Coolum, Noosa, and Eumundi

Roy, Marianne, MacKenzie, Canada

After the Australia Zoo, we met up with some friends from... Saskatoon.  Roy and I worked together years ago, but he married an Australian sheila and lived Down Under for a number of years.  Marianne's son was just married last weekend and they are staying at their family's home in nearby Mooloolah.  .Although they currently live in Saskatoon, we thought we couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop and say hello while we both happened to be in Oz.  They served us some Australia desserts: vanilla slice, apple slice, scones, Tim Tams, and lamingtons.  Thanks for the cuppa and company!

After we met up with Roy, Marianne and family we drove to the Ettamogah Pub to meet up with close family friends Nigel, Amanda, and Bethany Toussaint.  It was great to meet them and we really appreciated the effort they made to come out and meet us, and serve as our guide to our arranged (thanks Nate/Amy) accomodations.  Unfortunately, we didn't grab a pic of the Toussaints - so Nigel you'll have to send us one!  This pub is apparently modelled after an Australian comic strip of some renown, of which the strips are plastered on the walls and the kids enjoyed reading.
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Not Shown:  Nigel, Amanda, or Bethany

Nigel and Amanda drove us to our home away from our home away from home, at Lindsay and Phillippa's house.  True story, we stayed at this lovely family's home, had a great time getting to know them, the kids had lots of fun with their son Kai... and alas I don't even have a last name.  Their place is on the top of a relatively large hill, and the poor little Suzuki had to be whipped to make it up to the top of the hill.  Awesome view though, and we had a nice visit with them, and their extended family who were also visiting from other areas within Australia.  Thanks again Lindsay and Phillippa, we know your house had three times the normal occupancy and your hospitality was most appreciated!
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Not Shown:  Lindsay; Phillippa's New Sports Car

Apparently, we're also beginning to fail miserably at picture taking, since we don't even have a picture of Lindsay... just one of Kai and Phillippa before we left. Its not like the night previous we were all dressed up for a meeting or anything ... d'oh!





I've got the events in somewhat of a muddled order, but the second day centered around exploring Noosa.  The picture below is Austin and I at a point called Hell's Gates where we stopped for a little snack.  We also went to the main beach at Coolum and got our first 'beach day' in.


Hell's Gates



After the beach, we headed back to Lindsay and Phillippa's place, got cleaned up and were able to go to the Coolum Beach congregation where we met up with many of Nathan and Amy's friends and enjoy the Tuesday meeting.  We remarked on how similar the meetings really are, truly a worldwide organization!

Austin and Kai Intently Focused at the Meeting

Wednesday we went to Eumundi markets which was also fun, and then went to another beach called Coolum Beach, which is massive!  Colder weather though, with the sand being whipped across the beach.  Thursday we pick up Tabitha early in the morning and head to Sea World - stay tuned to find out if we feed her to the Orcas!