The parents made the long journey across the great ocean to see their world-traveling daughter.
Only minor panic when we learned that their flight out of San Francisco was canceled. The reroute to Sydney turned out to be a good thing allowing us extra time to visit the iconic city and visit with the in-laws. They stood up pretty well despite the jet-lag and were royally stuffed and trussed by all the wonderful cooking that Richard's mom undertook. Only two days here, we took little day trips out to Manly, Bondi and the City Centre to see the Opera House and Bridge at a leisurely pace eating yummy food and drinking tasty coffees (though not as good as in Melbourne) along the way.
In Bondi, it was a beautiful day, not as cold as in Melbourne.
Then we left for Cairns, in Tropical North Queensland. Destination: The Hilton (of Course) and the Great Barrier Reef! This was also just a quick trip so we tried to pack in as much as possible in each day. First day: Venture out to Green Island for a day trip of snorkeling (and diving for the brave), its one of the closer islands out towards to reef. Trial snorkeling in the AM, Mom saw a baby ray and Richard swam with sea turtles, lots of big and colorful fish. Dad was re-aquainting himself with this inner-fish. Then we took a glass-bottom boat tour to see what could be found further out.
Sharks!
Look at that coral, and big giant fish.
Next day we rented a car and drove out to see some of the Daintree Rainforest, just the outter edge, via the Coffee Museum in Mareeba (CoffeeWorks). Tons of sugar cane fields along the roadsides and coffee plantations out in the Atherton Tablelands.
Coffee Museum
Rainforest walk
We spent the last lazy day exploring the Northern Cairns resort beaches before heading back to Melbourne.
awesome pics, darlin'. miss you all the time.
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