A Culinary Delight

Melbourne is the culinary capital of Australia and we have been sooo spoiled! Rosie is about to enjoy the most amazing ricotta hotcakes with maple infused vanilla ice cream and fresh berries. If you are ever in Carlton, drop by the Rathdowne St. Food Store, you won't be disappointed.

Lorne Beach

We are trying to get a couple more weekends in Lorne before we come home. We walked to the pier and watched the fishermen catching fish.

This is lovely Lorne.

Funny story... Rosie was walking around the pier with her empty sand bucket. I turn around and she has a fish! A nice little man gave her one of his salmon. We took it home and fried it up... gave a bit of it to the neighboring kookaburras.

Autumn colors in May.

Cozy kids.

View from the deck.

Looking for creatures.

Sam laughing at Josh.

Nothing makes John more happy than the beach!

Lunch at our favorite cafe. They have the best fresh squeezed orange juice.

Much of our energy is expended trying to get rid of the kids' excess energy!

They look so sweet sometimes.

Hiking up the big hill (it takes 235 steps).

Donkey Rides and Chooks

Who wants to ride a donkey? I do! We went back to the Collingwood Children's Farm for donkey rides and scones.

$2 for one loop. Let's head to the Clarks for horse back riding for freeee:)

Chickens are chooks. You can rent chooks here to see if you would want to buy one.

These chooks are so fluffy, I can just imagine what a gorgeous hat this would be. Just train the chook to sit quietly on ones head! lol

Back to Cairns

We stayed at the Cassawong Cottages on Mission Beach. Having a kitchen is key when traveling with kids:)

Did I tell you that a week before we came here Sam did a header over his handle bars and John had to put about 10 stitches in his chin? Well the stitches came out the day before we left and then Sam jumped off this rock ledge into the pool and opened his chin back up the day we arrived! John had to glue and tape his chin up again. So that's why you see Sam's chin all bandaged the whole week.

Our little place had everything we needed.

The elusive cassowary! These birds are supposed to be the size of a man. We did not see any cassowaries, even though we saw signs all over the place.

Sugar cane fields.

Banana trees.

Drive to Cairns (pronounced Cannes).

We stumbled upon this free pool by the beach while we killed time before out flight. What a find!

It's always nice to see tender moments between siblings.

Beautiful touristy Cairns! The sun just couldn't find it's way out of all the clouds.

3rd Trip Barrier Reef

3 times is a charm! The turtles were the highlight of our trip! We saw 2. Josh swam right over him and touched his back. It was so peaceful to see him swimming.

The textures were so cool. Here fishy fishy.

This jelly fish is not the dangerous kind. Back at Mission Beach you are advised not to swim because of the stingers. John and Josh also saw a reef shark, I didn't feel left out!

Andy and Peter the dive instructors were great!

Mike was our captain and Jannah made sure we all had plenty to eat. The whole Calypso crew was terrific! We would love to see them again one day.

Out of Africa Circus

The circus just happened to be in town while we were there. These African dancers were super talented.

And the acrobats.

This little girl can hula! She even appeared on Oprah.

Dunk Island

We took the water taxi from Mission Beach to Dunk Island for the day.

Kids + pools = love

Islanders

John and the boys enjoyed an afternoon of sailing.

John felt really happy that he still remembered how to sail after all these years!

While the boys were busy, Rosie and I made sand pies.

Yummy!

Earlier in the day we had sea kayaked, then we did a little paddle boating. My arms felt it the next day!

The boys made friends with some other kids and had fun paddling around.

Best buds!

This family could live on an island.. o.k. maybe it's too muggy and buggy, we'll just visit.

2nd Trip Barrier Reef

The second trip out to the reef was the best because we felt more confident. Josh was the first one in the water and the last one out. He had a hay day with the underwater camera!

Sam and Rosie would float around while the rest of us snorkeled. Sam was a super big help. He would make sure Rosie didn't float too far away!

I was happy just looking at the wonderful creatures. John and Josh had to touch everything.

One of my favorite things was seeing my family underneath the water. It was amazing.

Josh exploring the lettuce coral.

John would dive down and bring creatures up for Rosie and Sam. Rosie would look at it for a while and drop it back in the water and ask for something else. One time she had a sea cucumber half her size laying beside her!

Rosie was the only one who felt a little ill on the boat ride. It was super fun meeting nice people from around the world. I especially enjoyed talking to a nice German couple from Namibia. Who knows maybe we will have to go see them one day.