Sunshine Coast - Visiting Dear Friends

Friday, January 2, 2015

Time to leave Sydney behind for a while and head up to the Sunshine Coast to visit my dear friends, Darcy and Kylie.  We checked out of the hotel and headed outside early to catch a taxi to the airport.   Turned out, many of the roads surrounding the Shangri-La were closed for some reason making it very difficult for taxi's to reach the hotel.  People were gathering at the hotel entrance, some in route to the airport, others for activities they had scheduled ... ALL waiting for a taxi.  I decided to see if Australia had Uber.  Sure enough, they did and the screen lit up with several cars in the area, so I summoned an Uber Black car.  With Uber, one can watch the driver's progress on a map to know exactly where the car is and when to expect it.  I patiently watched as they Uber car went blocks beyond us, turned and went blocks the other direction.  He couldn't reach the hotel either.  Suddenly, our bellman grabbed our bags and said, "There is a taxi heading this way and it's yours.  Let's go."  So we cancelled Uber, hopped in the taxi and were on our way.  That bellman certainly earned his tip this morning.

The taxi driver dropped us at the wrong terminal, but we quickly trekked across the parking garage to the correct terminal to check in with JetStar airlines, which is similar to Southwest Airlines.  It's kind of a no frills airline and I certainly tested their sense of humor when my bags crossed the scale.  About 20 pounds over weight, I had to pay $240.00 to get them on the plane.  So much drama!!  Exhausting!

So now we've made it through the road blockages, arrived at the correct terminal, paid to have our over weight bags checked and we're off to the Sunshine Coast.

It was so wonderful to be greeted at the airport by the smiling faces of my dear friend Kylie and two of her daughters, Kiralee and Kaitlyn. They have certainly grown since last year and are getting more beautiful by the day.  

Mooloolaba Beach after coffee.

We drove to Mooloolaba for coffee at a beach front Starbucks, where precious Kaitlyn pulled $20.00 from her purse to pay for our drinks.  What kind of kid does that?  I'm telling ya ... these girls are something special.  Darcy and Kylie should write a book on parenting!!  About an hour later, Darcy met us at the Sheraton with Kilani after her afternoon nap. 

Darcy, Kiralee, Kaitlyn, Julie, Kailani and Jess relax poolside.

Since my room wasn't ready at the Sheraton Noosa, we gathered the girls and headed to the pool, where they swam and played for a couple of hours.  It's a big holiday weekend here in Noosa, so the pool area was packed.  We ordered Quesadillas and margaritas and had a lovely afternoon with Darcy, Kylie and the girls.  

Darcy and Kylie left shortly before dinner having made reservations for Jess and I at a Japanese Sushi place called Wasabi,  a beautiful place right on the water.  

Fresh Wasabi

I ordered fresh Wasabi, which I've had before, but I've never grated it myself.  The server brought out a tiny cutting board lined with shark skin, which is rough enough to grate wasabi.  So we grated our own Wasabi.  Delicious!  We watched the sunset while children across the canal were playing cricket.  It was a nice quiet evening, which was perfect after an exciting day of travel and catching up with friends.   So quiet in fact, that I almost nodded off at the table. I shouldn't have any trouble sleeping tonight.