Yes it really is "Cans"

According to my mother's travel agent, Cairns was actually pronounced "Cans". And silly me thought "surely not!" Because why would they put the "ir" there if only to completely ignore it. But no....they really do say Cans. Anyways, that was your Australian English lesson for the day.

But Cains was absolutely amazing!!! We woke up super early Friday morning to get to the airport on time, which is never too much fun. But worth it. Cairns is a much smaller town than Sydney so not too difficult to find our way around. It is a super tropical city. When we were there it was hot and humid, felt similar to Hawaii almost. They get really short, random rainstorms so it is really green, and lovely:) Right in Cairns, they don't actually swim in the ocean. You can take a lovely walk down the esplanade right next to the beach. And enjoy the swimming pool and park right next to the beach. Even stay in lovely hotels with gorgeous views of the beach but you can't get in. We were mostly confused by this. As two girls from beachless-Arizona, we would use a beach if it was RIGHT THERE. But we heard multiple reasons from locals as to why they don't you can pick your favorite or do some research and figure out which one is actually correct:)
1. it is dirty
2. there are too many jellyfish
3. it is mud and not actually sand
4. the government is trying to cover up Atlantis, which actually exists right off shore
(p.s. above is a fun game of 3 real reasons and a lie...guess which one yours truly made up because it sounds awesome??)

Moving on to the real reason we went to Cairns in the first place. THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. So Saturday we went out on a boat. The spots we went too were two hours out from Cairns. And of course it was raining when we left the dock, but thankfully cleared up after we got 15 minutes out. The first spot we went to we snorkeled a bit and then did an introductory dive! It was AMAZING! So for our dive, since neither of us are certified we went down with an instructor who kept track of all the obnoxious gear that keeps you alive and we just got to be chilling looking at all the fabulous fishies and coral! We never went deeper than probably 20-30 feet. But it was sooo awesome. We didn't take underwater pictures, because lets be honest they always turn out crappy and never do it justice anyways....so you'll just have to come see for yourself:) But this 30 minute introductory dive convinced us both that we want to go back for a week on the reef to get certified (anyone want to join us??). Andrea thought about the underwater submarine ride at Disneyland to keep from freaking out while diving and I couldn't help but think of Finding Nemo the entire time...so clearly Disney has changed.our.lives.

After this spot we hopped back on the boat and went to a teeny tiny island with more birds than I've ever seen in my whole life. Literally it was like my worst nightmare in an island form. Needless to say we did not visit this island, however we did some fantastical snorkeling around the island. And then a boat ride back! Honestly one of the best days ever....and we only got slightly roasted!!! SUCCESS!! (and it was jellyfish season apparently. So pretty much everyone paid to wear these truly horrid stinger suits that covered you from head to toe. and we opted out...because well ew. and didn't get stung!!! so ya, we like to think we live on the edge and face death on a regular basis!)

So picture taking mostly failed in Cairns. We were just enjoying ourselves too much to take pictures. Sorry:) But here are a few to entice you to come...

So in downtown Cains they do like exercise classes....so all these people are doing ZUMBA!!!! It was awesome! and apparently a few weeks ago they set a record for the most people all doing something ( zumba maybe?) in one place. legit.

Dive equipment....sooo heavy. walking the two feet from where we put it on to the water was so not fun.

On a boat....one of the best places ever.

Ya we're pretty happy about it...

Our tour was like Passions of Paradise or something...pretty awesome, highly recommend it. Although honestly if you get this far I'm pretty sure any of the tours would be good...

Because taking a feet picture everywhere I go has become an obsession. And no I don't have a feet fetish.

I like to call it the island of 10,000 birds...who knows what it's actual name was. (All that black stuff...birds.)

black things = birds.

So ya, lame pictures. But it was a fabulous weekend and we loved it! School starts today...but I don't have class:)  We are catching up on some laundry and all that jazz and then off to explore Darling Harbor...because doesn't it just sound darling?? (bahahaha.I'm soo funny. now I know why your all still reading:) And then tonight we are going to the opera house to see a play!!!! WOOHOO! more on all that later!