St Patty’s Day on Broadbeach – Mar 17

Summary: you look familiar, red flags & flying crocs, Irish balloons, observant lizards, pre-football, and a newsbreak.

Last night, while uploading yesterday’s blog entry in the lounge, I met a guy whose path crossed mine several times over the years (from San Francisco to Nashville). We had never met, but it is certainly a small world. He was a doctor giving a talk here at the hotel who shared my appreciation for Australian style. He recounted a James Bond themed reception he had enjoyed the previous evening. It occurred to me that as much as I am enjoying this tour, I do wish I could have spent a bit more time hanging out with Aussies past 8pm.

The plan today was to spend as much time around the resort and on the beach as possible. The first thing we saw was one of the many lizards just out sunning himself. We took the monorail across the street to a shopping center next to the beach. Finally I took a photo of their lottery – here in Queensland it is called the “Golden Casket”. This is yet another case of "that word you keep using, I don't think it means what you think it means", but I don’t know what they call the box you bury someone in. I got Alex one of those sun-resistant wet-shirts for playing in the water. At the very least Alex can look like a surfer in his RipCurl gear. We went out onto the beach and spent a good bit of time playing in the sand (and at the playground occupying prime real estate next to it). The playground had a place to pour water for dogs (or the birds) and a boat for Alex to practice rowing into the surf. All I know is that it gave me a chance to read an Economist magazine from a month and a half ago. It was a little rainy today – it really did not rain that much, but it was cloudy and very windy the whole time. Thing is, it may look dreary in the photos but the temperature was perfect. The red flags were flying on the beach so we could not swim in the ocean and the rain forced us indoors a couple times. There are few feelings more ridiculous than chasing a shoe (one of Alex’s Crocs) about 50 yards. It was windy.

For lunch, we stopped by some appropriately named Irish restaurant (Sean Patrick O’McFitzgerald’s or some such), where Alex got a balloon. He really is easily amused – I love that. So my little leprechaun can play with the Happy St. Patrick’s Day balloon on resting our ceiling.

Quick aside from nap time – the room has a wonderful wall-mounted flat screen TV with a DVD player. “Finding Nemo” has a feature where you can have one of several aquarium scenes as a permanent background along with sleep inducing underwater sounds. Throw in the low pressure from the rainy weather and Alex has been out for over 3½ hours.

We hit the hot tub again and were observed by yet another of the lizards, perched up above us the whole time like a lifeguard. From there, we went back over to the shopping center. We wandered around and heard some live music, but the only place Alex wanted to stop was the Starbucks. OK, twist my arm, it’s probably my last Australian Starbucks. Got some dinner at the hotel and that was that. Last aside here, we watched rugby as we ate dinner. I am now certain that if I lived here I would be a fan of Australian Rules football (AFL). If you are American who has not watched rugby, imagine a paleo-football without the forward pass. The running game (for both teams) was just power running – no attempts at avoiding tackles, just running into the tackler and seeing if any extra yards could be gained going through the other guy (answer: no). It was an impressive display of machismo at first, but it got redundant very quickly. Sorry, I know I have alienated a portion of my Australian readers with this (and maybe I'd feel different if I was at a game), but if I ever become Australian, you can count on me as an AFL fan.

The local news is interesting. A Northern Territory 14-year old earned a medal for saving his 11-year old little sister from a saltwater crocodile. The incident was in 2005 - she was pulled under water and he figured out what was happening. He dove in and punched the croc in the head again and again until it released her. Another bit of news was that a sunken German cruiser (the Kormoran) was discovered off the coast of Western Australia’s Shark Bay (remember Monkey Mia?), then they found the Australian warship it had sunk, the HMAS Sydney. Essentially they sank each other. It was known that they had a confrontation and sank in 1941, but the location was just discovered this weekend. It is significant because it was the largest loss of life in a naval confrontation ever for Australia. Personally, I did not realize that the German navy crossed the Indian Ocean to fight off the Australian coast in World War II.

Next: I will take full advantage of this resort until we have to go. We’ll get to that Q deck tomorrow, then drive up to stay the night a few kms away from Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. Not sure when I’ll have internet again, so let me summarize that we’ll stay just outside of Beerwah tomorrow night (18th), the Sunshine Coast the next night (19th), then two more nights up the coast in Queensland, and the 22nd where we started in Cairns. We’re just a week from heading home and I am really going to miss this place.