So many leash kids...

ADVENTURES CONTINUED!! whew...I know you were waiting for this...no worries...I am back to update! so where did we leave off? The bridge climb? sure...

So the bridge climb went superb! After that we went to the Glebe markets which were like a boutique store and a vintage store combined in these outdoor vendor booths. Becca picked up a really cute shirt and I found a steal of two shirts for $5 from this woman. I also made my sisters get kebabs for lunch which were huge and delicious. We then headed back to the hostel to take a quick nap, change and head out to St. Mary's Cathedral for Easter Vigil Mass. It started at 8 and the church was absolutely massive with beautiful stained glass windows and a stunning alter. We were pleased to get candles at the beginning just like St. Elizabeth's does back home at the Easter Vigil. The mass was done by the Cardinal so that was pretty cool but all three of us walked out at the end (finished up around 11 so not too bad) singing the songs from back home because there really is no beating Easter Vigil back at St.E's. The music was all choral and monotone one note if not in latin and the homily started off with the Cardinal giving bullet points for something - the best part was the actual size of the mass and building. We then went back to the hostel to call big dave because it was his birthday still in the U.S. After that we all crashed to wake up the next morning to our Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had shipped all the way from Acton (jean marie, weigh the packages before you send them, that was a little excessive but well appreciated and loved - thank you!) Becca ate my peeps and I devoured Reese's cups because of the lack of those here in Australia. We had a lazy morning and then went out to go get brunch at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks - SO GOOD! Becca and I split two meals - one was a crepe filled with bacon, potato, onion, chives and cheese with a garden salad on the side and the other meal was a "black and white" which was one chocolate pancake and one buttermilk with a scoop of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. We decided to get strawberries to go with them. We ate the whole meal ridiculously fast and were fully satisfied with our delicatable choices. Afterwards, we went to the Scenic Wildlife World to get our Australian animal fix in. Becca found a new obsession which was koala's. She kept on running around with all the six year olds shouting "this one's awake!! come here! this one's awake"...she would even get excited about the sleeping ones. Every half hour they do "koala talks" where a ranger talks about fun facts about the animals and so forth. Afterwards she took one out of it's tree and brought it around to be touched - I thought Becca was going to pass out. At the one stop, she apparently took around 100 photos solely of koala's - it's an issue. I also found a new obsession though - spotting kids on leashes. The first day we were in Sydney I found two (hilarious) but the best one so far was at the Wildlife World. He looked just like the little kid from Jerry McGuire but screamed all the time. I don't mean scream like high pitched but more like shouting at all the animals. He was harnessed in a fancy navy blue leash and unlike the other longer straps that they other ones spotted had, this one was only about two feet in length. I was shocked at this but after creepily watching him for several minutes I realized why it was so short - he was a tornado of energy - always going, never stopping and causing as much destruction as possible. At the kangaroo exhibit, I really thought he was going to hop the barrier and get in there with them - he came pretty close, I mean the ranger had to come over and scold but him and the parents. They did let him go at some point in the day (no, I didn't stalk him that heavily, we were just in the same area again...okay maybe just a little stalking) so he could eat an ice cream. He ended up climbing up on the table, slipping off and banging his head on not just the table but the bench also. After he calmed down he was off and running - maybe that's what big dave was like as a small child? who knows? All I know is that leash kids are ridiculous and once you get over the fact that they are actually on a leash you figure out the reasons why. This kid needed to be leashed.

After Scenic World, we had some gelato at darling harbor and then went back to our hostel to check out and head to the airport - Cairns here we come!! Our flight was wonderful and we touched down in misting rain but very tropical tempatures. We found our hostel no problem and met up with Dawn (she owns and runs the hostel - crazy but super nice woman). We got all the info on our reef dive and headed to bed because we were getting picked up at 7:00am for our next adventure. We first got an underwater camera dropped off so we could take photos and videos of the reef and then were on our way down to the pier. We boarded a huge ship and got our snorkels and fins and headed to the roof top to get a nice spot in the sun. I was an idiot and didn't find out my certification information to go on a "certified dive" but they did have the option for an "intro" dive on the reef so we all did that. We first were able to snorkel right out to the reef before getting called in for our dive. My ears have such trouble "equalizing" which means as you descend in the water, you're supposed to push air back into your ears to stop them from hurting. Mine were being a pain so I dove a little bit above the group until finally they got settled. Our guide picked up a couple sea cucumbers and let us touch them. We also were able to go around a big piece of reef and take in all the fish. You could really see the difference in the color of reef from a couple years ago. It was quite faded and greying but the wildlife were still pretty cool. We then boarded back on the bus to have some lunch and go to our second diving spot. We opted to not pay the additional fee to dive again and just snorkel out to the reef. The fish were again super cool and we took numerous photos with the camera so that was awesome. At the end of the day they gave us a glass of wine and cheese and we all fell asleep on the way back. Forgetting how strong the sun is out in the water we all got very badly burned. Because I have been here for almost two months mine blended in pretty well but Mollie looked like Zorro took a few swipes to her back and Becca just looks like she has a really bad disease. She is really splotchy and the majority is only on one side haha But at least they'll look a little tan when going home.

After the reef we went out to dinner where we hunted down a place that sold kangaroo. I got the game meat plate which had both crocodile tail and kangaroo filets while Mollie got kangaroo and Becca got a kangaroo burger. Enjoyed by everyone! The next day we were up early again to trek out to the rainforest of Kuranda. We took a Scenic Railway tour first which was a rickedy old train that took you up and into the mountains. There were some really pretty views of waterfalls and valleys. In our cabin was an adorable Chinese couple about mid 50's. The wife (Lena) was the asian version of the old lady on Wedding Singer who did the rendition of rappers delite. No joke. She was that cute. They were both from New York City and it turns out the husband (John) worked right by where Mollie used to live. They were a little bit obsessed with us but I was a total fan (especially cause they thought I was the oldest - point for Brenna!) After two hours of train travel, we got up to Kuranda where we looked around the Aboriginal arts and crafts market and had the most scrumptious sandwhich lunch! There was also a walk through the rainforest which we all decided would be super (and it was free so we were all keen on that). We ended up getting the full rainforest experience because it poured on us - and we got absolutely soaked but we had fun while doing it!

Ah! I only have two minutes left....this will be another to be continued...but we fly out tomorrow to Sydney and then the girls are out the next morning :( But I'll upload pictures for the full story :)