Happy day!

Just a shout out to my sister- HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKIE!

And also a HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone! We miss you all!

Week of the 16th-23rd-Amanda's here!

Well, I cannot believe this past week has come and gone already. It was in mid-August that Amanda, my best friend from Chicago, booked her ticket to Australia to visit Ray and I while we were living here. She has now boarded a plane, stopping in San Francisco, before heading back to her new condo back home.
On Sunday we picked Amanda up early in the morning from the airport. Once she showered and dropped off her bags, we headed to the Blue Mountains. There we road the steepest railway in the world down the side of a mountain, and explored the valley. When we decided to head back up, we took the cable car back up to the top. We showed her the three sisters, and viewed Govette's Leap. Govette's Leap scenic look-out has been compared to the "next best thing" to the Grand Canyon. It was an amazing view! We then headed to a national park where we saw three Kangaroos eating some dinner. Ray was sure to obey all the laws in the mountains. :)
Monday and Tuesday Ray and I both had to work so Amanda ventured off by her brave self. She rode public transportation to Featherdale Wildlife Park, and then to downtown Sydney to do the bridge climb. She enjoyed both activities and made it home safely.
On Wednesday, Amanda and I had a tour of the Opera House, and walked around Sydney, souvenir shopping. We were approached by a gentleman giving us a good offer on a hair cut and color, so we randomly got our hair done. The hair turned out great, I just wish I could get it to look like it day after the salon finished with it!
Thursday was a day full of animals. We went to Tarongo zoo, which was very enjoyable! They did an excellent job on the monkey exhibits, and the views of the animals with the city in the background were spectacular! After the zoo we took a break, and road the ferry to Manly and back again. We then went to Darling Harbor and visited the Sydney Aquarium. I appreciated the aquarium because there were many fish on display that Ray and I saw on our trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at "I'm Angus" at Darling Harbor.
Friday was finally the day that we saw some sun! The rest of the days were cloudy and sometimes rainy. It was finally the perfect day to take Amanda to the coastline. We took a bus to Coogee and then did the coastal walk to Bondi Beach. This walk ended up being almost four miles long. Once in Bondi we took some pictures, had some lunch, and shopped around a little. We took a bus back to the main city, where our Ghost Tour of the rocks awaited.
The ghost tours were full of stories of hangings, murders, and deaths of people who roamed the streets many years ago. Amanda and I were entertained by the event, and tried to humor the idea of taking pictures of trees and windows to see if we saw any "strange things" or "orbes" (the tiny circles that showed up in our pictures). Of course, our mind sees what we want it to see, and in one of my pictures I decided I saw a face and Amanda decided she saw a shadow of a woman. Then we laugh.
Saturday, Ray joined us. We took it easy in the morning, but then went to the markets in the rocks and walked around visiting Lord Nelson's and souvenir shops. We walked through the botanical gardens, and listened and watched the nearby Rave party taking place. On our way back towards the Opera House from the gardens we had the entertaining opportunity to see the finalists of Australian Idol practicing for their deciding performance of the next "Australian Idol" on Sunday night (tonight actually). I was even able to get a picture with Mark Spano, the third finalist, who made the Kings of Leon, "Sex on Fire" song famous here in Australia.
We had dinner that night at an Italian restaurant in the rocks. Afterwards, we went to minus 5, a bar where the inside temperature was 10 degrees fahrenheit. They gave us jackets, and gloves before we went inside and we could only be in there for 30 minutes. Inside, the place had ice sculptures everywhere, and even our cups were made out of ice. It was an experience that made us feel at home.
We headed home afterwards, and woke up early today to go to Hillsong and head to the Parklea Markets before we had to bring Amanda to the airport.
Overall, we had a great week but I am now left almost to the point of exhaustion with a large blister on my pinkie toe from all the walking. I am finally getting into shape though. 10 mile walks will do that to you!

The Great Barrier Reef

I know there have been a few of you patiently waiting for me to post a blog about our trip to the Great Barrier Reef...I apologize that it has taken me a few days to write. We left early last Sunday morning, landing in Cairns just after 9am. We then took a 50 minute ferry ride out to the Green Island where we were staying for the four days we were up that way. Our room was very nice and cozy, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. We had beautiful weather our entire stay.

Sunday we explored the island. We were able to walk around the entire island in about 20 minutes. We then grabbed our snorkeling geer to practice for our big day on the reef. We could snorkel right off the island and see a variety of fish. The idea of snorkeling where the possibility of seeing a shark was high, I was quite nervous with the whole idea. I also have this fear of seeing the bottom of lakes, let alone the ocean! So, after several attempts to relax, I was able to enjoy myself. That evening we did a guided nature walk using our 'torch' to identify fish in the water. We saw sea turtles, and a shovelnose ray.

On monday we took another 50 minute boat ride out to the barrier reef. We were a bit disappointed with the clouds, and hoped the sky would clear up so that we could have the sunlight to take better pictures so we could see the color of the reef and the fish much better. Eventually, the sun did show itself and we had a wonderful time.

Again, after I overcame my fear of the bottom of the sea, I was able to relax and enjoy the view. The drop-offs were still a bit scary, and looking to the side and having a large fish swim in my path nearly made me leap out of the water, but I did well. Ray was proud of what I accomplished that day.

I have been trying to think of a way to describe what we saw, but words really can not describe it. There were fish of all kinds every where, big and small, dull and full of color. We saw soft reef that looked like hair blowing in the wind, and coral that looked like large bushes that lost all their leaves. Those were beige and blue in color. We saw coral that looked like yellow califlower, and huge clam shells! The water in color was absolutely amazing! The best part was when we were coming in from snorkeling and a massive fish shown at this link: http://www.johnnyjet.com/images/picforwebsiteMarch142003GreatBarrierReef245.JPG
swam underneath us. It freightened me at first, but it was so big, and green it was intriguing. They say these fish are very friendly, and that you can touch it. I saw some people trying, and I got out of the water!

Tuesday we had a relaxing day on the beach. Ray attempted to get some color, and ended up red, with blisters, and I had random people that I did not know stop me at work and wondered how I got so tan. We went snorkeling again around the island, and had the opportunity to swim with a sea turtle and watch it feed. This was one of Ray's highlights of the trip. Fish feeding was at 5pm, so we got showered and then went to watch the fish eat. We saw large Travelli waiting at the end of the dock, knowing full well what was to come. They raced each other to each raw piece of fish that was thrown into the water. This time also attracted a shark, and many reef fish, large and small. I was happy to be out of the water at this point in time.

Our tuesday evening we had an amazing dinner on the beach over candlelight, payed for with our birthday money. We had Emu steaks, and smoked Emu, smoked crocodile, beef, kangaroo, lamb, crab meat (bugs), salmon (that I swear was raw!), and octopus. There was so much food, and all we had left was a piece of beef. Everything was delicious (accept the octopus and salmon in my opinion). The evening was lovely.

Wednesday brought about the end. Each morning we enjoyed a free breakfast, so we went and took advantage of this once again on our last day. Neither of us were very hungry though after the evening prior to. Good thing too because the birds were hungry that morning, and had no problem stealing our hashbrowns and cinnamon rolls, as we sat there at the table. We headed back on the ferry at noon, and had a few hours to enjoy the city of Cairns. We bought some gifts for family and friends, and got a taxi to the airport. On the way to the airport is when it was annouced to us that Obama was our new president.

Our flight home was pleasant, except for the people behind me who had really bad body odor! I was able to take some really cool photos of Green Island from the plane as well.

Overall, we had four days of amazing adventures in which we will never forget!