Coolangatta, Australia: Part 2

We’ve loved all the time we’ve been able to spend with our mom’s this week! On our fourth day In Coolangatta, we spent the morning hanging out at the beach again (it’s just that good). We walked over to a section of the beach that has an area that pools with shallow water when a big set of waves come in. We forgot to bring Tyson’s swimsuit (again…we’re just that good) so we just let him run around butt naked after his diaper got full of water. There was another little boy about his age playing in the same spot so Tyson started playing with him. The little boy was a little older and kept running away from Tyson (maybe he was a little weirded out by a naked baby following him). Once Tyson was beached out we headed back to the hotel to get Tyson all dried off and changed for the rest of the day.

My mom wanted to buy a new camera because hers is from the Stone Age. Seriously, you know that camera from the Flintstones that uses an actual woodpecker inside the camera to print out the picture when you take it? It’s older than that. Well, it finally broke, so we headed off to find a brand new one for her. Marshall’s mom wanted to stay back to get a little work done so the rest of us hopped in the car and my phone’s GPS randomly took us on a 40 minute drive away to the middle of nowhere. Once we figured out where the mall actually was it turned out to be only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Haha. Well, I guess it was a nice little drive. When we walked inside the mall we immediately saw an electronics store and my mom found herself a nice Sony camera for a good price. Mission accomplished, though she’ll have to deal with an Australian plug for the next 10 years (if history repeats itself). Since we happened to be at the mall at lunch time we went ahead and ate Subway for lunch then headed back for Tyson’s nap.

Later that afternoon our hotel had their weekly welcome party on the rooftop for ‘new guests’. We’d been there for four days, but decided to go anyway since there were prizes and free wine (SOLD!). Our table was the only table with anyone under 70 years old, lol. We all played a trivia game and then a raffle to win various jippy prizes. At one point, the MC (also apparently a part of the maintenance team) called number 25 and nobody claimed it. I happened to have number 26 so I handed him my ticket as a joke and he totally let me have the prize. I ‘won’ a free DVD rental from the hotel. Score!

That evening our moms offered to watch Tyson so that Marshall and I could have a date night. As we were walking out the door we saw a sign on a building nearby that said it was “The #1 in Entertainment in Coolangatta” so we decided to walk over there to check it out. It ended up being an “RSL”, which is basically the Australian equivalent of a cruise ship, but on land. It has a bunch of restaurants, sports bar, slot machines (aka Pokies), dance floor and what not. We walked in and saw a couple of restaurants surrounding and a big dance floor with a stage and a live band. There was one single 80+ year old man dancing around on the dance floor to the tune of some old school song (Barbara Streisand I’m guessing). We were focused on finding a table to sit at and when we finally found one we started to look all around us and quickly realized we were the youngest people in the building by about 50 years. Best part was everyone was staring at us and mumbling to each other. We stood back up and walked right back out the front door and had to move on to plan B……which was anything other than that place.

We just headed back toward the hotel to see what restaurants we’d pass along the way. We came to a place called Hog’s Breath, which is not exactly an appealing name for a date night, but checked out the menu and saw lots of great options so we grabbed a table. I had a Hawaiian chicken dish and Marshall had a big ol’ juicy steak. Yum! After dinner we thought about going to a movie, but just wanted to relax in the room so we headed back. I know, we’re lame.

The next day we drove to a wildlife sanctuary with all kinds of Aussie animals. As soon as we walked in we saw a baby crocodile that you can hold and take pictures with. We took turns taking pictures holding the crocodile with Tyson. Surprisingly he wasn’t scared of the crocodile at all. We then walked over to a big playground area for Tyson to play on. It happened to be next to a train that drives around the entire park so we hopped on and rode around. We passed koalas, kangaroos, dingoes and all kinds of birds. We hopped off and watched a live kid’s show called Blinky Bill. Tyson was totally into it and clapped along the whole time. When the show was over we walked over to the koalas to take a picture holding one. They’re just so darn cute! There was more to see at the park, but we were all burnt out so we headed back home.

Later that evening Marshall and I went to see the movie Vacation in the theater. It was basically a remake of National Lampoons Vacation but not necessarily my kind of humor. Oh well, at least we had a nice night out. It’s so nice to have alone time and so much help with Tyson. We’re soaking it in as much as possible before our parents fly out on Monday.

The following day we spent all morning playing on the beach. We’re trying to get as much beach time in as possible because this is the last beach town we know we’ll be staying in the rest of our trip. This time while we were on the beach chasing Tyson around a military plane (like the Blue Angels) few right over our heads. Tyson didn’t know what to make of it, but it was pretty awesome. Then it was a quick stop at the park and back to the hotel room for a quick nap.

That evening we all decided to drive 40 minutes to a town called Surfers Paradise for a night on the town. Yes, that is seriously the name of the town and this place is AWESOME. It’s all lit up at night and has a ton of stuff to do with a huge beach as the backdrop. We had dinner at a nice beachfront restaurant that looked out at the sunset. There was a night beach market happening that night along the water so we checked that out after dinner. They mostly had arts and crafts, but at the very end was a reptile show with a guy showing various snakes and lizards. Tyson got a kick out of them and the balloon sword he snagged along the way.

We were ready to head back to the car, but along the way we stumbled across a 7D simulation ride. My mom wanted to go on it, but there was no way I was going to go with her because I get sick on rides. Marshall gets sick on rides like that too sometimes, but somehow my mom convinced him to go with her. It’s the only time they’ll come across something like this so they had to try it out. They did two different seven minute rides (one was a scary one with zombies chasing you and the other was a rickshaw ride on the Great Wall of China). They said the scary one was a little cheesy but the Great Wall ride was awesome. There was a video camera on them so Marshall’s mom and I could watch them be jerked all around from the outside. When they came out my mom said it was so much fun, but Marshall on the other hand was focusing on the ground since he was feeling dizzy and nauseated. He said he’s glad he tried it though, but was definitely not looking forward to the 45 minute drive home. After the ride we all walked a few doors down to grab some gelato before hitting the road back home. What a fun night out!

On our last day in Cooolangatta we took it pretty easy. Our mom’s took Tyson to the beach in the morning while Marshall and I stayed at the hotel doing stuff on the computer. They brought Tyson back to put him down for his nap and then they headed out to play at the casino for a while. They had so much fun they lost track of time and didn’t come back until three hours later. We were all starving for lunch by that point so we walked over to a restaurant that overlooks the beach. Tyson ate a few bites and then wanted to go play at the playground that he could see out the window of the restaurant. So Marshall’s mom got her food to go and took Tyson down to the playground to play while the rest of us finished our lunch.

On the way back from lunch we walked through the mall and checked out movie times while we were there. The new Maze Runner movie happened to start in ten minutes so Marshall and I stayed at the theatre while the mom’s went back to the hotel with Tyson. When we got back from the movie our mom’s had already cooked up a delicious chicken dinner. We decided to cash in our free DVD movie rental we won at the welcome party so we could watch it while we ate our amazing dinner.

Tomorrow we’re heading back to Brisbane to spend the last three days of our moms’ trip. We’re actually staying at the same hotel we were at when we first arrived (not the Airport Motel). Since Marshall and I have already spent a few days there we’ll have fun showing them around the area. Great restaurants, shopping, and parks here we come!