Living in Putin's Backyard ~ Our Adventures in Mother Russia: Cairns, Australia Part 1

First let me begin by saying that Cairns is AMAZING!!! We are strongly considering another trip back to Australia to spend more time in this city. Two days was not enough :-)

I had class this morning so we did not get off the boat right away. Will took the kids to breakfast and when he came back my professor dismissed us. It is usually a 3 hour class and we were cut loose after 1 1/2 hours. NICE!!!

Bad News - Will and I were supposed to go white water rafting but for some odd reason the Nursery (For CJ) on board closes at 1pm on Port Call days... Really stupid if you ask me. Its a smaller ship than what were are used to to I guess that's the way it works. Our rafting was scheduled to begin at 1.. Bummer... So we cancelled and just took the opportunity to walk ALL OVER Cairns, in the rain by the way :-) Yep... It was raining pretty good for a large portion of the day.

We went into the shopping Mall and walked about. WE FOUND A TARGET!!! Oh man I was excited!! We purchased little odds and end that we needed like hair bands, lotion, sun block (Cairns was Hot and Humid - felt like Houston), diapers and I found a FitBit. Yes, I was excited!

We had lunch and then took to the streets again. We WALKED so much and even with it raining it was a good time and the kids likes being outside. Yes, it was terrible that we couldn't go rafting but in hindsight, he kids were probably happier than being in the play room with not many kids to play with.

This picture above - I put Ash and Mike in charge of CJ. They failed in their duties. He got away and ran in the grass that looks like it should be nice and soft. It was NOT! It was swamp like and oh so very muddy. CJ lead them on a game of chase and eventually I had to step in. We were all covered in mud. Very gross :-)

Sea and Mud Flats

The trees are awesome tree climbing trees! So pretty too

And as per usual - CJ donned his "Lazy Legs" - This time it was Daddy's turn to mule him around :-)

Lets play in puddles... Why not!

My crazy kids! - They were having an argument on whether or not Nemo lived in these waters

He's a happy kid when he does not have to walk :-)

We headed back to the boat later in the after noon to let the kids rest (they walked a lot and started becoming miserable). We took them to the pool for a little bit and had dinner. Around 630pm, kids went to Adventure Ocean / Nursery and Will and I went back into the city for dinner and drinks.

We ate at the Bushfire Brazilian Steakhouse and it was amazing! We also checked out the Cairns Night Markets. Pretty cool things in there. I got the kids some clothes and trinkets. Ash got a rainbow sundress and the boys got matching Sea Wars shirts (Star Wars but sea creatures). Mike is so into hats these days so we found a Cowhide hat for him and a gorgeous bracelet with Ashlynn's birthstones.