Adventure is Out There: Australia Style

June 25, 2014 

Man sleeping in feels good. We woke up at like 10:30 and then we watched Crossroads. We made fun of Britney Spears the whole movie. Well the part of the movie we saw anyway. Luke turned up and was pretending to slit his wrists so we turned it off and packed our stuff up and headed out with him! We went to this shopping center and I decided to wear my safari hat because Luke hated it and he grabbed it off of my head and threw it into the weeds. Kins and I had to make a human chain link so that I could reach it and grab it. Fetcher. Finally I got it and so we went inside and went to eat at Waterbar and Grill. It was this steakhouse right by the port of Cairns and it was super pretty! It was the boat marina so we had the view of all of the boats ha Luke made me order Espatada because he said it's amazing and lunch was on him. Espatada is rump steak covered in red wine and chili sauce. It came with mash. It was brilliant as! So good. After we ate we went to the tourist station in the mall and grabbed every brochure possible. Then we got in the car and headed to Josephine Falls. In the car, Luke "allowed" me to play my music. I was doing good and then I was jooooking and I played Justin Bieber. He literally grabbed my iPad and I was pretty convinced he was going to throw it out the window because of the hat incident earlier. Luckily I got it out of his hands. Then we went back to listening to rap and such. 

We drove a lot this day. 

We arrived at Josephine Falls and changed into our swimmers and walked to the falls. It was huge! It had like 4 levels of waterfalls. We walked to the bottom falls and there's a natural rock slide that you can go down. You had to swim across the river to get to the rocks to walk up and the water was ice cold. But we went down the rock slide quite a few times!! It was sweet as!! So much fun! We hiked up along the falls to the next falls :) that was as far up as you could go but it was super pretty. And slick. Ha then we hiked back down and went down the slide a few more times and then we left and headed to Mission Beach. 

Mission Beach was also pretty ha everything is pretty here. The roads are even pretty. And it's so clean! Ahhhh paradise for sure. How can a country that's so amazing have so many animals plants and insects that can kill you?! Blows my mind. Anyway, at the beach we played with a football. Luke would throw it as far as he could and we would run as fast as we could to catch it ha it took me forever to actually catch it. Half of his throws were off so it wasn't completely my fault... But I did catch it eventually! Ha we also collected seashells and we got in the water! Much warmer than the falls. And the sun was setting. It was magical. 

The wildlife here is crazy. Wild turkeys everywhere. Wild kangaroos. Some of the strangest birds I've ever seen. Reminds me of the animals on Avatar or something ha crazy. 

After we had some fun at the beach, we had to leave because we were meeting Luke's police friends in Cairns for dinner. We ran into so much road work though!! We were over an hour late for dinner. We ate at the Red Beret and it was interesting hearing all of the coppers talking ha to hear what happens in Cairns and such. Luke had to take care of a guy who had shot himself in the head the other night. Crazy! Luke also showed us a video of when he had hit a kangaroo while driving once and the roo had gone under the car and it's heart had literally left its body. And it was still beating!! He took a video! It was disgustingly cool. Ha for dinner, Luke paid for us again! He's the nicest. We got chicken Parma. It's very popular here. It's chicken with tomato sauce and ham and cheese on top. Freakin good. He also got us these lemon lime drinks. Man it was a good meal. 

After dinner we got frozen yogurt and Luke paid AGAIN. He's so good at dating, he can take two of us out at a time and we're fine. That was our favorite joke of the night. Haha the frozen yogurt I got was probably the best frozen yogurt I think I've ever had. I got original tart with those little mango popper ball things, strawberries, and crumble (cheesecake bits) and it was amazing. 

Then we headed to Mareeba which is where Luke lives. To get there we had to drive through the mountains and it was a fun drive! The stars were amazing and I kept my eyes peeled for wild Roos. Didn't see any though. It was quite a long drive and I was super keen to get there. We were staying in the police barracks with him! In my mind I pictured just beds lined up in a huge room. But come to find out, it was just a house full of coppers. When we got there, their house dog Max greeted us! Freakin cute dog. He was stoked to meet us. Jumping up and down and licking us all over ha loving us. We were staying in Boyd's room and he had a baby shrine on his wall of his little girl. So many pictures of her! We hadn't had wifi for a couple of days so we had to fix his wifi so we could tell our families that we were alive. So we did that and told them. So that was great. And then we.... SLEPT. 

June 26, 2014

We slept in! Lovin life. 

We saw wild Roos across the street from where Luke lives so that was pretty exciting! Then We headed to the Mareeba Bakery and got meat pies and a fruit pavlova. Meat pie is basically an easier to eat chicken pot pie that's full of gravy and lamb meat. A fruit pavlova is this cream that's made from egg whites and sugar or something with fruit on top. Both were DIVINE. we also got Bundaberg drinks from Coles (their supermarket) but this time we got the passion fruit one. Holy calito it was super good. We need to get them in the States. We ate them on the way to the lake. The views on the way to the lake were breathtaking. So green and so many tree! There are so many callaway crossing signs ha they are HUGE birds with like horns on their heads. They are scary looking. As we were driving to the lake, the clouds started rolling in. Lake Eacham was the lake we went to and it's a small circle lake surrounded by trees. It's incredible! It just appears out of nowhere. There's a freshwater crocodile that lives in this lake but it hangs out on one side of the lake and the people swim on the other. There are a couple docks to jump off of :) the sun was behind a bunch of clouds when we got there so I waited to jump in until it came out again because I'm a baby. Luckily it didn't take long ha so we played at the lake for a while! The water was so clear and the surroundings were amazing. It was pretty cold but you got used to it! After a bit, we got out and dried off in the sun and then the sun disappeared again so we left. That was the last time we felt the sun that day. 

