An Airlie Beach sunset over Shute Harbor
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Ain't we cute? Soon we'll be off to Fiji to make this permanent!
Erin's Journal for 2/20 to 2/23/03 Queensland

Today we decided to relax and enjoy the Airlie ambience, so we donned our bathing suits and headed into town for the late morning. We walked the main strip, looking for new bathers for Glenn (his are faded and don't fit much), and ended up getting some swim goggles for both of us and a couple of great colorful shirts for him as well! We stopped into Subway for lunch (we eat there a lot!), then went back to the lagoon to catch some afternoon sun and swim time before our 4-hour parking expired. This lagoon is a huge man-made structure right at the beach, surrounded by picnic areas and grassy knolls for people to lay out on. We picked a spot that unfortunately had lots of ants nearby, but I mostly went swimming and didn't care.
With the goggles on, I could see underwater and therefore did a lot more 'real' swimming. So I was quickly out of breath! Sad. I could only handle a little bit of sun still, so I was glad that our time ran out just when I started feeling burnt. We moved the car onto the main street and went in to do some email for about an hour. I constantly feel out of touch these days, so it was good to get caught up again. On the way home, we stopped at the store to get dinner, and even took a dip in the pool again before coming in to cook. We are loving having the swimming pools!

2/21/03

Today we left for Noosa, a beach town not too far north of Brisbane. We had been offered a free place to stay in Noosa, and planned to spend a few days there relaxing before heading to Brisbane for our flight to Fiji the next weekend. The plan today was to drive halfway, as the whole drive to Noosa would be almost 1000km (about 620 miles), but as it happened we got on a roll and were at the halfway point by 1pm. We ate  lunch in 15 minutes on the side of the road and continued on, figuring we'd go as far as we felt like before stopping for the night. Well, by the time we were tired enough to stop, we were only 2 hours away. So we continued on to Noosa, arriving a little after 8pm.
We'd tried to get to a Mcdonalds along the road, but it was always impossible to reach from our direction, so we were lucky enough to stumble upon one right past our turnoff. We grabbed dinner there, not sure what we'd find at the house. When we got to the house, we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. The owner, a friend of Glenn's mom and mother to Jo (our Brisbane friends), is off in England visiting her other daughter who just had twins. So we'd have this beautiful house to ourselves for several days - thank you, Nerida!
We were exhausted by the time we got our stuff brought in, and after cooling off in front of the tv, went straight to bed.

2/22/03

Since we'd arrived a day earlier than planned, we were able to make the Saturday market in Eumundi. This was a tiny town not far from Noosa, and we were up and out to find some last gifts for our friends & family to thank them for joining us in Fiji. We arrived around 10am, finding the parking lot very busy. It was a larger market than Kuranda, and we were happy to find that the goods here were more the artsy craftsy stuff we like to see than the touristy stuff we've been avoiding. We walked around for a couple of hours, finding a few items we liked and checking a few of the local stores as well. We were done by noon though, and satisfied with our finds.
We drove from there back into Noosa, and went on to explore the little trendy town. We simply drove through - the places to eat here were a bit above our price range, and we weren't in the mood to shop more today. So we headed back, and found a Subway (again) for lunch and an internet cafe across the street where we could look at our Hamilton Island photos online and email the phone number to our parents for one last call before next week's trip to Fiji!! The photos were fun, and we sent the link to a few friends just to show them what they're missing. It's truly a gorgeous place.
Afterward we went to the grocery store to get the goods for meals while we're in a house with a fully-stocked kitchen, and were back at the house by late afternoon. We spent the evening relaxing and enjoying fajitas.

2/23/03

Today Glenn got up early and wrote some journals and part of his vows - stinker is getting ahead of me! - and was ready to get his 7:30am call from his parents. They chatted for about an hour, then it was my turn. I got to talk to my mom (yea!) for an hour too, doing last minute strategizing for Fiji and catching up in general. We can't wait to see them next week! After that we were supposed to get a call from Stefanie, but no phone rang. So we made breakfast, got ready slowly, and were pleased to get her call just as I was in the shower! Glenn chatted with her for a bit, then switched off to me when I was ready. It was great talking with her too, and we are anxiously awaiting next Friday when we fly out.
Around noon we were ready to get out for the day, with packed sandwiches for lunch and bodies slathered with sunscreen. Our destination: Sunshine Beach. We drove the short 10 minutes to the beach, and stretched out in the semi-cloudy day. The weather was still hot and muggy, but the ocean breeze was nice, and we both relaxed for a bit before going in the water. This far south, the stingers are not a problem, so we went straight in. The undertow was strong, though, so we didn't go in far. We ate a small lunch around 2pm, then sunbaked until 3. I'm in a new bathing suit now, and didn't want to damage my newly-healing butt. So we kept it to a minimum of time, and went back to the house to shower up before our date. We'd agreed to go see a movie tonight, Just Married. It looked like a hilarious and appropriate subject for the date, as we've been to Europe too and have been joking to everyone that we're on the honeymoon now, and will get married since it seems to be going well!
The movie was slightly disappointing as, per usual, all the really funny stuff had been shown in the previews. But it was still upbeat and fun, and I enjoyed our date. Afterward we came back to the house and had ice cream to top off the date.