Boradbeach and Surfer's

Sophia, Jasmine and Sam at Broadbeach.

Sophia and Jasmine making a birthday cake.

This weekend we went to the Gold Coast to meet friends from Melbourne. As many of you know I was an exchange student to Australia back in High School and stayed with the Franks' in Melbourne. Catherine is one of the Franks' and is now married to Paul. They have two kids, Sam (6) and Jasmine (3 going on 13). It was great for Sophia to meet her Aussie cousins (and good for me too). I think it's been over 13 years since I was last in Australia for Cath and Paul's wedding. We had a great reunion and enjoyed beeing at Broadbeach even if the Gold Coast is more commercial than we're used to. It was only an hour and half drive south, so who's complaining? One night we went up the coast a few kilometers to Surfer's Paradise. Here I got some great arial shots from the Q-Deck which is atop the tallest building in Australia. (I'll have to google that to be sure.) Awesome.

Gold Coast, looking south from Q-Deck at Surfer's Paradise.

Looking down facing east.

Sophia and Jasmine, glow in the dark.

Miles of ocean.

Gold Coast, to the North. Having a beverage at Q-Deck. Paul, Catherine, Sam and Jasmine. Facing west, you can see the sunset and the river that snakes along the coast.

Later we went to the strip at Surfer's Paradise, and it was just that — a strip of tourists and tourists shops. The sleezier the better. I wish I took photos of us walking the mall because there is nothing more strange than to see women in burkha's (yes, muslim women) next to women in gold lamé bikini shorts with cowboy hats (meter maids). Not kidding. We didn't even make it to the real sleezy area (so I am told) of tit bars and strip joints. Even the real estate signs were in Arabic, not to mention Japanese, Korean and Chinese.