Woah... Wait... Dad! What are you doing here?!

So there it was Wednesday afternoon, I'm tired after pulling an all nighter and I have one class to go. Jen and I are sitting in the lounge as usual because God forbid we go some place else on that campus, and my mother dearest wanted to Skype. I was so oblivious to my entire day that I didn't find it suspicious in the least bit that my mom was extremely curious about my location on campus. She told me she had a map of my campus and just wanted to know where I was. I graciously informed her, without thinking it was strange that my mom was looking at a map of Bond. All of a sudden some strange little mexican man comes and kisses my cheek. I look up and low and behold it was my dad standing there just smiling. I was completely dumbfounded. I was so confused at what was going on and could not wrap my head around the fact that my dad was standing right here in Australia with me. I finally got enough composure to get up and hug him as Jen continued to sit there still not completely understanding what just happened. Apparently for the past two weeks my parents have been planning on having my dad surprise me in Australia and not even my sisters knew he was coming! Well they planned well because I was for sure surprised! Since I still had one more class to go to in an hour, I gave my dad a quick tour of Bond but than of course it started raining in the middle of my top notch tour so I had to cut it short. After class I gave my dad the grand tour of our apartment on the beach before we headed to his hotel. That in itself was an adventure considering he needed to learn real quick how to drive on the opposite of the road. It was a difficult task and every time he tried to turn on his blinker, the window wipers flew up. No one knows when he is turning and he turned into the wrong lane a few times but hey at least that windshield is clean! His first night here we just grabbed dinner down at the hotel restaurant. We were going to start his vacation off in style by having the legit seafood buffet thinking it couldn't be more than a $30 buffet but after asking it ended up being a $75 buffet. Good thing we inquired or my mother would not be pleased with that bill! We just stuck to the ordinary entrees offered. On Thursday, my dad was still a little hit by the jet lag and that whole minor detail of jumping 17 hours ahead, so we just decided to lounge by the pool and let him rest. That evening we went to my apartment where we threw the classic shrimp along with steak on the barbie and had a barbeque on the roof of our apartment. It was a huge, delicious and fun dinner. Us five ended up hanging out and talking until 10pm when they close the roof and we had to get off! Friday morning after meeting my doctor partner to work on our presentation in the morning, we went and picked up my roommates for a trip to Byron Bay. We weren't completely sure of the whereabouts of this supposed beautiful place but we had a GPS in the rental car so we figured we would be golden. That was a mistake. The nice lady who told us the directions of Byron Bay must have decided that taking the long long scenic route was a better way to go instead of the quick and direct route. We found ourselves somewhere in the countryside where there was no ocean in sight. It ended up taking two hours to get to Byron Bay when it was only supposed to take 45 minutes at the most. At least my dad got to see a little more of Australia!

the countryside

After driving through the winding roads of the countryside and the mountains, we finally arrived at Byron Bay and boy was it worth the drive! We hiked up to the awesome Lighthouse which was the furthest eastern point of the continent! After grabbing some smoothies we went to some big rocks where the waves were crashing against to take pictures. As Jen was making her way to take a picture with me, she slipped and cut her toe and ankle, that girl has had an injury filled trip to say the least!

He's so adorable

Right After Jen cut her leg...

Once we returned to Surfer's I took my daddio to Hungary Jack's which is Australia's version of Burger King. BK is his utmost favorite restaurant in the states so it would make sense for him to get some in the land down under! Saturday was nice we just talked, hung out by the pool and got burnt to a crisp. For dinner we tried a nice Thai restaurant which had really cool legit artifacts surrounding us and my dad was obsessed with the large wooden elephant sitting next to our table.

Sunday we woke up and tried out the Surf City Church in Surfer's Paradise. After the service we went out in search for a place to get breakfast but we weren't having good luck considering it was already 11:30. We finally struck gold and were able to get breakfast food at a little cafe near the water. The rest of the day I needed to work on preparing for my presentation with my brilliant doctor partner for Tuesday. I felt bad that we were inside the rest of the day but I need to at least seem like I know what I'm talking about in my presentation next to my partner who was the main speaker at a medical conference this past weekend. We're obviously at the same level on public speaking. My dad didn't seem to mind, he was enthralled by the speed skating in the Olympics for a majority of the day.

On Monday we went into Surfer's Paradise and I had my dad try our favorite chicken place... yeah you guessed it, Nando's!!! He of course loved it like the rest of us.

Obviously in love with Nando's by that expression

We then went to the local touristy store to buy him some souvenirs for people where he of course embarrassed me in front of the young Australian clerk boy. He wouldn't be my dad if he didn't embarrass me somewhere right?! We than grabbed some ice cream at Cold Rock (Australia's version of Cold Stone, see the connection?) and than I had to go finish for my presentation with the doctor. It was a nice last day in the Gold Coast with my daddio. I loved having him here and was sad to say bye. It was a great surprise though! Now next in the family to come... Dumb and Dumber (Beth and Ali). I can't wait for my sister's to come and visit in April!