We drove to the Millaa Millaa Falls. They were beautiful. It was freezing. When you get we there, you never dry. Ever. We had a blast at these falls though. We played keep away with the football and seriously Kins and I killed it. Luke didn't stand a chance. We got super muddy ha Kins and I wrestled for it way hard in the mud ha after playing for a while, we swam to the waterfall. The water was freezing. Again. So I got out and walked to the falls. I know I know. I'm a BABY. But I still went over there! And I got in with them! Ha it was sweet as underneath the falls!! A tour bus showed up while we were under there and so we were in heaps of pictures today. After we got bored underneath the falls we headed to the next falls! We drove to Ellinjaa Falls and Zillie Falls. The drives are amazing. And it was cloudy all day and it rained off and on so everything was SO green. And there were millions of cows everywhere. Ha apparently the cows here attack cars! They kick the cars and head butt them haha sketch. We drove all over the Tablelands today!! We drove through the Misty Mountains as well. Gorgeous. 

We weren't at either of those falls long. We got out of the car, walked there, took pictures, stared in amazement, and then left haha after Zillie Falls, Luke wanted to take us to Ravenshoe because they have delicious fudge and pizza but he didn't think we would get there in time. Everything closes really early here. It was 4:30pm and he was pretty sure everything closes at 5. It was 26 kilometers away. He asked if he thought we should do it and I said LETS DO IT. so we drove to Ravenshoe. We got stopped a few time due to road works but we got there at 4:55 and the place was open! It was open til 7:30 but still... We made it!! So we got meat lovers pizza and we got mint chocolate fudge, cookies n cream fudge, and maltesar fudge. They were all super good! Worth the drive for sure. I liked it so much I bought more before we left. I got cookies n cream, chocolate, and flake (white chocolate mixed with Cadbury milk chocolate). The lady wouldn't let us sit in their cafe because our bottoms were wet and she had fabric chairs so we ate the pizza in the car on the way back to Mareeba ha it was super messy pizza. Luke basically dropped it all on himself. We all had it all over our faces and hands and arms and stomachs but no napkins so we just embraced it until we got home ha 

When we got back, Max was stoked. He was waiting eagerly by the gate. He attacked me and licked all of the pizza off of me! So I was clean. I went inside and set all of my stuff down and then I went outside and played with Max for a while. He definitely has a future in being a copper. I was full on sprinting and he would catch me by my arm and stop me. It was unreal! Ha Luke was leaving to play tennis so we had the barracks to ourselves! I took the most amazingly warm shower ever. I had been cold literally all day and so it was amazing. Then Kins and I watched Friends and this weird show about stay at home moms vs working moms and then the Ellen Show :) we wanted to watch a movie but didn't know how to work the system so we ended up listening to the menu music until Luke got home haha we also tried Bundaberg Sarsaparilla and it tasted kinda like root beer but different somehow. It's like one of the drinks in Australia that people here love and they HATE root beer. Hate it. They hate things with too much sugar. I guess I'm truly American. We love our sugar. Ha 

When Luke got home, we watched Zero Dark Thirty. I was curious. I know it's rated R... But it's a part of our history. There. That's me justifying it. Heaps of F words but it was actually super interesting to see how it all went down. Then.... SLEEP. 

June 27, 2014

We had to get up early because we had to drive to Palm Cove so Luke could go golfing with his copper friends so we didn't get much sleep that night ha we started our drive and in the middle of the drive, Luke all of the sudden says, we're making great time, and veers to the right! He took us to another waterfall :) this one was called Barron Falls. We had to walk a little but more to get to this one but the "hike" was beautiful! I felt like I was legitimately in Tarzan. There were vines everywhere and huuuuge trees. Then the trees thinned and we walked out onto a platform and saw the falls. It was amazing!! It's even hard to explain! But I'll try. Ha so picture a huuuuuuge gray rock cliff with rocks coming out of everywhere and there's a pond at the top with a pretty small coming over the top of the cliff, and there's another one falling off of the side. Both are creating mini ponds in the cliff. From those mini ponds, there are tiny waterfalls going off of those and creating other mini ponds, all the way down the cliff. And the cliff is surrounded by trees. It was unreal for sure. Australia is so pretty, I can't get over it. 

After Barron Falls, we went to McDonalds and got brekkie. Bacon, egg, and tomato wrap and chocolate milk. I don't know if they have that in the States McD's but it's super good! Then we picked up some of Luke's copper friends and dropped them off at the golf course and then Luke drove us to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure Farm. Then he headed back to the golf course. This croc farm was pretty pricey to get in to. $35. At least I felt like it was pricey ha the lady at the desk laid out our day for us! It was awesome! She told us what time we should be and where and she even scheduled a lunch break. 

Our first stop was the farm tour. We saw where they breed crocs and we learned that when the eggs are left by the mother croc, the trainers take the eggs and they can choose the gender of the egg by putting it under a certain temperature! Crazy right?! After the farm tour we went over to the crocodile feeding. On our way we learned what the difference is between fresh water crocs and salt water crocs and crocodiles and alligators from one of the workers named Damian. Something about glands... Ha then we went and sat front row at the croc feeding. The trainer showed up and introduced us to Spartacus. He was seriously the biggest crocodile I've ever seen. He was HUGE. The trainer had him jump up out of the water to get part of a dead chicken hanging from a stick and I couldn't believe how high he jumped. We saw some crocs fight and we heard the sound of a bite from a croc. Their jaw claps together and it sounds very hollow and it's loud. Crocs are pretty terrifying creatures! 

