Sunshine Coast, Australia: Part 2

We have enjoyed the Sunshine Coast so much the past week. On our fourth day here we wanted to take it easy and not do anything too crazy. We had been cooking eggs and toast for breakfast every day this week so we decided to take a break and try a breakfast place in town. We found a little French creperie a few days earlier and crepes sounded particularly amazing that morning. I ordered a fruit crepe and Marshall ordered a chocolate one (we shared them with Tyson). It was still early morning and the restaurant only had outside seating that was in the shade so I was FREEZING. I had to go down the street and find a little ray of sunshine to stand in and bask until the food was ready.  The best part about this restaurant is that there was a little toy area so Tyson could have fun playing while Marshall and I hung out and chatted. After breakfast we walked over to the playground so Tyson could get out all his energy. He seemed pretty content and tired so we went back to the apartment to relax and play games.

After Tyson’s nap, we spent the afternoon playing at the beach with him. It’s been a daily ritual since we got here to hit up the beach right before dinner. We felt a little lazy at dinner time and happened to see a Domino’s Pizza flyer hanging on the fridge. The specials were from two years ago, but pizza sounded delish so we called them up to find out their new specials. They happened to be the same as the two year old flyer (what restaurant doesn’t change up their specials? Lol.) Our apartment has a small stash of about 15 movies you can borrow so we watched Bridesmaids while we chowed down on the pizza and some left over pasta.

The next day we decided to take Tyson to the Australia Zoo that Steve Irwin worked at and his family is still very much involved with. It was so cool to see all the animals native to Australia. There was a kangaroo area where they just freely hang out (not caged) and you can walk right up to them to feed them. We were also able to walk up to some of the koalas throughout the park and pet them. So cool! By the way, koalas are very cute but they smell rancid. Thank God for diaper wipes!

The best part of the zoo was the awesome live show they had at noon that included lots of birds, pythons, and guys risking their lives to hand feed crocodiles. Tyson was so entertained the whole time he couldn’t stop smiling, especially when the birds flew right over the top his head as part of the show. After the show we were ready to walk the rest of the park, but first needed some ice cream to cool us down. I got an ice cream bar called fairy floss (what Aussies call cotton candy). I have to say it was pretty amazing. Although I totally wanted to hog the whole thing I decided to share with Tyson who loved it so much that he turned into a sticky mess. Well worth it though.

Once we were all exhausted from walking around the zoo we drove back to the hotel. Tyson was so worn out he slept the whole way back. Later that afternoon Marshall decided to take Tyson down to the beach to play while I had some alone time to work on the blog. It’s always challenging finding free time to work on it so we try to make time whenever we can so we don’t fall behind (mostly Tyson’s nap time or after his bed time).

The next morning we went into town to grab coffee and take Tyson to play at the playground for a while. There was another little boy there around the same age and Tyson immediately started following him around. He’s really good at making new friends. He started collecting a bunch of sticks around the playground and giving them all to his new little friend. They started passing like five sticks back and forth with each other and when the other little boy was tired Tyson started giving the sticks to the boy’s dad. Haha!

Later that afternoon we decided to try round two at Noosa Heads beach, but this time we came prepared with a beach towel, umbrella, and beach toys. We found another family that had two little boys so Tyson was splashing around in the water with them while we talked with the parents about their lives in Australia. Tyson had gone in the water with his diaper on so by the time he was done playing his diaper was soaked and weighed a good five pounds. We grabbed our diaper bag to put a new diaper on him and some new clothes so we could walk over to a restaurant for dinner. Oh, but wait….somehow there were no diapers in the diaper bag!! How the heck did that happen?? Vacation brain strikes again. We had two options, leave a five pound wet diaper on him (NO) or have him go  commando and just put his pants over his bare bottom and hope he didn’t poop himself (unfortunately, YES). We decided to go back home and skip the restaurant idea so we didn’t have to explain any accidents that may have happened while we ate. We jumped in the car putting a towel under his butt in his car seat so we could at least keep the car seat clean. We drove home and luckily his pants stayed dry the whole way. Still, lesson learned… triple check the diaper to make sure there are actually diapers in there.

After Tyson was all changed we drove over to the little town to find a place for dinner since our plan to have dinner in Noosa Heads didn’t quite pan out. We ended up going back to the pizza place we went to on our first night here. They served pasta there so I got a veggie pasta dish and Marshall got a super spicy pizza that was crazy hot. I had a piece of crust off it and even that was spicy! By the time we were done with dinner it was getting close to Tyson’s bed time so we went home and started the whole bed time routine. Lately we’ve been putting Tyson in between Marshall and I while I sing to him at night and then he’ll fall asleep in our bed. If he’s still awake and we’re done singing, Marshall and I will pretend we’re sleeping to try to entice him to fall asleep, but instead he’ll secretly lay there and practice all the gestures of songs we sing together since he thinks we’re not looking. We’ll hear his hands moving around and him saying things under his breath that go along with the “wheels on the bus” and the “Itzy Bity Spider”. Such a funny boy!

We checked out the next morning after an awesome six days on the Sunshine Coast. On our drive back to Brisbane we stopped in a little town called Montville along the way. It’s a small charming old town that has several unique little shops and cafes. We found a little candy shop that had a bunch of things that we remember having as a kid but haven’t seen in years. We had to buy a few things just so we could reminisce. After walking around a bit we were hungry for lunch we were hungry so we stopped in a little café that had a French theme inside. Marshall ordered some bean soup thing and I shared some scones with Tyson that were crazy good.

We hopped back on the road and headed an hour to Brisbane. We checked into our super classy place for the night called Airport Motel (please resist your urge to be jealous). The décor was still from the 80’s and hadn’t been dusted in about that long. Ready to get out of there, we dropped our stuff and went for a little walk to check out the area around it. We ran into a big playground nearby that had a few kids playing in it. As we were walking on the path toward the playground a magpie bird swopped down from the trees and tried to peck at my head. I screamed and put my hood over my head so they couldn’t get me again. I totally missed the sign at the beginning of the path that said “Warning: Mating Season, Beware of Swooping Magpies”. Even the birds in Australia are dangerous!

Later that evening we walked down to the marina in search of a place to eat dinner. We found a restaurant that specialized in Louisiana cuisine. We had some good ol’ barbeque chicken and grits with cheese. It’s also the only place we’ve found on our entire trip that knew what a lemon drop was so of course I had to order one. They forgot to put sugar on the rim, but it was still good and the food was tasty as well.

Tomorrow we’ll be waking up before the butt crack of dawn to go meet our mom’s at the airport. Woohoo! It’s finally here! So excited to hang out with them for the next 10 days.

Next Stop: Coolangatta, Australia