That...er... Reef Thingamagig ...

Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post. SORRY! A lot has been going on keeping me from posting. Mainly school, but also work and various things with church.

Anyway...

Week 2 with Jay and Karen saw us trekking up to Cairns and Port Douglas, Queensland. It does take a bit of adjusting to the idea that, if you are traveling north for a 4 hour flight it will get decidedly warmer. We went from high 60's to low/mid 80's - much better!!

Day 1 saw us getting onboard the Ocean Spirit IV and heading out to Michaelmas Cay on the Great Barrier Reef. We have been here 1/2 a year and this was our first taste of the Reef - one of my "must do's" when we decided on this adventure! Every time we go on a cruise to the Caribbean I insist on getting to go snorkeling for at least one of our excursions. Last December we went snorkeling with sea turtles on my birthday! Needless to say I was a bit excited to go "swimming with the fishes" in one of God's most beautiful places.

The weather was hit and miss. Often it was just plain cloudy (sad!), and we did get hit with 10 minutes of sprinkle, but the sun did come out for a bit. The biggest hinderance to our enjoyment was the wind! Boy was it windy. We were swimming on the leeward side of the cay, so the water was pretty calm, but the wind drove us nuts on the boat. Oh well...

The reason Clarice and I chose the Ocean Spirit was because the tour included an intro scuba diving lesson! I LOVE snorkeling, now I get to go deep! NOT! I was too honest on my form and they would not let me go because of a medicine I am taking. (sad!) Oh well, Clarice and Jay had a really good time and it turned out to be a "mixed blessing" because I got to snorkel off by myself while they were diving. I loved just floating along, becoming invisible to the magical world I was invading and allowing the sea creatures to just do their thing. Beautiful!

Look at the colors! When the sun came out it was spectacular!

It's a "Fish Bush"!

Lots of different species of tang (the yellow fish)

The giant clams were... well... giant. And SO BLUE when the sun came out!

I like the fish in the bottom of this shot. So many colors!

And I even saw a shark! A little reef shark... but a SHARK!

Aren't we beautiful, too?!?!

It was an exhausting day, but well worth it. I hope Clarice and I get a chance to go back up and scuba the reef. After Clarice's intro dive she said, "You would SO love that!" so we are going to take scuba classes here in Sydney with the idea of going on a scuba tour next time (assuming we get the chance).