After we watched the feeding, it was time for our boat ride. When we got over there, we saw that Damian was one of our drivers! And Duncan was the other one. Damian told us to sit up front because it's the best seat. And he loved us. Anyway, Duncan is one of those people who pushes jokes too far. Oh and he's definitely one of those Australians from the outback. They call these people bogan (boh-gan). It's their form of hillbilly. He said crikey! A lot. He made fun of us for being American for the lot of the boat ride. On the boat ride, we saw the crocs jump up out of the water right next to us! And we learned that they sit with their mouths open when they are too cold or too hot. Something about glands again. After the boat ride was over, Duncan asked everyone on the boat who was petrified of snakes. I was right up front and I immediately turned my head to look out the window and in the process my arm moved. He noticed. And he called me out. He asked me what my name was and he said, Lindsay you will be my volunteer in the snake show at 2. You better be there. I said oh I will be, super sarcastically I might add. And then we got off. 

After our boat ride, it was time for our scheduled lunch break. We went and looked at the food and while we were looking, Damian happened to be in line. He told us we had to try crocodile and I told him I had tried it before and it was super chewy and he said that they cook it differently but he wasn't the right person to ask because he will eat basically everything. And so I responded with, would you eat her? And I pointed at Kins. I meant it as would you eat human, just being stupid. But he took it the dirty way so he laughed and said I'm not allowed to answer that while I'm at work. I knew he would take it that way the second it came out of my mouth! So awkies. 

We decided the food was far too expensive and the portions weren't big enough so we skipped out on lunch and walked around. We had to waste like an hour and a half before the next show so we walked as slow as we could through the birds and the reptiles and the kangaroos and the quolls but we were done at 1 and we still had an hour! So we started towards the amphitheater so we could get good seats. On our way there, we met a father and his two daughters and they were from Sydney. They told us all about this island that they went to and the wildlife they saw and they asked if I was ready to be volunteered ha I thought that Duncan wouldn't remember and he would forget my name and we sat somewhere that I didn't think he would notice us but when the snake show was starting, he walked up and immediately saw me and yelled my name out haha 

So the show started and I was anxious the whole time. He brought out a couple of snakes and taught us about them and then he brought the most poisonous snake out and we learned about that and then he said, alright Lindsay come on down! He said it just like the Price is Right. All eyes were immediately on me. So I walked down and he said the show is the best when he has people who are terrified of snakes volunteer. I was literally shaking. I HATE snakes. At first, he just showed everyone how to bandage a snake bite and he used my arm to demonstrate it. So in my mind I was like, oh that's all he's gonna do I'll be fine. But then he took the bandage off and said I Lindsay. Stick your arms out and be a tree and close your eyes. My heart immediately dropped. 

Right when I close my eyes I hear the crowd gasp. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh it must be huge. Then I feel this giant, heavy snake hit my neck. I immediately cringed. He wrapped it around my neck like a scarf. Then he says open your eyes and the snakes head was right by my ear. It kept going from one ear to the other right by my neck. It grazed my neck every time it moved. Ugh just thinking about it makes me cringe. Then it decided to go up under my arm and stare at me for a bit. The whole time, Duncan is telling the audience about the python but I honestly didn't hear any of it. I swear the snake was on me for like an hour. It was probably only like 3 minutes tops. Haha then he took the snake off and the audience clapped for me and then I went back to my seat. Blah I hated that. 

After the show ended, people kept coming up to me and telling me how brave I had been haha so we stayed there because the next show was starting soon and we really wanted to watch it. It was the crocodile attack show!  So these two trainers show up, barefoot, and they start the show. There's a giant croc in the enclosure and they have to lure it away from the door so that one of the trainers can go into the enclosure. They had a little gated off area for him to go to while in the enclosure. They had the croc snap his jaw together for us and jump up out of the water and then the other trainer came in and the croc thought the rope he had was food so the croc latched on to the rope and they showed us the death roll that crocs do when they have something in their mouth. It was pretty cool. But freakin scary! I couldn't imagine that happening in real life to a human. It was a cool show! Luke showed up in the middle of it to get us. He got in for free because he's a copper. Lucky guy. 

After the show, we left and went to Port Douglas. We got there at 4:30 and dinner doesn't start at restaurants until 5 so we walked around the beach and then went to the shops. I ended up buying an opal necklace! It's beautiful! Gosh I love opal. I decided not to get a ring because I want my wedding ring to be opal so I didn't want to buy my own! Ha not planning on getting married any time soon! But yeah. There's that. Finally it was 5 and we went to dinner at this bar. I got chicken Parma again. We were starved!! We hadn't eaten since Macker's! We also got the lemon lime bitters again. Super good. I downed mine. We ate in a really cool place! You could tell people that lived there were loaded. There were colorful lights everywhere and we ate on couches! Good times. After we ate, we went to an overlook and watched the sun set and then we got ice cream! Cookies n cream. My go to. Mmmmm. 

Then we drove back to Mareeba! I had a migraine due to dehydration so that wasn't ideal. But I was trying to be a team player! Ha when we got to Luke's house, we got all dressed in our PJs and then Luke was like I have an idea!! And he wouldn't tell us what we were doing. He got hot chocolate, Tim tams, and cups though. So we all got in the car and he just drove. As he was driving, Luke and I saw a meteor! I thought it was a firework because it wasnt huge but Luke said no one does fireworks right now. It was brilliant as!!! We went up this canyon place and then he pulled off at this table and we got out and had Tim tam slams and hot chocolate while star gazing. The stars here are AMAZINGLY INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL. you can see the full Milky Way. We saw heaps of shooting stars as well. It was such a blast!! The Australian dream for real. Luke is good at what he does. 

Then on the way home, Luke took us to this place where wild Roos usually hang out and we parked and put our brights on them and watched them stare at us ha they are just like deer here. Then when we were about to leave, two of the Roos started full on fist fighting!! It was awesome!!! One even got up on his tail and kicked the other one! It was like a movie haha then we went home and watched Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I passed out and only woke up to go to the room we were staying in. 

