We arrived before our rooms were ready so we mosied down to the cafe for iced tea and conversation.

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The Esplanade wanders all along the waterfront. This huge fresh water pool goes right to the sea. Evidently during this time of year no one is allowed to swim in the ocean since this is when the jellyfish are here. They have the biggest mango bats we have ever seen - they are the size of a raven but look just like our little bats - amazing!

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You know you're in a tourist area when signs like this are displayed in front of restaurants. We didn't try this fare but Richard did and said it was just tasty :-)

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Spanning more than 1200 miles along the north eastern coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is a place to enjoy the beauty, color and richness of a truly natural underwater wonder. It is a broken maze of coral reefs and coral cays and home to many diverse species of marine life.

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We boarded the Great Adventures boat in the morning and...

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...two hours later arrived at a double decker pontoon in the middle of nowhere - well not actually nowhere - we were above the Great Barrier Reef.

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Nancy wasn't too surea about the movement of the boar on the open seas and tended to have a death grip on the railing. She eased up a bit later on , went snorkeling and seemed to have better sea legs on the trip back to Cairns. Way to go Nancy!

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Al wasn't going to snorkel so Richard and I decided to snorkel together.

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The water was totally clear and warm. I was so excited about snorkeling the Reef that I just couldn't wait to get the gear on and start looking.

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What luck for me to be snorkeling with Richard since he knew the names of all the fish and and identified them as we saw them. He was like a swimming fish encyclopedia! We snorkeled together for about an hour (made easier by wearing the life jacket which they said all people over 50 should do), got out, ate lunch and then right back into the water for another hour. I just couldn't get enough of it!

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Chris' life list included a dive on the Great Barrier Reef. The dive ended up being shorter than he thought it would - he saw a shark while down and got so excited about his find that used his air faster than he normally would. As he told his story we realized that it didn't matter that the dive was short - he saw a shark!

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Returning back to Cairns we relaxed, enjoyed this great tropical view from our room and marveled over the fact that I got to check off 'snorkel the Great Barrier Reef' from my lifelist.

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What's in that box that Chris is carrying? Well he just had to buy a didgeridoo and then he found out it was too long to mail. Now we have Chris, Sheila and their didgeridoo!!

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