On our way to the Great Barrier Reef

These posts of my parents trip are turning into a big photo album, but I still want to put them all up. I feel a bit pressured to get caught up to date before turning the blog into more of a "memoirs" as the title suggests and a bit less of a photo album, but in this age of digital photos it is nice to have a place to show them!

   

We decided to take a trip to the Great Barrier Reef (I know, so cool!!!) On the way there we wanted to make a few stops. We were up and leaving around 3 am to begin our weekend adventure. 1st stop - Tin Can Bay and feeding wild dolphins

 

My mom was thrilled at that but probably just as much at the pelicans and flower shots she got that day and throughout our trip. As a side note the Australian Pelican I believe is the largest species of pelican and it is really big and impressive!

 

We then were off to hike and see the Carlo Sand Blow which is so pretty and yet we never quite schedule enough time there. 

3rd Stop Rainbow Beach. We went there for Varian's birthday in April and loved it.It's called this for it's colored sands and above you can see a picture of one of the yellow sections. When we went last time we sauntered around (well through the pouring rain) and then a rainbow came out on the beach which I thought was stunning. This time we had a different experience. Instead of the beach being covered in rainbow mist it was covered in....dum dum dummmmmm.....JELLY FISH!!!

Okay the clear ones above are harmless and beautiful. But on the left are the blue bottle jellyfish and they sting like a mother! Ouch! They were all over in the bubbly surf that was splashing in and because we were there on high tide each time a wave would come in we'd all shriek (well I think Mom and I were shrieking, Varian's not really that reactive) and run for cover on the nearest rocks we could find to avoid being stung. It was a bit adventurous and scary. It did make it a bit hard for sauntering, but was still a fun walk. Later we went down the beach and swam in a life guarded area that wasn't so saturated with them, but both Mom and I still got stung. Frankly that's something that I've always been nervous about, but it wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. It stung, mind you, but after 1/2 hour or less it had gone away. Later that day I got an ant bite that hurt a million times more/longer (ants here can be nasty). 

   

Jaren enjoyed his new favorite activity - sand eating. (Below I'm singing the Sesame St song in my head of one of these things is not like the other.)

Final stop The Mon Repos Turtle Encounter where we waited to watch sea turtles come onto the beach to lay their eggs. Sadly none came in time for us to see them as we had to be up so early the next day to catch our boat. SI tried to talk my parents and Varian into not being so weak sauce and wanting sleep, but was unsuccessful. Sigh.We'll have to go back.

 

ps: I've been wanting to remind readers that in these posts I'm not just getting chubby, I'm actually pregnant with Reid. Here I'm about 3 months pregnant. :)