June 28, 2014

I was up at 9:30. Makes sense though. I got like twelve hours of sleep. So I FaceTimed my mom for a while and then I FaceTimed Jeff Boyardee. Then at like 1:30 I went into Luke's room because I felt like I was fasting I was so hungry. So he drove us to the grocery store and we bought stuff to make nachos. And Luke bought some kangaroo meat for us to try ha I got Bundaberg drinks again. I think I'm addicted. They are so good!!! After shopping, we went back and made nachos and watched Ender's Game and then we decided we were gonna go to the drive in that night and Luke said he found a ute (a truck) for us to use to we went to pick it up. We thought he was borrowing it from his friend but he straight up rented a ute. Gosh he's the best! When we picked it up, I got to drive his car home!! My first experience driving on the other side of the road. It was fun!! And I did pretty well if I do say so myself. When we got back we watched this show called Raising Hope. It's the weirdest, dumbest show ever. But it's strangely addicting. After watching a few episodes, Luke was hungry again so he had Kins drive us to Subway. She seriously almost killed us. He told her to turn right and she went to turn left so that we were on the right side of the road and then she panicked and swerved to have us going the other way on the right side of the road, where cars were coming towards us. Luke grabbed the steering wheel and swerved us in to the proper lane. Then she kept driving and she almost hit a parked car because she's on the other side of the car so she didn't see how close we were! We made it safely to Subway. Luckily. It was a close call though. 

After Subway, Luke drove us home. Then we watched more of Raising Hope and we made Fhazookie! Luke had never had it! Then it was time to go to the drive in. So we got the twin mattress and heaps of blankets and put the mattress in the back of the ute and the three of us squished into the cab with all of the blankets. I was in charge of shifting the gears for Luke because it was on the floor between my legs and he couldn't reach ha we got there though!! We set ourselves up and Kins and I were on the mattress and we set Luke up a nice padded bed and then we got comfortable and watched the stars while we waited for Captain America 2 to start. 

When the movie was almost over, Luke leans over and asks Kins if she turned the oven off after making the Fhazookie. She forgot so we had to leave. I've never seen us move so quickly. The drive home was silent and Luke was definitely speeding. We got there in a good amount of time and then Luke ran inside to check everything. It was good. Then we got all situated and we watched more of Raising Hope until the wee hours of the morning. Aka 2am. 

June 29, 2014

I was up again at 9:30 and everyone was still passed out so I showered and then everyone else got up and while Kins showered, Luke and I went to drop the ute off. I got to drive his car again! I enjoy it thoroughly. When we got back, we packed our stuff up and said goodbye to Max and hit the road. We stopped at a little Japanese cafe before church so we could eat. Gyoza! It's much better homemade but it was still good :) then we headed to church. My mozzie bites from the drive in were just showing themselves I guess because they all got so itchy before church!! 

We went to church in Cairns because it was our last day with Luke so he had to give us over to Caitlin. Yeah we're five years old. Church was in this tiny building where the building ran around a little field that was surrounded by Palm trees. It was a beautiful little building. There were like ten rooms total in the building. Crazy small numbers as well. Pretty foreign to me. It's nothing like Utah ha there was this guy named John in the YSA Sunday School class and Luke and I were pretty sure he was looking up porn during class. He turned his body so no one could see his iPad and he was super absorbed in it. He was pretty jumpy too. Whenever someone would say his name he would quickly close whatever he was doing and close his iPad and then he would pay attention. Weird. 

They talk about Utah here like it's the capital for Mormons. They refer to Salt Lake when they talk about going to the States in church. It's funny. After church we left with Luke and he took us to Palm Cove while Caitlin went to a baptism. We went and sat on the side of the pier while we watched the sunset! It was pretty romantic. It was so much fun!! We just talked. Again Australia is incredible. After the sun set we headed to Caitlin's and all of the YSA members came over and she made us all pasta!! 

The YSA members are sweet azz here!!!! We met Denise, Eden, Christine, Jared, Thomas, Shanice, McKayla, and Taz and his little brother. Taz's little brother was in awe about the States. He asked us if we had amusement parks, the Air Force, and beaches. Haha Eden and McKayla sang and played the guitar for us and they were freakin good!! It was so fun getting to know them. They thought we were great ha they refer to us as The Americans. I don't think some of them remember our names. Ha they were there for a while and then some of them left. Denise stayed for a bit and we talked about maybe going to the Whitsundays for a three day camping trip! She said she would see if she could make it happen! I was stoked. When they left we finished Crossroads and then watched 27 Dresses and then went to bed because we had to get up early! 

June 30, 2014

We had to be up at 7 so Caitlin could drive us to the Reef Fleet Terminal so we could get on the Tusa cruise ship for our day trip!! When we got on they gave us seasick pills, which I was VERY glad for later on, and we sat down in the parlor for the briefing. They asked me for me dive card and I totally forgot it so I made up my dive number haha shhhhh don't tell them. Once the ship started moving, they had the certified divers meet upstairs in the captains deck and they split us up into diving groups. We were with Alise and two guys from England and a brother and sister from Sydney. The ride out to the reef wasn't too bumpy, we made pretty good time. The captain talked to us the whole way out there. Ha when we were five minutes from stopping, they sent us downstairs to the deck to get ready. 

We got our wetsuits on and we got our gear all set up and ready. We did our buddy checks and everything. Then it was time! We went one by one down to the diving deck and they put our fins on and we did a big step entrance into the ocean. Somehow from the time we did our buddy checks to the time I was in the water, my air had been turned off. My BCD wasn't working! I was so confused. Alise swam over to me and asked me what the problem was and I told her my BCD wasn't working. She checked and told me my air was off. She asked us when the last time we went diving was and we said we had only done our class haha it was pretty embarrassing. I still don't know how my air got turned off. So then we followed the anchor rope down to the Great Barrier Reef. 

