BEACH DAY

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Today was SO much fun!! Andrea took me to the beach! I don't know the name of the exact beach we went to... but it was very close to a place called "Surfers Paradise" -  I'm sure you can look it up. For some reason I can't upload photos (I'll have Chris fix that when he gets here) so I can't show you how AMAZING it was. I was simply enamored with everything I saw (except one thing - more on that in a moment) The sky was the most beautiful blue and full of perfect white fluffy clouds. The water was a mix of the most picturesque tropical colours. The breeze was lovely... the sand was lovely... the temperature was quite warm but not scorching. I enjoyed looking at the tiny little seagulls. They are about the size of crows and many of them, rather than having black eyes, have little yellow-y/ orange eyes. Pretty cute... and they leave the cutest little flipper prints in the freshly exposed sand.
The water was so warm and it was so fun to stand and let the waves crash into us! I got pulled under once when I wasn't standing properly. I fell right now and got pulled along a very quick 15 or so feet. I was perfectly fine other than having my sopping wet hair in my face, a little salt water inside my face, and plenty of sand in my bikini bottom.

So here's the lame part... just moments after arriving at the first beach, we went into the water for a little walk around. We couldn't have gone more than 10 steps before Andrea screamed and bent down to grab her food. I immediately thought she had stepped on glass but it was actually a tiny little jelly fish with a very thin stinger about 3 feet long that had washed over her foot! (she knew it was called a 'blue bottle' which is in some situations - like this one - is referred to as a 'f****** blue bottle') It seemed to hurt a lot so we got out of the water to find the life guard. He offered her some sting spray of some sort and she decided she was okay and could go back in. When we got back to the water we noticed many more of these damned little things all over the place. They were washing up left right and center with their flippin' stingers hanging out waiting to be stepped on. I figured it would be better to walk a little further out where they weren't washed up... but seconds later I myself was letting out a scream of panic when I found one was wrapped around my ankle! Owwww. It felt like shock from an electric fence the way it went zap zap zap. Andrea (fast thinking) scooped up some sand and wiped it off pretty quick... but obviously the damage was done... We went to have a little rest on our towel to survey the damage on each of our feet. Andrea was starting to feel nauseous so we decided to break from the beach for lunch. We went to this super cute little cafe and had exactly what I had requested earlier in the day - paninis! (Roasted red pepper, hummus, arugula {called 'rocket' here}, egg plant, haloumi  (sp?) cheese, that may be it... but maybe not) Mmm.. we were both experiencing stomach cramps (whatever - when am I not?) and Andrea was feeling a shooting pain up her leg and was convinced she'd been stung all the way up her leg. A quick google search on her iPhone revealed these were all common symptoms of a Blue Bottle jelly fish sting. Laaaaaame.

After lunch we went to a 2nd beach which is where I saw the cutie seagulls and went in the water and had tons of fun... we left at about 4:45. Far too soon for either of us but, alas, Andrea has responsibilities.
Tomorrow I will be researching Hamilton Island resorts as I have decided that it the place to be. An island paradise just waiting for Chris and me to come work on it!

I'm feeling great about being here now that I've figured out I belong on the beach. Covered in sunscreen. As I was today. In case you were wondering.