Hide and Seek.
After swim lessons on Saturday we drove a couple hours up to the Sunshine Coast. As we were driving along we saw a store with cowhides hanging on the fences, so we whipped the car around and went to check it out. We walked out of there with a brindle cowhide for our living room and a kangaroo hide for Ty’s room.

Saddlery.
Just down the road was a western store, so we had to stop there, as well. We got a kick out of their sign.

Palmer Coolum Resort.
We checked into our room at the Palmer Coolum Resort. We chose this hotel because it has a dinosaur park. The resort has received a lot of negative press, ranging from poor service, to run down rooms, to incorrect statistics about the dinos, to complaints about dinos roaring all night. But, we knew Ty would think it was pretty cool so we decided to give it a go. I pictured a handful of animatronic dinosaurs, but apparently the richest man in Australia follows the “go big or go home” approach to Dino parks. If I had to guess, there were probably 100 dinosaurs. I know there are a lot of haters out there, but I thought it was pretty wicked (Ty’s new word). There were SO many of them, most of them moved and made noises, some were babies hatching out of eggs. Lily loved the pterodactyls flapping their wings overhead. And Ty skipped through the park. “Whoa look at that one!!” His reaction to everything was priceless.

Wild Roos!
I have been looking for wild kangaroos since the day we landed in Oz, and have not seen one. Until today. Right outside our hotel room balcony. And on our buggy ride to the beach (this hotel is ginormous) we saw Roos on the golf course. I love kangaroos!

Beach.
After a good nap (and the first time that I have sat on a couch for more than 10 minutes since we moved down under), we went to check out the beach. The Sunshine Coast is a bit unique in that they don’t allow development in most areas directly on the beach. So we walked along a beautiful sandy tree-filled path (and tried not to think about all of the poisonous critters watching us). We did see a bunch of little white crabs – Ty thought that was cool. We ended up at a beautiful beach. There was hardly anyone there, it kind of felt like we had the beach to ourselves. We dipped Lily’s toes in the ocean – she wasn’t sure what to think, but she didn’t freak out. There are a couple videos on my Facebook page if you are interested. Here are some still shots.

Pool.
After the beach, Ty wanted to swim in the pools. We had the first one all to ourselves!

Dinner “with” a billionaire.
We ate dinner at the Village Square, where all of the restaurants have an indoor/outdoor feel. We sat outside, at a table directly in front of the man behind the dinosaurs – Clive Palmer. He is the guy in the white shirt in the middle of the table.

Ty was playing in the game room (finding change, of course), Lily was sleeping in her stroller, and Jay and I were enjoying a glass of wine, waiting for our meal to arrive, when a furry critter scurried up the pole behind Jay. I jumped up and ran from the table. Apparently my maternal instincts are lacking because I left Lily and the stroller at the table. A group of teenagers at a table nearby were laughing and said, “we saw it go under your table!” Thanks guys. Upon further inspection, it was a possum. They are not like the possums in the US, though (thank goodness). I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are cute, but they are better looking than their US relative. And I probably shouldn’t have been quite so nervous because at least there are no known cases of rabies in Australia. That being said, they do still have teeth. And it did nibble on Jay’s toes at one point (ewwww!!!). I ate most of my meal with my feet up on the bench. At least it gave is something to entertain us during our meal.

More Roos.
Sunday morning we got up and ate breakfast (again with Clive) and as we were walking back to our hotel room, we came upon a mama Roo and her Joey. We must have scared the Joey because we watched him actually climb into his mama’s pouch. Might have been the coolest thing ever. After a couple minutes he peeked his head out of her pouch, checked us out, then went on eating grass with his mama. I decided to take a video and filmed them eating, then walking across the path in front of us, then hopping up the hill. It’s on my Facebook page. Wicked awesome.

Zoo.
We are on our way to the zoo now. More to come!