Hope Island

We met for morning tea, ironically at a Lions park.  Another meeting, another new family.  And family we did become!  We enjoyed every moment we spent with our new hosts, including many many laughs.  Our first night allowed for time to get to know our individual hosts and to learn more about our upcoming days together.  We were all very excited about the new adventure.

Jenn & Sue

We began our mornings with vocational visits, once again learning about all the similarities and differences in our professions.  Very interesting!

Then we started our afternoon on top of the city!  Q1 brought breathtaking views, funny photo booth moments, and many memories.  We couldn't believe how quickly we reached the top and we spent a lot of time exploring the many different views from every window.  It is amazing to "just be" in those experiences.

Team at Q1

Gold Coast Bulletin awaited us later in the afternoon and we marveled at the newspaper process.  We were overwhelmed by all the machines!  It was truly a new experience to see how much it really takes to produce a newspaper.  Ear plugs were necessary and we enjoyed all the information provided by our tour guide.  Dan especially appreciated the experience, as it was a vocational visit for him.

Gold Coast Bulletin

We finished out our busy day with a lovely dinner with our many new friends.  Laughs were in abundance!  The next morning we had the unbelievable opportunity to visit the Performance Driving Centre.  This was a great time!!

Holden Performance Driving Centre

We enjoyed an afternoon at the winery, learning about the process of winemaking.  We have definitely learned that what we think might be simple to make can be quite the process.  The learning curve is huge!!

At the Winery

Sunday morning allowed for a variety of activities for our team, including paddle surfing.  We don't like to brag, but we might just be pros.  Ok, that is a lie, but we had a fantastic time!  A couple of us enjoyed an afternoon at the beach, including a quick beach nap.  Now that is the way to spend an afternoon!!  We all also decided that we LOVE lemon lime and bitters!

Lemon Lime and Bitters is YUMMY!!

The evening allowed for another goodbye bbq.  We were getting good at these, but they definitely didn't get any easier!  We had a casual presentation to share about us and our experiences.  The atmosphere allowed us to really "show" our true colors, and no one ventured to present poolside.  Our team likes to laugh and the possibility of someone going in the pool was a little too likely!

As our time came to an end, we also began to realize just how quickly the experience would all be over.  We started to really try to take in each and every moment (which we had already been doing, but the end was becoming a reality)!  The next morning called for another goodbye, but we were happy to know that some of our new friends would be at Conference!!

Team with our Hosts

Thanks, Hope Island!