Molly Adventures Part 3 (Gold Coast - Birthday edition)

Tuesday was my actual birthday, and we spent the day down at the Gold Coast. I was excited to try The Cardamom Pod Brickworks for breakfast. I started with the best Beetroot Latte I have ever had! And Molly had a matcha latte. Unfortunately some of this beautiful pink latte ended up on my pale blue pants! I am so clumsy sometimes. Thanks to the waiter who let me use their staff bathroom to wash my pants in the sink, and then I had to wear wet pants for a little bit before I could find another bathroom that had a hand dryer to dry them properly. But they survived!!



Foodwise, I had the avocado benedict, which was so great. It had that super streaky faux bacon that everyone loves as well as a lovely vegetable side salad. So good! Molly had the Avocado Bagel, but on sourdough. It came with some sriracha cream cheese and radishes on the side. And she also got a side of sausages. Excellent breakfast food!





I am keen to get back here soon, and they also do lunch and dinner. Plus they have a case of sweets!



After breakfast, we went to the Gold Coast Arts Centre Gallery and saw an exhibit called Energies, which was final works submitted by high school art students. The talent was incredible, and there were also a lot of sobering themes.



After this we headed down to the beautiful Point Danger, which is on the QLD/NSW border. I love the view from here, and we also saw lots and lots of lizard friends!





For lunch we went to Loki, a vegan spot in Tweed Heads. This meant we were officially in New South Wales, so I was able to get Molly to another state! Loki is a small spot that is located in a shopping centre. In the past they had had mac and cheese burgers, but unfortunately they were just an occasional special. Still, I had the Mac Daddy (like a big big mac) and Molly had the Nacho Friend burgers. We also got smoothies - I got the super green Garden of Vegan and Molly got the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup. It was a lovely lunch. The burgers are definitely bean-based, rather than meaty, but I enjoyed it a lot.







A new little vegan store had recently opened in Tweed Heads called Vegan Aisle, so that was definitely our next stop. Vegan Aisle is also located near two other vegan cafes! Tweed Heads has it all going on! Vegan Aisle had a lovely vibe, and some fun products that I hadn't seen before. I couldn't buy anything from the cold section, as we still had a while before going home, but I picked up a few goodies.





Right next door to Vegan Aisle was The Raw Boys, where I stopped to get a Blue Majik latte on soy. Unfortunately apparently soy means that it doesn't look very blue. Disappointing! Oh well. The other vegan cafe Sozo is also just across the road.



After this we had a bit of time to kill before dinner. Originally Molly was going to go swimming, but it was a pretty overcast and relatively cool day. So we visited some op shops and organic shops, before going to see the beach. Because it was the afternoon and was overcast, I was able to safely set foot onto the beach without combusting. Still had sunscreen on, though.



Finally it was time for dinner. We were originally planning on going to a vegan ramen pop-up that runs down the coast on Tuesday nights, but just for that very week they were closed. So we went to Greenhouse, which I have been to before. Molly got the Jackfruit Enchilada, which was giant! And I got the Mushroom and Eggplant Penne Carbonara, which was really more cheesy and was amazing and I want to have it again!





Our final stop was The Cardamom Pod in Broadbeach, not to be confused with our first stop of the day. The one in Brickworks is a 100% vegan cafe, then one in Broadbeach is vegetarian with vegan options, and both cafe and buffet style offerings. However they also have a small vegan ice cream bar, and that was what we were heading for. Unfortunately, a lot of the flavours were not set properly, they were a weird gloopy consistency that they just couldn't sell. That was awkward. So we both ended up getting a scoop of the vanilla rose flavour, which had set properly. It was sweet and creamy and nice.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Molly had a final birthday surprise for me when we got home that night, this beautiful portrait of my sweet Sahara. It was done by Melanie Sears, and is just so wonderful and captures so much of her. I cried. So perfect. Thank you Molly and Melanie.