jess knows best: Back in Canberra

Mom, Dad and Emily are back in Texas now, and Rory and I are back in Canberra, back at work, and back to house projects. I'm hoping my kitchen will finally get finished this weekend... there's only so much longer our budget can handle eating out and microwave meals! We had a great time with Mom, Dad, and Emily, though, and I'm already missing them! Here's a run-down of our North Queensland vacation last week: Tuesday: I got off early from work and Rory and I drove up to Sydney to meet Mom, Dad and Emily (who drove up to Sydney after Rory's game on Sunday). We dropped our car off at Rory's brother's house in West Sydney and took the train into the city, so didn't arrive at the hotel until about 10:45 or so. Wednesday: We all woke up early (4:45 in the morning!) for a 7am flight to Cairns. It was great to step off the plane into tropical heat, having been in the dead of winter in Canberra. We got our car and drove up to Port Douglas to check into our hotel, the Mantra Links Resort. On the way, Mom and Emily couldn't stop saying how much North Queensland looks like Hawaii... the same windy roads, tropical vegetation and temperature. Port Douglas is a town about 60k north of Cairns, and is a great hub for all sorts of outdoorsy endeavors in Far North Queensland. Its a very small, cute town and has a HUGE bat population that can be seen every evening at dusk, a-la-Austin. Here's the town:

And here is our hotel:

Or the outside, anyway. I don't have any pictures of the inside of our unit, but it was lovely, had three bedrooms and a kitchen. Once we were settled in, we went to Mossman Gorge, a swimming hole in the rainforest about 10 minutes away from Port Douglas. The water was freezing, but Rory jumped right in. With a little coaxing, I came too, and with a lot of coaxing Emily finally came as well (Picture to come soon; tomorrowish). Thursday: Thursday was our big outing at Port Douglas... we took the Quicksilver Outer Reef tour and snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef!! Basically, we boarded a big ferry and took an hour and a half trip out to a platform that was erected on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Once there, we were able to swim, snorkel, take a glass-bottomed boat tour, etc etc. It was all wonderful! We snorkeled, then had a lovely buffet lunch, which included an assortment of seafood. We swiped several whole shrimp and hid them in our bodysuits (which you wear for warmth and to avoid jellyfish stings)... the fish loved them! We were able to get the fish to eat right out of our hands... an experience worth breaking the rules for! Mom said later that, on the glass bottom boat tour, they said the reason you weren't supposed to feed the fish was because some of them were prone to taking a bit of snorkler hand with them as well. True? Perhaps, but we got lucky! (more pics to come soonish)

Emily and I in our wetsuits. Good look, isn't it?

Friday: Emily was dying to check out the town, so we went shopping while Mom, Dad, and Rory played golf. It is a cute town, and Emily bought a dress, but it was a somewhat expensive town as well. We also bought groceries to cook out with Friday evening (Emily wouldn't try kangaroo), and after their afternoon of golf and our afternoon of shopping Rory and I cooked hamburgers and sausages on the grill by the pool. After dinner we went into town to play slots ( do you play slots? do slots? what's the verb there?). Gambling is legal everywhere in Australia, and is a big revenue raiser for a lot of small towns. Rory was the only one that was lucky, and won $126!! Saturday: Saturday morning we went to the Mossman River and boarded the Nice N Easy Crocodile Tour. Our tour guide, a Freddie Mercury look alike, took us for a 1 hour cruise to see several crocodiles, a green tree snake, and lots of other wildlife.

Because the boat was so small, we were able to get up close to several of the crocodiles, but we got the best view later on that afternoon... playing golf!! Dad wanted to play again, so we all went along. On the 9th hole was a real, live crocodile!! The golf course guy said it was getting a bit big to be making a home on the fairway, and I have to say... I agree!! That evening, we went to the Iron Bar in Port Douglas for a Cane Toad race. Cane Toads are big, ugly toads that are a huge pest in Australia... they have poison glands on their heads and kill a lot of local wildlife.

Aren't they beautiful? Each person was given a number, and if your number was called you got to come up and be the 'jockey' for one of the toads. Rory was called, and raced a toad named 'Jerry Springer' in the first race. He came 3rd. I raced a toad called 'Fat Bastard' in the second race... he jumped off the table and I had to run around the room trying to catch him. He lost. Emily thought she was in the clear, but dad bought her a toad at the toad AUCTION and she came 3rd in the last race, with a toad called 'Aussie Aussie Aussie'. The worst part? You had to kiss the toads before you could race them! Sunday Our last day in Queensland, we drove up North towards Cape Tribulation. The more North you got, the more gorgeous stuff became! It was all rainforest and tropical heat... and we found the most perfect beach, with an island just off the coast... called Thornton Beach.

The ripples in the sand felt like a massage under your feet, and I found TWO sand dollars (and a half of one... a 50 cent piece?)! Monday Monday was spent in Sydney... at the Taronga Zoo! A new elephant was born on July 4th, so I spent about an hour watching him. His name is Luk Chai, and boy, is he adorable! He seems to have a way to go in terms of trunk-eye coordination, though. Actually, I'm a bit peeved. There was a big contest to name him, and I DIDN'T WIN! I entered several adorable names, but in the end a 6 year old won. As if a 6 year old can think up a name like that! Rory reckons I would have won, except that I wasn't young enough for PR purposes. Before we drove back to Canberra, we ate dinner with Mom, Dad and Emily at the South Styene, a floating restaurant on the Darling Harbour. The South Styene used to be a ferry that took people to and from Manly Beach, but now is a delicious restaurant with a piano. There was nobody playing the piano, so dad stepped in and played a few songs... and won us a bottle of wine! Rory and I picked up our car from Tim's and drove back to Canberra, arriving at about 2:00 am, only to wake up for work at 7:30 am. An exhausting drive, but the trip was well worth it!! Some more pictures of Mom, Dad and Emily's trip (thanks, in part, to Emily's facebook account):

At Rory's football game, right before they left for Sydney. I'm not sure what I'm waving dorkishly at, but everyone else looks cute. That's Harry in Emily's lap.

A family picture at the farm. I think this will be our Christmas Card photo... Emily put it on the timer.

Emily with her beer... the legal drinking age here is 18, so she was pretty excited to be able to buy (and drink) alcohol. I got ID-ed more than she did!