Our Final Post

Hi Everyone,

Our time here in Australia is winding down. Mom and Eddie's trip diving was amazing! They saw lots of tropical fish, sea cucumbers, beautiful coral, barracudas and even some whales!!! (See picture of whale's tail). That night, we went for dinner at a really cool local restaurant called Salsa. Our food was pricey but good. We had an eccentric French waiter who was quite fond of himself. After dinner, we went to see the infamous Cane Toad Races at the Iron Bar in Port Douglas. Eddie was selected to race a toad. If you are wondering how to race a toad, check out Utube and search toad racing. Eddie got to pick up his toad Ozzy, kiss it for good luck, and encourage the toad to jump off the table with a party blower, along side 4-5 other toads. It was hilarious!!! Too bad we left our camera at the hotel. IT was cool but Eddie got disqualified for scooping the toad with his hand. All in good fun.

Tuesday, we woke up pretty early to get a head start on our journey to Cape Tribulation. Our first stop was the Daintree river for a River Boat crocodile expedition. We saw some pretty awesome crocs in the wild- sooooooo cool. Our captain was a real outback type aussie and he let me (Kelly) drive the boat while smoked. He was sooooo great and could spot even hatchling crocs under trees in the mangroves. After our trip, we stopped along the path to get some photos in the rainforest under some giant leaves (take a look at the picture). We took the ferry over the river and drove on a crazy winding road up to Cape Tribulation. The drive was beautiful and the trip through the thick rainforest was well worth it. When we got to Cape Trib, we stopped at the beach and look out where the two world heritage sites collide (the great barrier reef and protected rainforest.) We stopped for lunch at a hidden restaurant in the back country called the cassowary cafe.

Tuesday night mom and I had a fantastic aboriginal inspired smoke ceremony spirit massage. It was incredible! Jesse and Eddie cooked our last dinner in Port Douglas.

On Wednesday morning, we got up pretty early to enjoy some of the day before heading to Cairns. Mom and Eddie did some shopping while Jesse and I had a great anniversary brekky at a local cafe (crazy fruits- it was good).

In the afternoon, we drove to Cairns and walked around a while. Jesse and I went to the lagoon for some sun while mom and Eddie shopped. We had a great anniversary dinner all four of us at an Italian restaurant on the Esplanade. We went to bed early, as our flight for Sydney left at 6am this morning.

Today, we were up really early and had a pretty good flight to Sydney. It's cold here, we're not used to it having been in the tropics for the last while. We are looking forward to coming home, but we will miss Australia lots. We've done so much and can't wait to share it all with you.

Hope you are all doing well and we will see you soon. This is our last post before our very long journey home tomorrow.

Lots of love,

From down under for the last time,

Kelly, Jesse, Rhonda and Eddie