Day 1 - Port Douglas, Queensland

Good morning mate! It is 6:45 AM on Sunday, which means that it is 2:45 on Saturday back home. Because of the time change - 16 hours, we missed Friday. And Friday was my dad's birthday! Happy belated!

It was a long journey, but we finally made it. I posted a picture below - this is us after our 13 hour flight from LAX to BNE! I don't think we look so bad, LOL.

We arrived in Cairns around noon yesterday. The picture below is one we took from the airplane. Flying into Cairns, you can see part of the reef. This is one of many. Once we landed we drove about 45 miles to Port Douglas. Before arriving in Port, our driver stopped to show us "Dolly." Dolly is a "pair" of mountains that resemble Dolly Parton's unique characteristics - HA HA HA. We thought this was so funny. All the way across the globe and people still love Dolly Parton.

Port Douglas is a small town in far north Queensland. We are staying at Peppers, which is a 5 minute walk to the quant downtown where there are restaurants, shops, and a lot of gelateria's! Port Douglas has had a few infamous moments:

• Bill Clinton was visiting Port back on Sept 11 2001 when he found out about the WTC attacks.
• Port is the town where Steve Irwin (you know the Crocodile Hunter) was killed by a stingray barb
• Home to Carnivale, where they quadruple their population for 10 days in May

It is also home to Four Mile Beach - the premier beach in Port Douglas. From the main port you can walk the main beach in under 5 minutes. This beach is home to tiny sand crabs who hide in tiny holes when you approach. The beach also puts up a stinger net, to keep the jellyfish out of the public swimming area. During this time of the year, stingers are very dangerous and its definitely swimmer beware if you swim outside of the net! The water is so warm too, I would guess roughly 70 degrees!

We took it easy yesterday, laid by the pool and walked on 4 mile beach. The lagoon pool is literally outside our hotel room, it comes right up to our balcony! The beach is really beautiful. We ate dinner at a place called Fins (a suggestion from one of the locals). It's an open aired restuarant and it was hot!! We both had the macadamia encrusted Wild Australian Barramundi - IT WAS SO GOOD!!!

Today we are off to visit the craft market down in town. It will be another easy day. Tomorrow we are off to the Reef to explore via Catamaran!