Day 4

Yes you read the title right Day 4, I am skipping Day 3.  I plan to add Day 3 with Day 7 since both days were spent at the Great Barrier Reef and it is hard to tell which pictures came from which day.

Day 4 was sunny and wonderful!

 We took a bus tour of the tablelands and the area south of Cairns.
Westly had some styling shades.

The tablelands are on top of the rain forest mountains, it was so beautiful up there.

Our first stop on our bus tour was lake Barrine,

which is a giant crater left by a volcanic eruption.

We took a boat tour around the lake and

 saw 1,000 year old giant kauri trees,

and even some turtles!

 After Lake Barrine we stopped at Curtain Fig Tree, estimated to be 500- 800 years old.

This type of fig tree is called a strangler fig, it will slowly wrap it's roots around the 'host' tree and will totally take over, or strangle the host tree of its nutrients, hence the name "Strangler Fig"

While at the Curtain Fig tree we saw a tree kangaroo!  Unfortunately you can hardly see it in this picture but maybe you can spot the tail hanging down.

Our third stop was Millaa Millaa Falls. 

Guess who jumped in? It was freezing!

While Bridger was swimming the rest of us hung out on the shore catching rays of sunshine.

Probably the most exciting spotting of the day was the cassowary crossing the road.

She definitely looks like a dinosaur descendant to me.

One of my favorite stops was Paronella Park

Jose Paronella was raised in Spain and grew up listening to his Grandmother tell him stories of beautiful Spanish castles.

He moved to Australia in the early 1900's and made his fortune. He eventually built his own Spanish castles here in Australia in the early 1920's.

Paronella was a genius for his time and built his own hydro-electric plant (see on the right side in the picture below) and was one of the first to have electricity in the county.

The whole park had so much thought and planning put into it.

From every building on the park you had a view of the waterfall.

There were pathways winding through gardens,

and secret staircases to different gardens or  buildings

What a beautiful park!  Paronella park would have been so fun to visit back in the 20's when it was in it's prime.

Our last stop of the day was Babinda Boulders

We got to swim in the crystal clear water,

it is probably the clearest water I have ever swam in - it was just beautiful!

It was definitely a full day and we were all exhausted by the time the bus arrived in Cairns, but definitely worth it!

Day 2

It was pretty rainy on Friday as you can tell in the picture below.  It was rainy but still warm and humid, so not too bad.  We had no trips planned for that day so we toured around the town Cairns (pronounced Cans). Cairns is a pretty cool town. The pool in the picture below goes right up to the edge of the ocean and best of all the pool is free!

 While we were in Cairns they were hosting an Iron Man competition and so they had a festival set up with lots of good music playing.  Forest broke out some pretty awesome dance moves.

 This is looking to right over a corner of Cairn's pool.  I loved being surrounded by the rain forest mountains, which you can slightly make out through the fog.

 This is looking to the left.  We walked about a kilometer to the left to a really awesome kids park with water features and huge climbing gyms

 For lunch we went to a yummy hamburger place.  mmm!  So delicious it was worth documenting.

 The kids also found a totally awesome four wheeler to play on. 

We spent the whole day walking in the city and enjoying our surroundings.  In the evening we watched/ kind of participated in the town's exercise program held near the pool. Daily, Cairn's has two free exercise classes for the public, one in the morning and one at night.  Pretty neat!  Friday was zumba so we got to watch Forest and Westly break it down; dancing is our favorite activity!  Both Bridger and I fell in love with Cairns and would love to live in that beautiful, tropical city.

Cairn's Holiday Day 1

We just got back from an amazing holiday trip up to Cairns, Australia.  This picturesque town set along the ocean surrounded by rain forest mountains was so beautiful!  We had the best time.  I can't wait to share all of our adventures we had, but it is going to take a couple days to sort through and organize the 1,000 plus pictures - ah!  So for today I will start with day 1.

The 3 hour flight up from Sydney was a breeze.  The boys are at a great age for travel.  Bridger and I decided that 2 kids is a great number to travel with.  It made the trip fun for everyone including the adults.

 While waiting to check in the Field clan walked around the grounds of the resort.

Here is the Field clan:
 The handsome man,

the hot momma (even with eyes closed),

 the adorable 2 year old, 

and the cute 4 year old!  

A pretty beautiful family if you ask me!

We walked around all 4 pools.

 And decided we needed a closer look at some of the pools.

 Forest tried to stop the lion's from spitting

 Westly needed to test the water

and Bridger decided to jump to the island in the middle of the pool

and take Forest with him

 
and everyone stayed dry!

At two we got to check into our apartment

Here is the view from the balcony.

After unpacking we of course headed to the pools

 and made some sand angels with the help of Westly

 and maybe even ate a little sand.

A fun day and a great start to our holiday.