On his very own trip around the world we missed meeting up with Melissa's friend Simon in San Francisco by literally days, but we would not miss seeing him this time around. He was spending some time in the sunny state of Queensland while holidaying in Australia and we were determined to show him the sights and sounds of Brisbane and perhaps take him to a beach or two.
On Simon's sight seeing trip around Brisbane, we took him on what could only be described as the 'express' tour. We showed him the casino, the mall, the botanical gardens, took him on an obligatory ride of the city cat and then up to see the city view from Kangaroo Point (as well as the Summit and Jolly's lookout). Finally we drove him around and around till our heads were spinning, pointing out random landmarks along the way. This 'extreme' tour took place all in a single day and had both Colin & Melissa quite exhausted when it was over.
The next day, we had arranged to meet Simon an hours drive north at the sunny beaches of Maroochydore (the drop off point for his rental car and where we would stay in a rented apartment for the next four days). After picking him up, we drove down to the esplanade to grab something to eat. Simon commented quite happily, that there was no way anyone would find him sipping coffee alfresco style in Toronto at this time of year!
As an aside, Natalie Gauci won Australian Idol (Congratulations to her - We now get two hours of our lives back each week, yeah!).
Colin & Melissa arose at the very respectful holiday hour of 8:30AM, to find no sign of Simon. He had been promising the night before that he would be up at the crack of dawn to hit the beach (yeah right, sure, sure...). The two of them were quite surprised when Simon returned, looking more like an Aussie surfer than ever, with his sun-bleached blonde hair - decked out in his board shorts, as keen as vegemite. It turned out that he had indeed arisen at around dawn, hit the beach for a swim, walked all the way up to Mooloolaba beach, had breakfast, did some surf board hire investigation and went for ANOTHER quick swim, completing the entire 8 km return journey all before 9 o'clock!
The rest of the day we spent walking along the beach, checking out shops and eating lunch at the Surf Life Savers Club. We then headed down to Under Water World, where you can get up close and personal with a real man eating shark. You are of course 'protected' by a thin plexy-glass tube (no really, it's quite safe!).
After enduring the languid, icy stare of a shark or two, we walked down to the Cold Rock. The 'Cold Rock' is a Queensland creation that allows you to choose your flavour of toppings and ice cream, before having it all mixed together on top of a very cold stone (or some might say a Rock). It does perhaps sound a little odd, but nothing cools you down quicker on a hot summer's day, than a cone of 'icy, mashed goo' - Yummy!
Colin & Simon went and did some (quite inept) surfing on the next day and finished it off with a game of tennis. This seemed to be Simon's regime: To squeeze every possible moment from the last days of summer, before returning to the inevitable cold of a bleak Toronto winter. So dawn meant swimming, walking, surfing, then maybe eating something, before playing a game of tennis and then as night time approached, heading straight to bed to be up bright and early ready to start it all over again.
Colin could not keep up with this break neck pace - this routine should surely be packed into a whole week rather than a single day?!
All too soon Colin & Melissa were waving him off at the Sunshine Coast airport before returning, quite exhausted now, to have a celebratory meal at Sizzlers. The celebration was due to the fact that they were NOT heading back to Toronto, but were in fact staying on in Sunny Queensland.
'Sizzlers' is a place from Colin's youth and despite the fact that they do have franchises in Canada, this was indeed a new experience for Melissa. Soon they were stuffing themselves with cheese bread and steaks, not to mention the yummy salad and dessert bar.
Next up: The Summer Lights of Christmas
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