Lots of green photos of the reef

Hello, all! It's Sunday night here and we're getting ready to get everyone to bed so that we can resume life as normal tomorrow. Normal for now, anyway. Most of you are still sleeping and only halfway through your weekend, lucky dogs!!

So I wasn't going to post any of the reef photos because sadly, they're just sub-par, but honestly, how often does a person get to visit the Great Barrier Reef?? So I really feel like I should put at least a few of them up. I hope that each and every one of you gets to see this in person at some point in your lives. It was an excellent experience. Spiritual and all that jazz.

It took about an hour to get from Cairns out to the reef. We went to the inner reef as honestly I was a bit nervous about all of us going to the outer part and being on just a dive pontoon and swimming over 1000s of feet of water. As it turned out, I'm sure it would've been fine, but we went to a very small island covered with rainforest and it was good, too, to have a beach and a restroom and food and all. A bit easier (more comfortable and scared-y cat) way to do it.

Every boat we were on had an abundance of seasickness bags and I hadn't paid much attention to them, but on the second trip out we had 6 foot seas and 40 mph winds, and we actually got to see them used. Hooray!

Most of the people there with us were Asian, from China and Japan, I gathered. A lot of people seemed to just go out there to go, but not to snorkel or dive. I thought that was a bit odd, but some were older and some maybe just didn't like swimming (and gosh, there were sharks and stingrays and stuff, so who can blame them?), but you could take a glass-bottom boat tour, so I guess that was enough for them.

I thought it sounded kinda hokey (embarrassingly touristy!) when Dennis told me he'd signed up for it, but it was awesome!! I'm sorry I laughed at him and I did apologize and admit it was worth it.

♪  ♫ He was in a jam -- in a GIANT CLAM!!! (Name that song...) ♪  ♫

Nobody has yet submitted their answers about New Caledonia, by the way. Just sayin'...

We saw TONS of giant clams. I wasn't aware that they even exisited. Very cool.

As I said already, the biggest excitement came from spotting some sea turtles. This is possibly the only decent shot I got on both trips to the reef, but it was a good time to have luck with the light! They were just the coolest things ever. So beautiful.

We also saw some good sized rays, a 6 foot shark (eeek!), and tons more fish and coral. The water was a beautiful and warm light green, the sand was white, and it was like nothing we've ever done before. Like I said, I hope you all can go there some day. That is my wish for you tonight.

xo, K.

Holy Flying Foxes, Batman!

Aaaaahhh....Finally I have the video clip I've been waiting for to complete the Australia posts. Many thanks to my supa dupa husband, the video guy.

The first night that we went into the city of Cairns, we arrived with our car windows open around dusk. As we sat at a red light, we could hear this sound. Screeching? Was it screeching? It was. And with our eyes toward the sky, we realized that we were under the flight path of thousands of large brown bats, all leaving the surrounding trees and making their way through one of the main streets of the town. Thousands, I kid you not.

Some people stood by the curb and watched them and some didn't seem to notice at all. It was a swooping screeching river of bats in the air. They were very, very cool. 

Just another reminder that we were far from the familiar surroundings of home. That's happening a lot lately, and we are digging it! Rock on, fruit bats!!

Pot luck photos!

Hey y'all! I know I have a few more photos from Cairns to post, but I'm starting to lose track of what I've shot, posted, and still have to edit and post. Oh! I remember now -- I haven't yet posted the photos from the Salt House restaurant. We came upon this groovy spot while scoping out the area where all the reef tour ships are, and now you'll have to travel back into the 70s with me again as I re-live yet another childhood fantasy (I don't have many more, don't worry). Did anyone else happen to catch the I Dream of Jeannie episode where for some reason that crazy Jeannie had a little babbling brook flowing right through Tony's living room? I don't know what else that one was about, but since then I've been fascinated with the idea of water flowing through a person's house. So when we walked through this restaurant, I was nearly delirious with the joy of it all! Look at this and tell me you wouldn't have the coolest house ever if you could do this!!

We were all set to eat there the following night, but most of the TripAdvisor reviews said that it was super expensive and the service was awful and that it wasn't worth it. So we found a cool little family-owned Greek place instead where we had the most wonderful cheese that had been grilled. I can still almost taste it...

Here's my happy girl on the beach! She was born for the beach and the ocean, she tells me. 

