Twenty five years ago today

Best decision ever! Here's to many more!

Down under no longer

On Wednesday we got up and went to the cafe beside our hotel for breakfast. It was just after 8:00 and we enjoyed our coffee and watched people making their way to work. My flat white had the prettiest design ever:

After breakfast we headed to airport, flew for 14+ hours, watched three movies (Whiplash, The Theory of Everything, St. Vincent), ate, slept, etc. Landed in Vancouver at 7:30 am on Wednesday. 

I know, crossing the dateline. Still has a real Groundhog Day feel to it. 

We've returned to spring in all its frilly pink glory here on the  coast. Flowering trees, daffodils, rhodos, heathers. 

Australia was wonderful - exceeded our expectations. I'm looking forward to reviewing our pictures and enjoying the trip all over again. 

It's always something.

Living in the modern world, there are always things to be aware of. And just when I think I'm getting a handle on things, off to Australia where there are just so many more things trying to kill you!

On the beach:

And of course by the rivers:

And even on the streets..

But sometimes the advice is a little nicer:

I can do that... 

ps - the year of pie project will be restarting soon and let's just say 'Aussie meat pies' yum!

Holy Cow!!!

We took a train ride to the city of Geelong today, which was really nice. Peaceful little place along the bay. We had a very good pizza, walked along the esplanade, saw some of a very big air show from the train. One of Geelong's things is that all along the esplanade there are tall bollards that have been painted up. Walked by one that was a meter maid, with her bag slung over her shoulder, a ciggie hanging from her lip, and she's knitting a sock. So I whipped out my sock project:

After our visit there we decided to go to a Thai restaurant in downtown Melbourne that we had read about. In the Asian area, second floor. We figured cheap and cheerful, Pad Thai and beer. 

Well. 

We fell through the looking glass to hipster heaven. With Thai food. There must be 500 people up here, all talking at the top of their lungs. The music pounds away. We're the oldest people in here by a long shot. And the waiters have the most hilarious hipster facial hair. 

I feel kind of sad because the record album covers that are clipped to the walls - obviously meant as ironic statements about something? Yeah. I'm sure I have owed most of them at some time. 

Vive le difference

Woke up in Port Douglas - 30 degrees and humid. 

Stepped off the plane in Melbourne- 23 degrees fresh and cool. That's better!

We're looking forward to exploring the city. Found this alley last night:

Completely covered in all manner of street art. There was also a photo shoot of wedding dresses going on - Korean group. Not the first time in this trip that we've seen bridal wear being photographed in 'interesting' locations. 

Anyhoo - there's a city to explore. 

Don't play with your food.

Or, when good food goes bad.....

Prawn assault!

As promised, so delivered

We've been snorkelling before, and enjoyed it very much. We figured - snorkelling in Australia, more of the same. 

Boy were we wrong!

It was fantastic!!!!!

We knew we were going to take a trip to the reef - who would come all this way and not? The question was - how would we do it? There are many choices. We decided we wanted a smaller boat experience, rather than taking a big boat out to a platform with hundreds of people. We also wanted to deal with snorkelling - no scuba. We settled on a company called Wavelength, and they were super. They picked us up and we joined the group at the marina - 30 passengers, three crew. From Port Douglas it is about an hour and a bit to the reef. 

We were very lucky with the weather. It has been blazingly hot, humid and sunny - the cyclone to the south had swept away all the cloud cover. Yesterday was still hot and humid, but high cloud cover had returned, reducing the chances for spontaneous human combustion. 

Because it is summer here the ocean is warm - about 30 degrees. Makes for easy swimming. Also means dangerous stinging jellyfish are hanging about. Not so much, maybe, on the outer reef. Maybe. But the beaches have nets up to provide safe swimming and we were told not to wade on the beach outside the netted area. And there are also stinger suits. On our snorkel trip we were all issued a suit. Black Lycra onesie with built in mittens and a hood. Very fetching. We were assured that there really weren't stingers as far out as were headed. Probably not. Hardly ever. The real purpose of the suit was sun protection. Which was a good enough reason for me. Quite a sight to see 30 people in their swimsuits, already hot and sweaty, trying to fight their way into slightly damp stinger suits. No one got hurt in the process!

We made three stops to snorkel and each one was magical. 

I know - isn't he cute? Well, we really did see anenome fish, among many other things. We don't have a waterproof camera, and we could have rented one, but I wanted us to concentrate on the experience. I wanted us to be comfortable and relaxed in the water, and we were. The little guy above is actually a flash drive, loaded with pictures from the day. When we get home we can relive it all again. 

We did see many wonderful things, including a white tipped reef shark and more colourful fish and fascinating coral than you could shake a stick at. An amazing variety. Huge underwater structures. But the most amazing thing to me, and something I never expected to actually see where the giant clams. Truly huge! And they would close up if something passed over their light sensing spots, which was  really cool. 

Truly, the reef delivered,and then some.  And because I love you all and am dedicated to your entertainment - here we are I our stinger suits: