I drove on the left!!

Life here in Cairns has been good to us.  We feel comfortable in our home and thankful for our surroundings.    We've been in the ocean each day, and each day the water and waves are different.  The first day the water was calm, and yesterday it was very windy and wavy!  There were tons of kite surfers and we enjoyed watching them zoom through the waves, jumping and drifting.  It looks fun, and a bit scary!

I didn't know I was in this picture. I thought Daniel 

was only snapping the plants. See the kite in the 

background? They get really far out sometimes!

Also, from the photo you  may notice the colour of the water.  Much different from the first day.  All the sand was being stirred up and the tide was super strong.  We got lots of exercise forcing ourselves back to where our towel laid on the beach.  We never go too deep, only about waist height.  (That's for the parents!)

Later that evening, Glisten's nine year old son, Harry came to stay the weekend with us.  We ordered pizza for dinner and I stayed home with Harry while Daniel and Glisten went to pick it up.  We bonded over hip hop music.  Thank goodness I'm a part time gangsta.  He's a mellow kid and we all get along well.  

When it was Harry's bedtime we all found spots on Glisten's bed while she read part of a story.  Then the adults went back into the living room and had some wine and conversation.  Daniel went for a walk with his digital recorder to capture the sounds of birds, insects, and the ocean.  It was a really great evening.

This morning I drove the four of us into town so Glisten could go to work.  Harry, Daniel and myself took a walk to the botanical gardens where we spent a couple hours being amazed by the plant life here.  Again Daniel broke out his headphones and he and Harry made music playing plant leaves and trees like bongo drums.  They were highly entertained.  When Glisten finished work and came to collect us, I drove again to the market downtown.  Our camera ran out of batteries at the gardens and Daniel's phone was low on battery as well, so we'll have to get photos for you next time.  We love the new market and we bought tons of fruits and veggies for this week's meals.  We went to a regular grocery store to pick up a few things we needed in addition to our colourful foods!  I got us home and parked safely, and Glisten says that I am a great driver and she feels very safe leaving the car with us when she visits the States in a couple weeks.  Daniel won't be doing any driving because he has a hard time remembering to look right first.  I enjoy driving and mostly where I could improve is staying closing to the centre line; I tend to swerve left a little.  

This flower is the size of my head.

This flower was pink and yellow. 

So beautiful! 

Harry took off his flip flops to put his feet in the water. 

 The colours are really amazing.

100 year old gigantic tree! 

He was so excited when he found this turtle. 

 Can you see how long the antennas are?

 These look like roses from Alice in Wonderland.

First I thought this was a butterfly. It's totally a bizarre spider! 

Something pink!

Harry playing musical plants.

This flower is at least a foot across.

We're having a nice evening, eating great healthy food and getting a lot of work done.  Today the weather was a bit cooler as well, which means so far tonight, no cockroaches in the house.  *Touch Wood*  Glisten killed three last night.  Eww!  I was pleased though, the trapping and putting outdoors wasn't working.