It was seriously unbelievable down there. So beautiful!!!!! The coral was amazing, the fish were all sorts of colors, we saw two sharks, three seaturtles, Nemo, schools of fish, sea slugs, clams, oh man it was amazing. During all of the dives, the stupid sister and brother from Sydney were EVERYWHERE under the water. They would just appear in front of you or under you and they kicked me in the face constantly! Man I was gonna kill them! In between our first two dives, they gave us fruit and we got to know the two English guys in our group. Their names were Rich and Dave! They're going to Thailand at the same time as us! Then we did our second dive. During the second dive, my ear would NOT pop!! Ahhh it hurt so bad! Alise kept on getting mad at me for not going all the way down with the rest of the group but my ear felt like it was gonna explode. Ha finally it popped and I could go down. Kins ran out of air before I did so Alise sent her up to the boat. But I didn't know what was happening because we were under water ha Alise did the buddy sign to me and I thought she meant follow my buddy! But she was trying to tell me that she was my new buddy ha Alise basically hated me underwater. But every time we were on the boat she was so nice to me! Ha 

After the second dive, we switched locations. Still the Great Barrier Reef but just a different part! We also got lunch! Ham and cheese sandwiches and a whole bunch of different kinds of salad. We only paid for two dives so when the boat stopped, we went to the snorkeling briefing. We were kinda disappointed because we really wanted to dive! And snorkeling sounded way dumb. But while we were listening, Alise came up and asked what we were doing. We told her we only paid for two dives and she said, well lucky for you the third dive is free!! We were stoked. Ha on the third dive, Dave and Rich kept taking pictures with us under water ha I offered to take a picture of them together and while I was taking it, I floated to the top on accident. Alise got mad at me again. Haha and when we saw a sea turtle, the current kept pushing me towards it and apparently it looked like I was swimming towards it and so she grabbed my fun and pulled me back and wagged her finger at me. I was like, fetch! I didn't mean to! Goodness! Ha 

After the third dive, we took quick hot showers and then went to the bow and laid in the sun to dry off. The wind was bad that day but in the bow, the boat was blocking the wind so we were just basking in the sun and we fell asleep. The boat started moving and so the shade hit us and we immediately woke up. It was frigid. Ha so we moved to the captains deck while the boat was moving. It was the hardest thing. People asked us if we had been drinking. The waves were AWFUL. The boat was rocking so bad! I fell up the stairs. We ended up falling on the couch in the captains deck. It was hilarious. Haha we sat there for a while and I started feeling so seasick. I could feel the lunch we had right in my throat. Blah I hated it. So we moved to where the fresh air was and I just focused on breathing. Dave and Rich came up and started talking to us. They were trying to "pick us up" and it was hilarious. They were trying to be all smooth, saying stuff like "tonight we want to buy you guys a few drinks" "the clubs here let you dance on top of tables" "come back to our hostel with us" blah blah blah. Haha we were like yeahhhhh ok...... Then Alise came up and wanted us to get our dive logs so she could stamp them for us. So we filled out all of our information in the parlor and it smelled like urine. Apparently another girl on the boat was completely seasick and was puking everything. I thought I would lose it then. Blah. The smells. The tossing. The turning. Oh man. But after we filled out our dive log, I went back upstairs and we talked to this lady from Sydney until we got to shore! And I didn't vomit. Go me :) 

We got off and Dave and Rich caught up to us and got our numbers and added us on Facebook so they could contact us about hanging out and we called Luke on their phone ha then they left and we went and I bought some patches and we bought our matching bracelets and then Luke came and picked us up! We went to dinner at this little Italian place in by the movie theater and I got tortellini and Bolognese sauce. Yeah Italian food is better in Italy. That's for sure. After dinner, we went and got that life changing snow yogurt again (frozen yogurt). So good. Then Luke took us back to Caitlin's. I showered. Best shower ever. Then we chatted with Luke for a while and then he went to go play basketball and we watched What Happens in Vegas. I fell asleep real quick even though that's one of my favorite movies. 

July 1, 2014

We slept in. Because we had absolutely no plans. 

JJ took us to rent bikes! Now we had a way to get around on our own! Then JJ left us and gave us a phone and told us to get a SIM card at a petrol station so they could call us when they needed us. So we took our bikes to the first petrol station we could find and we got ourselves a SIM card! Man we are totally Australian now. We have our own number and everything. Killin it. Then we wanted to plan the rest of our time here so we needed to find wifi. So we went back to that Italian place/movie theater and we locked our bikes up and we turned away to walk in and we hear our bikes fall behind us. It was like a movie. Haha hard to explain over text. Ha so we put them back up and walked inside and there were two movie theater seats just randomly out in the lobby of the movie theater so we sat in them and used up their wifi. 

It was so productive!! We booked tickets to bungy jump, go to the circus, looked up the rodeo, realized the Whitsundays were like ten hours away so while we were looking up stuff to do we found Cape Tribulation. We found that we could hike, go zip lining, go to the beach, camp, and it was only two and a half hours away! So we sent Denise a message saying that we should go there instead of the Whitsundays. Hopefully she agrees to go! I also got to talk to Jeffrey and Tray! It's always a good day when I can do that :) after we got all of our tickets sorted out, we left and took our bikes to Macker's to eat! We watched a girl play the violin on the corner while we ate :) then we went for a bike ride along the coast and it was fun! We saw the mud beaches, the volleyball courts, the tennis courts, the Espanades, the Botanical Gardens, and eventually we found Caitlin's apartment again! We locked our bikes up and then we ate cereal and watched the France vs Nigeria game and then we had a girls night with Shanice, Caitlin and JJ's roommate. We watched The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days! It was a good night! Then sleep. 

July 2, 2014 

Slept in. Again. Because we couldn't think of anything to do for today. Ha it's so fun being in a different country for so long because you get immersed in the culture but there are definitely some down days. For today we planned to have a pool day. So we woke up and had cereal and then Caitlin wanted us to go see their new house so she drove us and Shanice there. On the way, she stopped at a supermarket and while she was in there, we blasted music and sat in the car ha then we went to their house and looked around and then we got some groceries and then we went to the pool. 

