Whale Of A Tale

Cairns

Second destination stop.  First, can I just say we had the BEST Airbnb here!  A couple opened up their home to guests.  Not only was their house fun and beautiful, but with their back yard being the ocean, the views were incredible, add to that the food they provided and shared with us.  Have mercy!  

The husband cracked open coconuts for us to drink and eat.

The meal table.  When we shared meals, they would hold hands to say grace.  Now Drake makes sure we do the same as we say our meal blessings.

A short beach walk to the "swimming hole".  It was jelly season and so there were designated places to swim with nets "protecting" us from the jellies.  We didn't have any problems, yay!

Salt water swimming pool.  I think the boys didn't skip a day without swimming once, or twice or ten times.

We took many drives along the coast stopping for geocaches or anything catching our eye.

Love it!

I never really got a good picture of the kangaroos out in the fields.  But. . .we did see some fighting.  Reminded me of the deer back in Utah, although multiplied.

This spot was beautiful.  Also where hang gliders jump off.

We have started a tradition of taking pictures of stop signs on our travels.  The boys were quick to point this one out.  (Funny thing, I don't think we have found one yet in China.) 

We jumped out of the car to take in the view over Port Douglas then it began POURING on us.  If you look closely at the picture below you can see the rain coming off of Guy.  This was the beginning "light" part.  By the time we ran for the car we were all soaked!

These two boys added their own stack of rocks.  Our most favorite spot

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef

Guides would give free rides and point out wildlife.  Boys enjoyed the "free ride" part best.

We didn't find Nemo, BUT we saw many amazing fish, including parrotfish & angel fish which were huge! Lane and Grahm were lucky enough to see a shark (I believe Black Tip Reef Shark) and a Giant Clam or two.  (Pictures will be coming soon.)  Drake refused to get in the water as he told us, "There are sharks in there!" So he took a good nap.   

Lane and Guy

Guy

Grahm

Duncan and Amber

Lane

Loved our time in the tropics!!!

Last Stop

Hong Kong

Our final destination.  The day we flew in happened to be our 1 year anniversary of moving to China.  We tried celebrating by walking through a night market in search of a celebratory dinner.  The seafood and smells just didn't sit well with us after having spent the entire day on airplanes.  So McDonald's it was, (some of us would argue that it wasn't much of a step up from the market!)

Saturday morning Lane and Guy headed to the Hong Kong Temple to preform baptisms. The rest of us took our time exploring markets on our way to meet up at the temple.

As we slowly made our way back to our place we enjoyed exploring secret squirrel pathways, geocaching (found one at Bruce Lee's house) and hitting market after market.  

First one up: Bird Market

Feed the birds: worms, grasshoppers and cockroaches, yum!

Second market: Flower Market

Third market:  All shopping!  Block after block of many different markets, but one long street.  I love this picture of the boys checking out the merchandise.  We went a little crazy and got some really good deals.

We thought we were done, but lo and behold we found that one street over there was a Pet Market, detour!

Sunday morning was spent down at the harbor with more. . . you guessed it, geocaching!

We found a pizza place we were excited to try out before going to church.

 

Church building.  We really enjoyed the sacrament meeting, English speaking Filipino ward.  One of the speakers was unable to make it so we filled the time sharing our favorite hymn and then singing it.  A powerful sweet spirit certainly felt by all.  As Guy said, "Every time someone would share their favorite hymn the spirit just burst inside!"

The year of the Dog, Duncan's year.