FEB. 17th -- CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

It's Sunday and you know what day that is?  Yup...Champagne & caviar day at breakfast.  So, yes, it finally happened.  I did not have the caviar...I did have a Mimosa though.

First sighting of harbour

The city of Cairns

Cairns Cruise Liner Harbour

Our excursion is at 1:30 PM today and it is called "Cairns Panorama".  It is a 3-hour excursion.
First bit of information we received was that the correct pronunciation of Cairns is -- CANS (like cans of soup)...the "r" is not pronounced.

The first stop is at Palm Cove.  It is a public beach and as it is Sunday it's very busy.  Our bus parks and we have half an hour free time to explore.  Barry & I stop at an Irish pub for a "schooner" of beer.

Beach stop

Beer stop

Picture of beach...we were here!

Would have been great for St. Patrick's Day

As we head back to the bus it starts to rain.
We are driving back towards the city and it starts to pour rain.  The field of wallabies, which was next on our excursion,  is completely obstructed by the rain.  Wallabies are mini kangaroos and very cute.  Sorry I missed them.

Kangaroo and a wallaby...cute, right?

So, we carry on towards the Botanical Garden.  When we arrive at the Botanical Gardens, it is still raining so we all vote to tour the city, which will take about 15-minutes or so, and then come back.
This works perfectly.  By the time we've toured the city the rain has stopped.
We get to the Botanical Gardens and have 30-minutes free time to wander around and take pictures.

Then we head back to the boat.
Not our best tour but we did get some great pictures.

We have dinner with Becky and Jim from Texas, tonight.  We are meeting them at the Compass Rose at 6:30 PM.

This is the beginning to a  "boost" to our social calendar.
Tomorrow night, Feb. 18th, at 6:30, we are meeting Carol & Rich at the Stars Lounge and then going to dinner.  It will give us a chance to hear their story.  They are from Naples, Florida.
February 19th, of course, is my birthday and we have a sea-day.  Birthday dinner is at Prime 7.
February 20th we are double booked.  At 6:00 PM we have a Top Tier event.  I love these.  At 6:00 PM we meet in the Seven Seas Show Lounge.  There is a cocktail party followed by a musical-drama called "I Am Australia".  After that is over, we head to Prime 7 again for a dinner hosted by Janet & Chris Rathy and the Ensemble World Explorer Group.  They have having a dinner for the World Cruisers.
On Feb. 21 -- nothing at the moment.  Whew!!
Then on Feb. 22, the officers & crew are hosting a World Cruise Dinner Event called "Australian Delights" at 7:00 PM.
We have a crazy few days ahead.

Anyway, after dinner we head to our room.
We are overnight in Cairns and have another excursion tomorrow morning.
G'night.