The Gold Coast.. to Brisbane..

So I believe I left off after lunch in Surfer's Paradise.. that night was the night of the Australian Outback show.. cute little cowboy thing. It was good - entertaining even if it was in the "Tracy would kick their ass going around those barrels" type of way! They had a draw for tickets the Calgary Stompede. Whoever wins that will realize how silly the Aussie show is! They did have some talent though.. couple of trick riders which I always find fasinating - I can never figure out why you would want to hang UNDER a horse.. but it amazes me at the same time that they can get back up again after!

Friday - Day 2 in Surfers was shopping at this outdoor mall (somewhat like the outlet stores setup in Vegas) and then a trip to a rainforest. Since I couldnt manage parting with the beach so soon we sorta skipped the rainforest thing and headed back to the beach! Sitting on the beach is rather self explanatory.. other than there were even guys walking around with metal detectors picking up coins - like in Archie comics. It's funny - they walk around forever and then go crazy over a 10 cent coin!
Mom wasnt hungry for dinner tonight so I had to DRAG her out of the hotel for a walk to find me food. Instead we found this great little night time market that I bought some neat stuff at - pottery, glass chime thing.. neat "home-made" type things!

Saturday
Sadly we had to leave Surfers.. but we were on to more neat things! Off to Brisbane. One quilt shop on the way ofcourse! Next stop - the top of a "mountain" (hee hee.. again.. these people need to come to Canada before they go naming things!) Took some pictures here. It was also Mom and my turn with "Aussie" the koala bear - our tour's little stuffed animal that traveled everywhere. We found a couple of cute kids to get our pictures (with the city in the background ofcourse..) Then off to the Rydges hotel in Southbank. Brisbane is a city I could live in. It is a big city but seems smaller because everything is quite accesible. We were across the river from downtown but they have tons of walking paths and foot bridges - 20 some km of nice trails. We went straight across the river to Queen St for more shopping.. this is our final place for souveniers! Supper was at a little restaurant in the middle of the road "Milano". My food was ok.. but Mom's was awesome. Seriously best spuds I have ever ate!! Mom you need to recreate these!!

Anyways!! My travels continue.. I will have to finish up next week :) I am currently off to Ty's grad in Potsdam (this is Thursday).
Sure good to be home!