Mooloolaba

While we didn't know this at the time, we took our last holiday in Australia the first week of July to Brisbane and it's surrounds. Our first stop was the Sunshine Coast, which is about an hour north of Brisbane. It is perhaps most famous for being Olivia's old stomping grounds in 2009 when she studied abroad at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Really pretty area. Sunshine Coast is kind of the name for the region, not any actual town, so we were staying in the difficult to spell but incredibly fun to say Mooloolaba.

We drove to an old French town to get some food, and take in the sights as it sits at the top of a mountain. Or we tried to. We came across a road closed sign. But it was Australia, and figuring that it might not actually mean anything, we ignored it and kept going. 15 minutes down the road, we hit the road construction that had closed traffic in both directions. Turns out, the road really was closed. Oh well, we get a pretty nice picture of Greg and Imogen in the forest.

Next we hit up the Sunshine Coast's "greatest" tourist attraction- the Big Pineapple! Another of Australia's Big Things (see Merino, Big), it's a fairly kitschy, but endearing, tribute to the local industry. That is a big pineapple. Inside are all sorts of facts about the local pineapple industry. It was actually pretty interesting.

Greetings from the top of the pineapple!

Later on, we hit the beach. Imogen loved it.

Run, baby girl, run!

This sand is pretty interesting, Aunt Wib.

Laurel and Immy, being "soooooooooooo big!" together.

Sunset on the beach. Not bad Mooloolaba, not bad.

The following day we drove back to Brisbane for lunch with Laurel's old co-worker Katrina. They missed each other!

After a delicious, delicious brunch, Katrina and Greg renewed their old rivalry on the Super Nintendo classic Dr. Mario. Baby girl had a front row seat for the action.

Then she decided that wasn't close enough, and unbeknownst to the participants crawled over to the SNES to check out what that crazy contraption was. Just as Greg was about to win, she hit the reset button. Curses! Katrina says this proved that Imogen was on her side, since she bailed her out from a loss. 

It was great seeing Katrina one last time, and we're really sad we won't be seeing her again any time soon. Come visit us in DC, Katrina! Next stop, Gold Coast.