I love our week’s vacation every year. There’s no doubt it will always be at the beach. I had every single holiday at the beach as a child (and as an adult for most of the time) and I’m pretty sure my kids love it too. Probably comes with the territory and the fact that we live in a wonderful part of the world. One such place is just over an hour north of where we live on the Sunshine Coast called Coolum Beach. That’s where we headed this year.
It’s always a pretty stressful time for me as a single Mum to make sure I’ve got everything packed, food organised (I ordered groceries online and collected just near our destination), and all the other things that need to be organised before we go away but off we went. I was so, so tired emptying the house in readiness for the floors to be polished while we were away so I really wanted to get there and relax.
We rented a beautiful little pet friendly house about 5 minutes walk from the beach with a pool and nicely decorated in resort style furniture. It had all the modern creature comforts of home and just what we needed for our week away.
The kids hit the pool as soon as we got there and I was happy to sit and watch. Our days were made up of swimming in the pool daily and just being lazy.
We’d wake every morning and go to the beach before it got too hot. The kids played in the sand while I went for a run.
Coolum Beach is one of my most favourite beaches and brings back fond memories of my childhood when we would camp at the nearby Lutheran camp site with our church. The beaches are unspoilt and up until http://creditcardnow.us/comment/181#comment-181 recently, was free of fast food chains. (Thanks for nothing McDonalds.)
Every afternoon we took our dogs to the area designated for dogs at Stumers Creek, a couple hundred metres north of the main part of Coolum Beach. A beautiful fresh water creek for the dogs to splash around in, poop bags, water bowl and hose for the dogs plus toilets and a park for the humans as well. I’ve had our Mini Pinscher, Willy for 10 years since he was 9 months old and I don’t recall ever taking him to the beach before. He absolutely loved it.
The boy and his dog.
On our second last night, I treated us all to dinner out at the Coolum Beach Surf Life Saving Club and it just so happened to coincide with the grand opening of a new bar and new renovations. There were Christmas parties galore so the place was really pumping. Who wouldn’t want to dine with the sea breeze blowing and that view to look at.
I had a pasta dish with Moreton Bay bugs (similar to lobster) and prawns with garlic and chilli. The kids had a kid’s meal and enjoyed time in the kid’s club while I had a little break and enjoyed the view.
As we wandered back to the car, the Friday night craft markets were on with lots of beautiful jewellry and things to look at. It was a beautiful evening and nice just to browse.
We finished the evening with an ice cream and headed home. The next day, our last, we relaxed by the pool before we headed home on the Sunday morning and back to preparations for Christmas. I’d love to live at Coolum Beach one day but in the mean time I can dream and think about where we will go next year.
Lovely photos, Anne! Ah, what a nice vacation and a beautiful place to enjoy. We are in the middle of winter here so I loved seeing that it's actually warm somewhere!
Hi Anne, wow your vacation with the kids and dogs looked so nice. I'm glad you were able to get away to such a pretty beach and spend time with your kids. The food at the restaurant looked really good. It's so nice that you have next year another vacation like that to look forward to! Wishing you a Happy New Year. Julie
What fun! Glad you and your children had such a great time at the beach. Hugs, Linda@Wetcreek Blog
It's such a beautiful place isn't it. Great to catch up with you too!
Looks amazing Anne. I was blown away when you wrote that you went for a run on the beach, whew, way to hi powered exercise for me!! Well done you.