Cairns has a great big lagoon on the water in the heart of town. All around the pool are very nice BBQs that anyone can use and have a picnic right there by the sea. Not just regular old grills, but the kind that they use at the Japanese hibachi places. It's simply lovely. And everyone's meals smelled really good. 

There's a string of small beach towns along the coast if you drive north from Cairns, so one day we headed up that way to see if they had anything even cooler than our own little beach town. We loved one of them, Palm Cove. Fun and unique shops and a whole bunch of excellent restaurants and a picture-perfect tropical beach. We like to stay in quieter areas but to have towns like this close by, so it worked out well. 

I found the coolest bracelet ever, and then realized that no one had celebrated my 40 1/2 birthday back in July! So I got it.

The vases that lined the hallways of one of the hotels were set into pebbles and water, so again with the water inside of a living space. I really want this somehow in my house!! (I bet Samantha will come up with an idea for this)

Something funny (to us) happened while we were there. Australian rules football had its version of their Superbowl and it ended in a tie. Instead of overtime, they all came back a week later, made their signs, painted their faces, and filled up the stadium with crazed fans again, and played another whole game. Instead of the grand final, it was called the grand-grand final. Eventually one of the teams (the most hated one, I believe) won, but if it had ended with a tie again, I suppose there would've been a third one? 

Just down the street from here at a breezy tropical place called NuNu, we had one of our all-time favorite meals ever. Who knows if it was the heat, all the fresh air and sunshine, or maybe I was just starving, but honestly, I could've almost written a song about how good this food was. 

I took a photo of the menu so you guys can see what you would've ordered. I also took a photo of the meal but I'd already eaten half of it and it was not attractive. I had the warmed olives, heirloom tomato salad, and the ribs that they describe at the bottom. And a xxxx beer. It was perfect. I just love food. I am so happy that we get to take a little time every few hours in each of our days to enjoy some food and drink. This was particularly good. The men's rest room sign was amusing as well...

Besides a good meal a few times a day, one day I'd also love to have a funky old truck like this one.

And when we returned to our house, the wacky birds were at it again and there was more fishing. The end.

The critters

Hey everybody! I'm trying to get the rest of these Aussie photos posted so I can get on with the NZ stuff. Here are the very fun local critters. As I said before, we were in Cairns in Far North Queensland for 10 days because that is the closest city to the Great Barrier Reef. It's waaaaay up at the top of the country in the hot and sticky tropical rain forest part. There are heaps of interesting plants and flowers and birds and other creatures there, and I got to fulfill a childhood dream.

Can any of you remember back to just about 1977 and picture your book bag or lunchbox or pencil? Did any of these, perhaps, have ... a Koala bear grasping it? A 4" tall Koala that you squeezed and its arms opened and then pinched shut (you probably had to be a girl for this particular vision). There were baby sizes too -- maybe you put one of those in your hair? 

Well I loved those little pinching Koalas and ever since then I've wanted to see one in person -- to touch one!!! I remember reading that they weren't all cute and cuddly in person; that they were in fact rather nasty, but I refused to believe such rubbish. And at the Koala Park in Kuranda last week, my pathetic little dream came true. We paid a small fortune for Laurel to "cuddle a Koala" named Princess and I'm guessing she was drugged (Princess not Laurel), but honestly, animal rights be damned, I don't care! She was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Ever!! She was all round and soft and clung to Laurel like a fat little baby. There was no one behind us in line, so we hogged Princess until they pried her from our singled-thumbed hands. That's one thing we learned -- Koalas have two thumbs on each hand. Helpful if you're trying to win a tug of war with a park employee...

Finally a few backpackers came through and they wanted to cuddle a Koala too, so we did have to give her up, but honestly, Laurel and I were in love with her. We then had to move on to the kangaroos and they were kinda weird, but they had these awesome back feet. Only three toes on each foot and the middle toe is enormous! 

Thought my mom friends would enjoy the maternity info. Sounds like fun, huh?

Loved the signs they had at this place. Dennis has been having some troubles with his back and now and then it just sort of seizes up and this happened as he bent down to pet one of the kangaroos. We then determined that he had violated  the "do not act aggressively" rule and hope it wasn't captured on the video surveillance.

I really took this one because I enjoyed the Chinese Koala drawing, but if you read further, you'll find at least one rather creepy entry.

And speaking of creepy, let me just leave you with this. If you can come up with someone who would wear either of these ensembles, let me know and I'll order one. Male or female...

   
Enjoy your day, friends! Write to us and tell us what's going on in your lives...xo, K.