Wonderful World (Chapter Nine: Penguin South)

Look at those big old penguins.  For some reason this was my one and only picture that I took at Sea World--go figure, but I digress.

Let's start at the beginning again.  Although I had been bound and determined to get with the time zone differences, I still couldn't keep my eyes open past 8 p.m..  I woke up at 3:00 a.m. AGAIN, but this time I would not allow myself to get up.  I was determined to try to sleep later, so that I could stay up later.  Finally at 4:30 a.m., I gave up and turned on the tv.  The tv was on one of the rugby channels, but they were showing the Men's Finals from the French Open and they were already in the third set!  If I had turned on the tv at 3 a.m. when I first woke up, I would have seen the whole thing.  Oh well.  My Nadal won.  Yeah!

I was outside at 9:00 a.m. again and this time Adam pulled up on the street right on time--score.  We were going to drive south toward the Gold Coast, first to the Sky Walk (a series of elevated bridges over a rain forest that promised to show us exotic birds and wild life), then to Sea World (since I really, really, really was not going to go snorkling at the Great Barrier Reef) and finally to the Ocean at Gold Coast.  If we ran out of time, we'd just continue and do some stuff the following day--silly me.  We had plenty of time and I should have known by now that the less time we spent driving, the happier we'd be.

So I had the brochure for the Sky Walk place and it was south, but it was much farther inland--not near the coast.  On the map it looked like a nice sized highway to get there.  In reality, not so nice sized and actually pretty mountainie and long--like driving on Topanga Canyon, but much worse.  And we were running out of gas.  After what seemed like a very long drive, we found the rainforest and the Sky Walk.  It was a little pricey, but I'm on vacation.

So we started out on the walk.  They said it would take us 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back.  It took us about 10 minutes, so we started to try to slow down, except that there wasn't anything to see except trees.  Ok, they were nice looking trees, and there was a little brook, but how long can you look at that.  We had seen some pictures of exotic birds, butterflies and really big bugs at the lobby of the place, but outside it was just cold and cloudy.  No birds, no butterflies and no bugs.  I think we saw a spider's web.

Although this place took no time at all, it was really a long drive back to the coast and we drove and drove.  First I made Adam stop at the first gas station we saw--out in the middle of no where.  I couldn't figure out what gas we were supposed to use, so the gas station attendent tried to help me, but he didn't know either.  So we looked in the book for the car and finally figured it out.  So frustrating.  Then we drove and drove and drove with the ipad map going in and out, never knowing if we were on the right road or going in the right direction.  Eventually, we got back to the coast and stopped at a McDonalds for lunch.  And I got to check my e-mail (yeah!). 

Recharged, we plotted our next stop at Sea World.  They were doing some kind of construction near the ocean and Sea World was not coming up on the map, but the place it was shown on a brochure was like on a penisula.  It was very confusing to try to get to it (and my ipad showed an intercection that was actually an overpass situation), but we found it. 

It was awful.  It was mostly a cut rate amusement park with lots of food vendors, suvenier shops, rides, games and kind of tucked out of sight as almost an after thought was a large fish aquarium with some sharks, a dolphin show, one sorry looking polar bear and very fat penguins.  It was really expensive too.  Adam saw the price and realized that our admission would probably pay his rent and he didn't want to go. (But this was before I saw how sorry their aquarium was, so I really wanted to go and I'm on vacation).  We spent a long time at the aquarium, we hung out as long as we could stand at the stinky penguin house, we felt sorry for the polar bear and we were done really quickly.  The dolphin show was going to start in about 45 minutes, so we decided to hang out and wait for it.  We got some sodas (I think they were on sale--2 for $4, so we really could not pass them up) and just sat on a bench until they opened the stands.  It was a lazy, cloudy, but relaxing afternoon.  The dolphin show was enjoyable and on our way out, we hit the suvenir stores and found a bargin on tee shirts for Caitlyn and the babies.  [I got them all the same dolphin tee shirt, but Caitlyn and Madi in pink and Matthew in blue--Caitlyn loves to be twins with Madi.  Adam got Caitlyn a green alligator tee shirt that I meant to tell her looked like Kevin the alligator from 64 zoo lane--my favorite, but I digress.] 

We still had lots of time before we would be ready for dinner and Adam asked me if I was interested in going to Hard Rock Cafe--OF COURSE! How awesome--it hadn't even occurred to me that there would be a Hard Rock Cafe in Australia. It was in Surfer's Paradise at the Gold Coast and we were right there. We left Sea World and were able to find a parking space right on the coast a few blocks from the Hard Rock Cafe. There were lots of vendors and shops--it was like a sea side tourist town--Montery plus Santa Monica times 10. It was really cool. But the best part was the ocean. The beach was absolutely gorgeous.

But it was chilly.  But gorgeous.  As we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe, we saw lots and lots of shops--very upscale--very Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive.  The Hard Rock Cafe was exactly the same as every Hard Rock Cafe I've ever been in (diet coke, not so good, hamberger and fries, fine, but not great).  I got my required Tee Shirt and I was very happy.  I even got a milk shake.  I love being on vacation.  The only bad thing was that the restaurant was up stairs--no lift (elevator).  What is it with Australia, don't they know that fat tourists cannot climb stairs?  Anyway on the way out, I actually fell on the stairs--well on the landing.  A guy was there and he and Adam tried to help me up, but they were pulling me--that wasn't going to work, because my knees were not cooperating.  It was pretty akward, but I finally manuvered around and made my knees do their job (such slackers).  I was fine, but totally fed up with stairs.

On our walk back to the car we stopped at all the cheesy suvenir shops along the way and I found lots of stuff that I wanted.  I tried to be brutal--what ever I buy, I'm going to have to pack because I'm moving next month.  Will I love this thing so much that I'm willing to pack it and pay a mover to move it?  I said yes to that question way too much, but it did fit in my suitcase, sooooo (I'm on vacation).

I think I fell asleep on the ride home--it was really long.  I told Adam that we should start late the next day--sleep in and not meet until noon for lunch.  I wanted to sit on the balcony and read a book, we would just hang out in the City and do nothing.  It sounded like a great plan and I was already looking forward to a lazy day.  I love being on vacation.

Stay tuned:  The Queen's Mall really is fit for a Queen, but the creepy guy showing up at Sizzlers--that was creepy.