Great Barrier Reef Weekend Getaway!

Meet Aly! She is the daughter of our beloved Brisbane Bishop Boaza (say that 5 times fast) and is staying with us for a few months before she goes to BYU-I in September. We love having her here!

AND because she's here Mike and I jumped at the chance to get away for a weekend and do some snorkeling! Just Mike and I!! Thank you, Aly!

We left Friday after the kids got home from school and drove an hour and a half to the town of 1770, named thus because Captain Cook first landed there in the year 1770. Mike and I walked around this gorgeous Joseph Banks Park on the cliffs of the coast. Beautiful!!

In the trees were hundreds of blue tiger butterflies! 

We found a bench and watched the sunset. And we didn't have to leave because someone had to go potty nor did we have to worry about someone hitting someone else with a stick or someone putting weird things in their mouth! We got to sit for like 10 minutes! It was amazing!

We drove back to the neighboring town of Agnes Waters where our hotel was. When looking at the map while booking the hotel we assumed we were in the city centre, close to shops and restaurants. Well, we were. The 4 restaurants in a strip mall. Booming metropolis of Agnes Waters! We ended up choosing the Thai restaurant and were thrilled with the outcome! It was delicious, fresh and truly amazing! My coconut milk chicken. Divine!

Mike had ... something else... that was also really yummy.

The next day we got up early to board the boat for our Lady Musgrave Island adventure. The hour and a half boat ride out to the island wasn't as bad as I'd feared, apparently it was a calm day. I'd heard horror stories (from several people) about the trip and seeing my seat pocket fully stocked with sick bags made me grateful I'd taken ginger pills before boarding. One little girl fell victim to the motion and I was so glad we didn't have the kids with us, namely Lydia.  Ha!

When we finally stopped we didn't actually dock on the island, but on a platform quite a ways from shore.

It was a nice platform, plenty big, shaded and with lots of picnic tables. It was from there we jumped in the water to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Yippee!!
The coral here was so colorful! Blue branching coral and green digitatus coral and purple cauliflower coral! It was gorgeous!! And the fish were even more colorful and were everywhere! Once again, kicking myself for not investing in an underwater camera (but knowing me, I would drop it into the depths or something). Big green parrotfish and beautiful yellow butterfly fish and orange striped tuskfish, just to name a few. There were tons! And sea turtles! We saw 4! Big ones just lying on the coral. So still we had to wait around for them to move, just to make sure they were real!
After a light lunch of pasta salad and fruit salad and more salad, we got to take a glass bottom boat to the island for a quick guided tour to look at some nifty trees.

Then hopped back on the glass bottom boat for a nice educational cruise through the reef. Here's a picture of a turtle

And some cool blue branching coral

Having dried off nicely (and not having thought to bring dry clothes to change into) we stripped off our now dry swim shirts and lathered up our backs for one last 45 minute swim. Last hurrah!

After an amazing day on the reef we were happy to collapse in our hotel room that evening. We bought a beastly burger from an eatery in the strip mall and took it back to the hotel room to split. Massive!

It felt so naughty to eat in front of the TV! What a couple of teenagers! It's amazing the fun you can have without the kids around.
We woke up early Sunday morning (Mike's birthday, no less) and enjoyed a peaceful hour and a half drive back home, drinking chocolate milk and watching the sun rise, in time to get everyone ready for church. Happy to be together again to celebrate Mike's birthday!

What an amazing trip! And what a wonderful man to spend it with! And what a fantastic family to come home to. Lucky, lucky me!!!