We played cards by the pool and then took naps while laying out. It was very relaxing! Then we had nachos and we introduced Shanice and Caitlin to Fhazookies. They love them!! They are good all over the world. Then we watched She's the Man and then Catch and Release and The Lion King. We watch a lot of movies at night because we promised Luke we wouldn't go out at night by ourselves. We are in a pretty sketchy part of Cairns apparently. But we are in a gated apartment community so we're great! We just can't go out. Ha so after 6pm, we are stuck in Caitlin's apartment. But it's all good :) 

July 3, 2014

The couches we are sleeping on are awful azz. They are like 4 inches shorter than us when we're laying down. You have to lay diagonally in order to fit, uncomfortably. So Kins and I wake up every hour in order to resituate ourselves. My back is basically broken ha its been destroyed sleeping on these couches. Every morning I can barely stand up and then my entire body cracks a million times just to get back into its proper place. 

Anyway, we got up and got ready and ate Nesquik cereal and then rode our bikes to the Rainbow Inn, where AJ Hackett bungy jumping would pick us up. When we scheduled it, the lady was like BE THERE AT ELEVEN A.M. Don't be late! So we got there at 10:55am just for good measure. We sat out front on Sheridan Street waiting. We locked our bikes up in the bushes to a pole. At 11:20am, I finally went to the receptionist at Rainbow Inn and asked if there was a phone we could use to call AJ Hackett and see if they forgot about it and I told her I would use my phone but it only works on wifi. So she just gave me a piece of paper with the wifi password on it and said here. Ha she obviously didn't want me to use their phone. So as I was about to message Caitlin and tell her that they hadn't come yet, they pulled up in their bus! Great timing. Ha 

On the bus, we filled out waivers and then we just talked with these two girls from Scotland until we got there. When we got there, we had the option of paying for pictures or not and of course we got pictures and then they weigh you and write it on your hand and then you can climb the millions of stairs to the jumping tower. It had started to rain when we got there but the location we were at was beautiful!! Especially during the rain. So it didn't bother us :) on the walk up the stairs, we started getting nervous. At the top, we got our harnesses on and there was only one or two people in front of us so we got to go pretty quick once we got up there. They called Kinsey's name first so she went into the gated area and they got her all ready and attached her to the bungy and then they have you shuffle over to the edge and they grab the back of your harness and tell you to hang your toes over the edge and the bungy is hanging down and it feels like it's gonna drag you over the side. So Kinsey gets up there and you can tell she's nervous azz. The man told her to smile at the camera and then when you feel your feet leaving the ground, you have to jump out as far as you can and swan dive out. Well Kins was nervous so she just kinda fell forward off of the tower hahahahaha I was dying!! In her pictures she looks completely terrified. It's hilarious hahaha I heard her scream but I didn't see her dive at all. All of the sudden it was my turn!! I actually wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be! They got me all set up and told me to smile at the camera and then I hung my toes off the edge and as my feet started slipping, I dove. It was exhilarating!! My dive was perfect! You'll see the pictures. It was amazing! Ha I was proud of myself. I wanted to touch the water when I dove but I didn't weigh enough to make it! I tried so hard to reach it but I wasn't even close! But oh boy was it fun!! We had the greatest experience! There's a man in a raft waiting for you in the pond after you're done diving and you have to grab onto his oar and he gets you out of your harness and everything. The blood had rushed to my head so it took me a second to hear what he was saying haha 

After I was off, we ran to look at our pictures and then we were like, heck lets freakin do it again! So we asked the workers what their favorite jump was and they said jumping off the roof is the best by far so we paid for that! But because it had rained, we needed to wait for it to dry. So while we were waiting, we did the Minjin Swing twice. The Minjin Swing is like the Sky Coaster swing at Lagoon but in the rainforest and looking over Cairns. A much cooler sight :) ha a Minjin is apparently an animal that used to kill the Aboriginals way back when. Fun fact I learned while the man was putting on my harness. On our first swing, I got to be the one to pull the rope to let us go at the top! On our way up, we were waving at some humans that were on the stairs leading to the bungy tower and while we were waving, the swing stopped and it scared the crap out of me haha I yelled out oh fetch!!! And then we had to wait for the light to turn green and when it did, I pulled the rope. It was awesome!!!! After our first swing, the worker dude was like do you want to go again for only AUD$30? We were like, sure why not! Ha so Kins got to pull the rope this time! It was so much fun!! Then we went inside and we had to wait another 45 minutes until we could go jump off of the roof so we just hung out on their wifi. I FaceTimed Jeffrey and showed him around the bungy jumping place and told him all about our jump ha I had heaps of adrenaline haha I just had to tell someone!! 

After 45 minutes, the lady told us to head up to the roof!!! So we had to climb the stupid stairs again and when we got up to the tower, there were like 5 people in front of us so we had to just chill for a bit. While we were waiting, I started getting butterflies. The girl that went right before us was hilarious though. She was TERRIFIED. She wouldn't go! It took her forever to jump. She fell off just like Kins did ha then it was my turn. I got my harness on and then we had to climb a ladder to the roof. Kins had to wait at the tower while I went. So I got up there and the guy got me all attached and stuff and then he had me climb up onto this ramp and I had to stand on the white X at the top and then he said, I'm expecting great things. And then he started counting down from 5. At 1, I started running like I was being chased. I ran right off the roof. It was INSANE!!! I can see why that is the favorite. It was incredible!!!!!! Oh man. I felt like an adrenaline junkie. I just wanted to keep jumping!!! Kins said it was cool to hear me running on the roof and then see me jump off ha it was awesome seeing it from the ground! Seeing her just run off the roof haha it was the best!! After Kins was done, we went and watched our videos that they film of us jumping and it was brilliant azz! I called Jeff back because I had to tell someone again! Ha I wanted to show him my video so I asked the lady to play it again and I started showing him and the lady FREAKED. Ha she was like NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES! You can't record that!! I was like I'm not... It's FaceTime. Ha she was like it doesn't matter!! Put it away!! Freak ha I already bought the pictures and videos! Goodness gracious lady! So he didn't get to see it. But it's awesome. If you're lucky, I'll show you when I get back. :) 

