Day 14 – Gold Coast

Super Bowl Monday?

Dinner last night was EXCELLENT!  Totally made up for the buffet debacle.  The Executive Chef, Daniel Smith, was the 2012 Chef of the Year of Stamford Hotels and Resorts, and was twice honored as a finalist in the Queensland Hotels Association Chef of the Year awards (2015 and 2018.)

We ordered a selection from the tapas menu:  (1) Garlic Sourdough with cherry tomato salpicon; (2) Seared clearwater scallops with local prawn sambal and slow cooked pork belly in sweet Bali manis over pea puree: (3) Roasted baby beet salad with asparagus, goats curd, and cacoa orange crumble; and (4) Grilled jumbo king prawns with sweet, sour, and spicy dressing.



I’m not a fan of prawn heads, so those went back on the plate, but the prawn bodies were delish.  And the scallops were probably the best I’ve ever had.  Great last meal for our vacay.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  This morning we checked out and headed for breakfast.  The birds at this restaurant were very aggressive - hardly waiting for people to leave before swooping in to steal the leftovers.


After breakfast, we went to Wahlburger’s to watch the Super Bowl.  It started at 9:30 AM (Monday morning) here.  We were informed they can’t sell alcohol until 10 AM, so we couldn’t toast to the kick-off, but we got some unconventional Super Bowl drinks at 10:01.

 

We were the only two in the place watching the game, other than the bartenders.  (Actually, I think there was only one other table in there so early. 😁)  But, no worries.  It was fun.  We had to leave at halftime to catch our Uber to the Gold Coast airport.  All cool.  Our driver was really knowledgeable about a lot of things, so it was some good conversation on the way.  We arrived in plenty of time, only to discover that our flight was delayed.  OK.  Go with the flow.  Found a bar that had the game on.  It was actually on delay, so we got to see the second half of the game, even though we already knew the Eagles won.  (Seriously not an Eagles fan, but more so did not want to see Kansas City win again, so good outcome!)

As we watched and waited, they kept pushing our flight back later and later.  We were originally supposed to leave at 2:50 for a 5:20 arrival in Sydney.  Then, they announced our flight had been canceled. 😡  Virgin Australia rebooked us for a 7:20 PM flight landing at 9:50 PM.  Yay.  Five extra hours in the airport.  (I blame Lee.  He jinxed it all by saying everything has gone so smoothly. 😂 )

Anyway, we just need to make our United flight tomorrow, so all is good.  (Except my credit card bill for the airport bars. 😎)

(Posted Feb 10, 4:17 PM)

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