but when i look at the stars...

incredible.

that's how i would describe our trip to sunshine coast. we had so much fun and it felt so nice to finally be back at the ocean.

our adventure started thursday afternoon. rob and i took the bus into the city to pick up our car. upon arrival, i was lectured on the importance of paying the extra money to cover insurance. however, being poor college students, rob and i decided to just wing it. a $3800 freeze was immediately placed on my credit card until we returned the car safely. always a reassuring way to start a trip.

we then walked outside to be greeted by our car. actually, "car" would probably be a bit of an understatement. our full-sized van could have eaten 3 of our land-cruisers at home for breakfast. i was driving, essentially, a school bus. on the wrong side of the road. with 7 people. and enough beer to sustain a malnourished country for months.

the first part of the trip involved driving through the middle of downtown brisbane to get back to campus to pick everyone up. i got honked at within 45 seconds of pulling out of the car park. i also quickly discovered that the windshield wipers and the turn signals were in opposite spots than they usually are. unfortunately, i never really got used to the location of the turn signal, which means that the entire car knew when i went to hit the turn signals... as the windshield wipers would noisily start scraping across the windshield.

rob was definitely a good choice to bring as my passenger for the first car outing. i never thought i would hear "just so you know, you may want to move over a little bit. you are about to hit the other cars" or "you are sort of in the middle of all the lanes right now" in such a calm manner.

we loaded up the bus back at union and headed back into the city, which we needed to drive through in order to get on the highway to sunshine coast. by this point in time, rush hour had started. please picture me driving a bus with no pick-up in bumper to bumper traffic, all while trying to remember what side of the street i needed to be on and resisting the urge to rip off the wipers. oh, and to top it off, nobody actually knew how to find the highway. i had assumed, since we were going to kate's house, that she would be able to get us there. she had assumed, since i was driving, that i would have looked up directions. so, we weaved in and out of traffic, drove in circles, and spent a lot of time yelling over the 6 others in the car before we, by pure luck, saw a sign for sunny coast.

the first night we had a bbq to celebrate rob's 21st birthday. it was a perfect night filled with friends, beer, burgers and chocolate cake. after we walked back from the bbq area, we hit the beach at kate's house to watch the stars. unfortunately, we were one mattress short, so the perfect night ended with me falling asleep alone in the big beast parked in the driveway. it was the first of my musical beds adventure.

the next day we woke up early and made pancakes :) note to self: never trust pancake recipes found online that include 2 entire cups of sugar. apparently people here eat pancakes with ice cream, so just in case the sugar-induced coma wasn't quite imminent, we threw some ice cream on top before heading to the beach. perfect weather. sunny, warm and not too crowded. that night, kate's parents made us dinner and we just hung out and drank beer (it was a common theme of the weekend). that night's sleeping arrangement included me on the mini-couch, where i couldn't quite stretch out my legs. not very comfy.

we went back to the beach the next day again and tried out boogie boarding. luckily, weather.com continued with its inability to accurately predict the weather, so we got sunshine instead of rain! that night, kate's parents graciously offered to drive us to a nearby surf club so the boys could watch a netherlands vs. australia soccer match. we watched the game, had some dinner, and then headed back to kate's. timmy, rob and i decided to bring some blankets out to the beach and star gaze. i saw 2 shooting stars :) the boys saw the insides of their eyelids. since it was so nice out, i decided that i wanted to sleep outside. i've missed falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves, so i brought a couple of couch cushions and blankets out. at about 4:10 am, it started pouring rain.

it ended up raining all of sunday morning, which made it much easier to say goodbye to the ocean and beautiful stars. the drive back was (thankfully) uneventful and i was finally able to breathe again once we dropped the car off.

needless to say, i didn't get much sleep this weekend! but it was so very worth it. i'm learning as i move from place to place that i'm definitely not a city girl. it's fun for about 15 minutes and then i'm ready for the ocean, mountains or minnesota lakes.

i miss the stars already.

...stars lookin' at our planet watching entropy and pain and maybe start to wonder how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane... but when i look at the stars, when i look at the stars, when i look at the stars i see someone else. when i look at the stars, i feel like myself. --switchfoot

there is nowhere else i'd rather be tonight than back there watching sunsets setting. take me back to island time, where everything was good. where nothing really mattered but the friends that you love and all the simple things that should. like reggae in the night and the beach in the moonlight, we'd dance the night away. the ocean's over there, we got sunshine everywhere, let's soak our days away. not a care in the world... back on island time. --justin james