So we had to pay for the last of our pictures and we got our shirts and certificates for jumping and our USBs and then the bus driver took us back to the Rainbow Inn. I ended up not paying for the second Minjin Swing ha they must have forgotten and I definitely forgot because I was so stoked about what I had just done! So... Free swing for me! Ha I gave them a lot of money that day... They owed it to me :) ha on the bus ride back, we learned about how AJ Hackett is living the dream. He bungy jumped from the Eiffel Tower and got arrested by the French police and then was deported and then he married a French woman and they let him back in the country because he paid four million Australian dollars to help them fix up some iconic landmark. Ha 

After he dropped us off, we headed back to Caitlin's. On our way back, we stopped and got groceries and picked up more Bundaberg drinks. We are trying every flavor. They are all so good!! We got guava and peachee this time. Mmmm so good. I'll miss those drinks. Then we got to Caitlin's and made nachos. They were so good. I was starving. After we ate, Kins and I had a way good talk! Just about life and everything in it. Then we showered and went to institute! JJ taught institute and Eden was there. We found out that on Sunday she had so much fun at Caitlin's with all of us that she decided to get baptized!! So she is getting baptized July 20th!! Super cool. The church is true guys! Even in Australia! Crazy right?? Ha 

After institute, we went and picked up some pizzas and took them to Denise's house. We all just ate pizza, watched YouTube videos (they had the lovely pleasure of seeing my video of me falling out of the tree, so it has now gone worldwide), and Eden and JJ sang for us and played the guitar. Then we peaced out. It was kinda an awkward night ha some of the YSA members are strange. John, the dude that was watching porn in Sunday School was there and he kept showing us memes. Then Tyra announced that one of the other girls had attended anger management classes so that was awkward. Ha it was a weird night. Ha then we came home and went to bed on the stupid couches! Ha 

July 4, 2014

This is the holiday I'm the most sad about missing. Man. I love the Fourth of July. Fireworks. BBQs. Red white and blue. Ah man. It's the best. 

The most patriotic shirt I brought was a black Cali tank. And that's just because it has red and white on it and a star. Man I suck. But I wore it! Cuz I wanted to represent. We had chocolate pancakes with yogurt on top. They were veeeeery rich. Then Kins and I got ready and we took our bikes to the Rainbow Inn. I finally got to FaceTime my dear mother. And then Jeff called! But I had to cut our conversation short because we had a circus to go to! 

So we rode our bikes a little bit further down the road and locked them up and walked across the street to the Stardust circus. When we got there we showed them our voucher online and they had one of the workers take us to our seat. He said no pictures before he left and then he walked away. But that's what I do! I take pictures!! So of course, I snuck a couple. Took one of us. Took one of the ring. Then I was stupid and greedy and tried to take one of the lions and one of the workers from across the ring saw me so he comes marching over to us and I had stashed my phone away and started putting Chapstick on. He starts getting mad. "I saw you take a picture. If you don't delete it it will be a $1,500 fine. That's copyright infringement. Show me your phone!" I was like, yeah I took a picture of us. And he said, show me. So I got it out and showed him and then he said, next one. So I slid it over and it was a picture of all of the people in front of me and the lion. So I say, yeah I took a picture of those people. Haha and he says, delete it. And walks off. Well jokes on him. I kept the darn thing!! Copyright infringement of what? Haha who on earth would want to copy anything that they had?? How can they copyright a lion? Yeah I'm gonna go make my own lion that looks just like theirs!! Ridiculous. For real. Haha 

The whole time, we made fun of the circus. Circuses in the States are MUCH better than circuses here. Although they had monkeys in theirs. And that was adorable. They had horses perform, monkeys, dogs, acrobats, pigs, more acrobats and more acrobats!! Some juggled, some did tricks on the ground, others did tricks in the air! The acrobats were pretty cool. At intermission, we went to the bathroom and took a picture outside, but we weren't even sure we could do that! 

After the circus we got our bikes and went to Mackers because we are being cheap with food! We ate it on a bench at the fake beach and while we were sitting there, we witnessed this Asian couple, about 60 years old, taking pictures of each other in karate poses. Just reading about it isn't very funny but seeing it was PRIME. Oh man. They were running all over the fake beach taking these pictures. The wife would take one of the husband and then they would get together and look at it and then the husband would go to take one of the wife but she apparently was doing it wrong because he would then show her how to do it and she would mimick him and then he would take it and they would get together and look at it. Over and over and over again!! Haha they started walking away and we decided to follow them. But they were quick! We threw our trash away and in that moment, we lost them. They probably knew we were following them. 

So then we just started walking and we happened upon this soccer game where everyone was in a giant bubble while they were playing. We asked what was going on and the guy said they were prepping for the ukulele festival going on the next day! So we decided we would attend that festival. Then we headed back to our bikes and took off to Caitlin's because it was getting dark. 

When we got to Caitlin's, we chilled for a bit and then went to sports night with the YSA. It was at the Esplanade, by the fake beach and skate park, and we played sand volleyball! It was a blast!! We had people from so many countries there! Australia (of course), New Zealand, Germany, France, and of course America! I felt like I was representing my country while I was playing. It was heaps of fun! We played until the lights turned off. At one point the ball went down to the mud beach and I went to get it and the Aussies yelled, watch for crocs! It was very dark and creepy down there. The crocs sit in the water and wait for people to walk by and they'll come out and drag you into the water! Sketch. But.... I lived :) so we're good! 

