Winter Holiday Trip (Part 1 of 4)

For the Winter Holidays we decided to head north and explore another part of Australia.  Cairns (pronounced like 'cans') was our final destination, but after seeing how long it would take to drive there we decided to rent a car, drive, and then fly home.  It was a VERY wise decision.  While it was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed stopping along the way to see different things, it was very, very long.

First stop the Tropic of Capricorn
 

 

 Papa Echo is trying to explain the sundial and why it's here at this particular spot.

Next stop was Capricorn Caves

The kids and Papa Echo loved it.

 And then we saw The Big Mango

A busload of Aussie's asked Alyssa to take their picture.  After she was done, they wished us all a Happy Fourth of July.

And we had many, many rest stops to get out and stretch on our long journey north.

And then we finally arrived at Arlie Beach and our Great Barrier Reef portion of the trip. Yippee!!!

(to be cont.)

The Ginger Factory

A few months ago we visited the Ginger Factory.  Not knowing what to expect we headed out.  Once again we were pleasantly surprised.  You just never know what you'll find in this beautiful country.

Along with a tour of the ginger factory, there was a tour of the beehives.

 

And a fun little train ride around the property.

 

 We never imagined beautiful ponds and gardens at a factory tour.  

 

The VERY best part of this excursion was a boat ride.  It was a ride very similar to "It's a small world" at Disneyland...  except instead of following cultures around the world, you follow a gingerbread man being chased by a baker.  How twisted is that?  I was so EXCITED to see this!!!!
 

 The baker is coming....  to cook you alive !!  (cue Vincent Price laugh....)

 

 

 You can't really see it, but behind the gingerbread man are cookies going into an oven at the bakery.  

The dark humor of this ride was lovely.  I laughed the whole way through.  

And this would be a grand example of what I LOVE about this country.  You never know what you're going to find...  and the humor is right up my alley.

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I spent the day with my favorite people in a beautiful country.  It could not have been better.

Gold Fossicking

You don't go 'gold panning' here.  It's 'fossicking'.

And it almost killed me.  Okay, maybe just gave me a panic attack.

There are so many animals, bugs and other creepy crawlies that can kill you here in Australia.  We hear the stories.  I internalize them.  We see the warnings.  I know those warnings are directed at me.  I'm not paranoid.  I just know that all the creatures are out to get me and my family.

But, I married a gold miner, so we headed into the bush to find gold.

Here's where I panicked.  We were walking through tall grass and moving past bushes and I was just SURE we would come across one of the most venomous snakes in Australia.  And then I wondered how far south crocodiles would go.  Were we in 'crocodile country'?  We didn't know.

WE. DID. NOT. KNOW.

Trying not to let the kidlets know of my panic, I followed them praying that if a snake was going to bite someone that it would be me.  And then I thought that wasn't a great idea because while I would rather be the one in pain, nobody would be able to pick me up and get me to the hospital.  So then I tried to figure out if there was a way to walk back to car while having a snake bite and NOT elevate my heart rate...  and then I really started to panic.

In a quivering voice I asked Papa Echo if he was sure we should be walking through the grass.  He said 'yes if we want to get to the water'.   I sighed and asked if he had thought about snakes.  He said 'we'll be fine'.  I asked him if we were in crocodile country.  He looked at me funny and said, 'I don't think so'.  I latched onto his word 'think' and told him that we were going to be one of 'those' stories in the news of the 'stupid foreigners that go into the wild and die'.   He pointed out that we were NOT in the outback and we would be just fine.

So, I followed on...  for my kidlets.

We panned.  I mean, fossicked.

My family had fun.

No snakes or crocodiles were seen.

Later, I asked my friends if we should have been worried about crocodiles.  They laughed and said no.  You have to go up north to Cairns for that worry.

I asked about snakes.  They said, "Yeah... that's brown snake territory. But you really should have been worried about the red-backed spiders"

Big sigh...   I forgot about the spiders.

Daddy's Day Out With the Kids

Papa Echo wrote about his day out with the kids.  Go over to his blog to read all about it.

I'm so fortunate to have such a great dad for my little kidlets.

Easter Weekend Getaway

Papa Echo had an extra day off of work Easter Weekend so we went on a mini-vacation up the coast.

The kids miss our Ford Flex.

First stop was the Bellingham Maze.

We were pleasantly surprised with how much there was to do here. There were all sorts of games to play outside the maze and then the maze itself was green and pretty and in the middle was a beautiful fountain.

Alyssa and Jonathan working on the rope maze.

This tyre maze was tricky.
(and yes, I spelled tyre correctly spellcheck... I'm in Australia!)

Next stop The Big Pineapple.


We found this cute little hotel to stay in for the night. We were in the top right room. Established in 1891 it is one of the oldest hotels on the Sunshine Coast. The kids LOVED sitting out on the upper balcony.

The next day we went to Underwater World.

The otters reminded us of our Oski dog.

Watching the otter show.

It was a wonderful weekend!!

Festival of Sails

Every year on Good Friday there is a Festival of Sails here. It is a big carnival with lots of craft and food stalls, music and lots and lots of activities for the kids. Out in the bay you can watch the annual yacht race from Brisbane to Gladstone.

It was so crowded (panic for me) but the kids LOVED it!!

How better to start the day than a skydive visit from the Easter bunny?

The Easter bunny at the beach!! I love it!

Jonathan rock climbing

They brought in special sand for sculpting.

Jessica and Jonathan

Alyssa and friend E.

The artist of this sculpture stayed all day and helped all the kids with their own sculptures.

One of the highlights of the day was a LEGO competition for ages 8-14.

Jonathan built a spider eating a green snake

Alyssa built a bi-plane

After a day of sun, beach, and activities we went home exhausted, and this was just the beginning of our Easter weekend.