March 31. Day 90. Going swimmingly

It has been a very long time since I've had a family holiday on the Gold Coast. I can't put an exact date on it but I can put an exact date on the turning point - April 1, 2013. That was the day Rumple came into my life and the Sunshine Coast and its kilometre after kilometre of dog off leash beaches became my holiday destination of choice. Winkle only cemented the deal. I decided to break this arrangement only because I wanted to spend Easter and my birthday with my family and this is where I understood they would be. I was half right. My brother was in Commonwealth Games camp but in Brisbane and in lock down. Given he was in lock down the destination was probably irrelevant. The rest of the family was at the Gold Coast.
So we went to the Gold Coast and I have spent more time at Palm Beach than at any other time in my life (actually, I don't think I've ever spent any time at Palm Beach but I digress...). The Gold Coast Council "kindly" devotes only three kilometres of dog off leash beach at Southport, Tallebudgera and Palm Beach. Don't get me wrong, Palm Beach is fine and I should be grateful for small mercies but it's not exactly proportionate. Dogs are people too. They deserve more consideration. Not that my dogs cared.
They were so, so excited. My dogs love the beach.
I love taking the dogs to the beach so it's all going swimmingly here.