After volleyball, we went to the Mitchell's. Shanice was house sitting so she invited us and Kobe to join her. We got to sleep in a bed!! It was a miracle!! When we got there, Kobe made quiche. It was like 12:30 when she started and I was exhausted so I just went to bed. But the sand from the volleyball was making me so itchy so I had to shower!! The Mitchell's are renovating their house so the only bathroom that was working was the master bathroom and they don't have doors! Like legitimately the toilet and shower are open for the world. You walk into the room and you could see someone doing their business and showering. And their master bedroom isn't being renovated!! It's just like that! When we went into the shower, there was a cockroach. Kins killed it. Then I could shower ha then I went and laid down and I was so awake! So I just laid there because I just really wasn't feeling being social haha didn't fall asleep until 3 and then my body woke me up at 7! What the crap body! You're in a nice bed and you aren't even taking advantage of it! I was upset. Ha 

July 5, 2014

So I was up at 7. Laid awake until 8:30. And then I was up at 10:30. Greeeeat. I wanted to get up so I could FaceTime Jeff and watch the fireworks for the Fourth of July! But he was eating and it took forever to get their check so he missed them. So therefore we missed them. Unfortunate. But eh. Wouldn't have been the same anyway! 

At noon, Shanice dropped us off at the Esplanade and went to babysit with Kobe. They wanted us to go with them ha we were like, strong no. We'll go be hippies. Ha so we got some cash out of the ATM and went to the ukulele festival. We walked through the markets first and it was all hippie stuff. Ha hair wraps, dreadlocks, tie dye clothes, all natural soap stuff, stuff like that. Ha I ended up getting a hair wrap! I love it. It has a metal feather on the end. I felt like I fit in the second I got it. The girl that put it in was a straight up hippie. No bra. Homemade dress. Terrible BO. Hairy legs. Hairy pits. No shoes. Dreadlocks. So we kept walking through the markets and then headed to the stage for the Uke fest. We sat in the grass and listened to the ukulele groups perform. Australia has ukulele bands that travel around Australia performing! So they were all there. There were kid bands, adult bands, mixtures of both. There were people from Hawaii performing as well! It was so relaxing just laying there sunbathing and listening to the ukuleles. 

We took a break from the music and went and got smoothies. Amazingly delicious smoothies. Mango passion fruit. Sweet azz. Mmmm. Then we went back and listened some more. We sat next to this Aboriginal lady and she was awesome. She kept randomly shouting out, pretending to play the ukulele, talking to herself, and she was just in her own world. Then this old man went up to her and gave her a spinning wheel made of leaves and walked off. She really didn't want it but she was so torn! At first she sat there holding it with an angry look on her face (I wish you could see how she looked haha) she looked like a little kid that had to sit through the most boring thing ever and she was mad about it. She was slumped over and the spinning wheel was in her hand and it was slumped over behind her. Man it was hilarious!! Then she threw it to the ground and left it there for a little bit. But you could see the turmoil in her face and eventually she decided to pick it back up again and hold it and she held it the same way as before. Haha I was dying watching her. Then she hung it around her neck and sat there for a little bit and then she gathered all of her stuff and left and it fell off in the process. We wanted to follow her but we thought she would definitely notice haha 

The people there were amazing. We were surrounded by hippies. And literally everyone had a ukulele. We felt way dumb for not having one. Ha we were there for five hours. At 5 we left and went to Mackers. On our way over there, we ran into a man that had a telescope and it was fixed on an owl that was up in the trees! He let us look through his telescope. Super cool. Then we ran into a couple from New York and the wife told us all about Thailand. She said we can get any kind of hooker we want! How lucky are we?? We could get men dressed like women, women dressed like men, women, men, anything! Haha the whole time we were just nodding and laughing but we just wanted her to stop telling us about what we could have in Thailand. Ha don't worry mom, we won't get any sort of hooker. :) 

After we got Mackers, we walked down the coast a ways and then parked it on a bench and ate. Then we headed towards the skate park because the YSA was meeting for a BBQ. When we first got there, only creepy John was there with his cousin so we waited off to the side for Caitlin to show up. Then Christine showed up and she was "having a moment" so she went down to the beach and she was mad because she was throwing her arms down in a fit. So we walked down there to talk to her and she told us that her and John had dated but they had broken up but earlier that day they had kissed and she didn't know what it meant so she was upset. We talked for a bit but then went back up. Finally, people started showing up and we headed to the volleyball courts but they were packed with people so we weren't able to play. But the food was ready pretty quick so we had sausages. American hot dogs are wayyyyyy better than the stuff they have here. Haha after we ate, Caitlin got the cake out and put sparklers in it. But she forgot a lighter so we had to go around asking everyone at the park if they had a lighter ha eventually we found one and they lit the sparklers up. Kins and I stole one so we could celebrate the Fourth with some form of fireworks ha then we ate cake and went back to the volleyball courts. While we were waiting for one of the courts, Kins and I talked with Thomas. He's awesome! He's from New Zealand and he is a pretty cool guy. Finally we got one of the courts. But man volleyball just was not fun that night. Everyone we were playing with was hysterically laughing THE WHOLE TIME. Kins and I just kept looking at each other like what the freak is so funny? We were pretty over it. We wanted to leave but Thomas was our ride and he was on another court and they were having a really good game so we knew he wouldn't leave until the lights turned off. 

But we endured. And finally. FINALLY. The lights turned off. So Thomas, Kins, Tyra, and I left in his car. They took us to a lookout over Cairns and it was awesome! Tyra told us about her brothers and how they love fighting.... One has been stabbed... They've all been to court... Apparently everyone in Cairns offers her drugs and alcohol constantly... Needless to say, it was a super strange conversation. I found out that Thomas knows Isaiah Balter though!! They served together. Man I love Isaiah! He's the greatest. So we talked about that on the drive back to the Mitchell's. At the Mitchell's, we all watched Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Until we fell asleep.