Coolangatta

Another adventure while at the Gold Coast was to Coolangatta, the southernmost area of the Gold Coast and named after the schooner, Coolangatta, who shipwrecked there in 1864.  We went to the Coormbin animal reserve one afternoon and saw all kinds of cool animals!

 The koalas were my favorite and Lloyd's commentary made watching them even funnier.  Click the video link below and be sure to turn your volume up.

We saw a Tasmanian devil!
They were gross, ratty looking things with busted, sharp teeth. Apparently they don't come out very often so we were lucky enough to see them.

 We also got to go into an area with lots of kangaroos.  They were very docile (I think they doped them up, haha) and we were able to pet them, although I was still a bit wary they'd bite me. :)

Kanga-party

Red Kangaroo, also known as the tree kangaroo

Across the bay from Coolangatta you can see the Gold Coast skyline 

I took this one for Jamie :)

Barry's visit & Monopoly Pub Crawl

When Barry came to visit in Feb, we took him to our piano bar across the street, and we requested songs from the pianist and sang along all night! It was a blast. To be quite honest, I didn't know another Monopoly exists without Pennsylvania railroad and all the others from the American version of Monopoly!

Boys tormenting Jamie

Boys goofing off

 At the beginning of March we celebrated one of Sharon's friends birthdays with a Monopoly pub crawl.  We went to several sites on the original Monopoly board and everyone dressed up for the event.  We had a great group!

Free Parking, Community Chest, the Equestrian, and the car

Saw this along the route, I'm a bit skeptical of a Polish-Mexican bistro!

This guy cut out 2 actual monopoly boards and attached them  to his coat

Oddly enough, we ran into a TON of other monopoly pub crawls!  Apparently it's the thing to do on a sunny Saturday in London! 

Snorkeling Whitsundays

Snorkeling at the Whitsundays was amazing and probably one of the best reef's I've seen, which is sort of saying a lot since we've snorkeled in lots of great spots (Caribbean, Maui, Mexico, etc).  The corals were brightly colored and there were tons of beautiful fish darting around.  Luckily I have an underwater video camera and we got some great footage.  When it was cold and dreary this past winter I watched the videos and tried to transport myself back to that warm water! They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let the underwater scenes speak for themselves :) 

Snorkeling on the edge of the reef

This is one of my favorite pictures!

Fish Chasing - Pink fish

Fish chasing 2 - Yellow & Blue fish

Yellow fish Swimming

TCU Colored corals!

Blue fish swimming


Swimming along the reef


The living reef

When we got to one cove our guides put bread in the water to attract fish and one HUMONGOUS fish (named Oscar) came up to the boat.  I thought he was big enough to ride!! yee-haww!

Oscar the fish! and feeding frenzy!