other popular US beaches at school breaks) was that there were not wall-to-wall people! Thank goodness!!! Thinking that maybe we could rent an umbrella for a few hours, I started looking for a vender. Nope none to be found. Not to despair, there were two huge awning structures that provided plenty of space to get out of the sun!! Thank you, King's Beach!! We all slathered on the sunscreen and the girls headed to the surf. The water temp was too chilly for Audrey, but that didn't stop Emily from pulling her sister in! It was so fun to watch them. Inch-by-inch they went in. They made it up to their waists, then that was it for Audrey. Emily retreated to the sunny beach area next to us in the shade. Audrey stayed down by the ocean to make a lagoon and drippy castle, her favorite beach activitiy.

From the site below,
http://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&q=
you can search for "King's Beach Caloundra" and you'll find some pics of where we were.

Before leaving the beach for the day, Audrey went on a trampoline bungee "ride". Because of her gymnastics skills, she was able to turn back flips with ease. Her time on the "ride" lasted 15 minutes. When her time was up she was exhausted!! We predicted that she would fall asleep in the car on the way home. On our way out of Caloundra we stopped at a Cold Rock ice cream shop (same idea as Cold Stone Creamery in the states). YUMMY!

We passed the Glass House Mountains on the way home, here's a link to a photo of it (not mine) http://www.bcl.com.au/sunshine-coast/images/tq/032059.jpg

When we got back in to the northern neighborhoods of Brisbane (Aspley) Mark happened to spot a Lone Star Steak House!!! After a U-turn (which are widely acceptable here) we pulled in for some "home" cookin'. We made ourselves and the waitress laugh when she asked if we'd ever been to Lone Star before. Mark replied in his dry, giggly type of humor, "Not in this country!" It was a very good meal and an equally good day.

Today we are (Patty and I) taking the girls to an indoor rock climbing place! They want to eventually go rapelling down Kangaroo Cliffs (where we watched the fireworks from).

More later!!!