Day 2: Cairns and Mission Beach

Thankfully we all slept well.  Breathe huge sigh of relief!

After a cruisey start, we headed to Rusty's market to buy some tropical fruit.  Steve was pretty disinterested and in all the time that he spent in Cairns, he had never been there.  As we got in the door, Julian saw all the trinkets and was in Julian heaven.  He decided that he HAD TO BUY a set of 5 shells with his pocket money.  I told him that we had to walk around all the market first just to make sure that he didn't change his mind.  So we were about to hit the food and vege section of the market when Steve spotted this chilli sauce stand:

 Steve was in chilli heaven.  He walked away with 1 of each bottle including the 2 million scoville sauce (if that can be believed!).  I then bought some fruit including some lovely rambutans - Claire heaven!

After the fruit, we bought Julian's shells and peace was restored.  That was until we got outside and Rohan decided it was his turn to be grumpy - must be morning tea time :)  Thankfully there was a coffee shop near by which had a nice selection of cakes, so we stopped there for morning tea.  Julian wanted to sit outside, so we did and we all froze.  Who knew that it could be cold in Cairns?  The boys had strawberry milkshakes so that did not help them stay warm.  We had a good chat to the owner and he recommended a few nice places nearby to visit with the kids.


Today the plan (my plan) was to muck around Cairns for the day.  However Rohan thought that we needed to go somewhere in the car, Julian wanted to go to the pool and Steve didn't mind what we did!  And now both boys were getting grumpy and it was only morning tea time!  There was no way they could cope with a day of walking sight seeing, so Steve suggested a drive to Mission beach.  It was only an easy 2 hour drive south, past Innisfail.  Everyone liked this idea, so we popped into Woolworths to pick up some iced finger buns before heading to the apartment to collect the beach stuff and pack a lunch.

So we drove out of Cairns at 11:20am, just in time to see the first wave of light rain and then heavy rain pass through.  The road south was lined with sugarcane which was ready to be harvested and banana trees - I had no idea they weren't as tall as coconut trees.

The bananas are protected by the bags

Sugarcane lining the road

There were more light showers heading into Mission Beach and the temperature dropped to 22C!  When we arrived the rain stopped but we could see the next band of showers coming at us, just behind Dunk Island.  It was cold on the beach but Julian loved it and wanted to swim!  He also found coconuts on the foreshore so he had some fun collecting them.  But it was really cold, so we decided to have our finger buns up in the sheltered area in the little village.

Then it started to rain again, so 3 of us decided that we wanted to leave.  Julian eventually decided that he didn't want to walk home, so he joined us.  And guess what?   He was asleep soon after!

And then they changed roles.

So it was a quiet trip home.  We even saw some cane harvesting (which I didn't take a snap of).

Packing the cane into the rail trucks ready for the train.

We did see a Cane Train but this is the only photo that turned out:

We got back to the apartment around 4pm, so we went out onto the balcony for a drink and watched the showers over the hills on the outskirts of Cairns.  The boys were full of beans, so we decided to walk to the information centre before going out for dinner.  We also dressed in polar fleeces and jeans/trackpants as we didn't want a repeat of the frozen boys that we had last night.

The information centre was playing movies of trips to the reef, so the boys (3 of them) were entertained whilst I talked to the lady at the counter.  We then walked to a Thai place that Steve used to frequent.  Unfortunately, like many, it has changed ownership and now is a Greek restaurant.  I am not a fan of Greek food (unless it is home-cooked), so we went across the road to Jimmy's Burger joint.  Rohan wasn't keen until he found out that we could eat outside, and then it was all smiles.

I had their Crispy Chicken burger and the boys had their Classic Beef burger.  They were both good. Unfortunately Julian was still recovering from being grumpy earlier in the day so we only just survived dinner...

On the walk back home we caught a few minutes of the All Blacks vs Lions game and saw the Lions score a try.  Julian was cheering for the ABs, so that thawed me a bit towards him :P

Back home for a shower and bed for the boys.  We watched the ABs roll the Lions, so the day ended well.

Day 1: Cairns - arrival

So someone booked a 6:10am flight to Cairns...

This meant we were out of bed at 3:45am(!!) and got the boys up at 4:10am.  Thankfully, they were good which meant no problems with the nearly 1km walk to Jetstar T4 terminal.

Excellent flight and we were surprised that we had food vouchers to spend - nevermind that the boys had already had vegemite scrolls.  We arrived at 9:30 and had an easy bag pick up and car rental.  The Nissan Qashqai only just fitted in our 3 suitcases.

By now it was 10am, so we headed into Cairns to offload the bags to the apartment.  Unfortunately it wasn't ready, so we did a drive past all of the places Steve had worked up there when he worked for BAE.

We then headed to Muddy's playground and cafe for a late breakfast/ early lunch.  Steve and I had some very tasty fruit juices (and I didn't touch the garnish!) as well as egg benedict.  The boys had jam sandwiches, bought from home, and water - no one was unhappy.

Then it was play time!  We went into a fenced and gated pre-schooler area and Rohan and Julian happily played together.  Then a lot of people left and we discovered Rohan was missing!  Far out, we have never felt so scared in all of our lives!  Someone had let him out of the playground and he was nowhere to be seen!  We ran around asking anyone and everyone if they had seen him.  Many people came to help.  Steve then found him on a slide in a playground further down.  He was missing for only 5 mins but it felt like an eternity.  Thank goodness it all turned out ok.

The 3 of us (Rohan had no idea) needed a bit of downtime after all that excitement, so we stayed in the park for another 30mins.

We then headed out for a drive to hopefully get 2 tired boys to have a little nap.  We drove out to Yorky's knob for a look.  Nice beach and nice drive through very tall sugar cane.  The boys didn't sleep going there but they were well asleep on the return journey - yay.  Thankfully I had a sleep too.

After an extended drive/sleep, we went to the apartment as it should have been ready...and it was and it was pretty reasonable but not much in the way of a kitchen which was disappointing.  The boys and I checked out the pool whilst Steve tried to have a nap - looked good.

We then went and did some grocery shopping before having a food break out on the balcony.

We decided on Fish and Chips for dinner as it is Friday.  Steve knew of a place on the Esplanade which was good, so off we trotted.  It was a bit of a trek in the end but worth it.  Julian had only just started to complain :)

The best part was that if you ate between 5-6pm, you get 30%off the bill - yes please.   So we all ordered fish and chips or Tempura Barramundi and Fries as they called it.  Delicious.

There was a ice-cream palour next door which Julian had been eyeing it up all through dinner.  So we went there for dessert.  Unfortunately that was when the weather turned cold and it started to drizzle!  Seriously Cairns - why tonight?  So Rohan and Julian got cold and we had to high tail it back to the apartment.  Then the drizzle stopped and it got warm again!

Back at the apartment, it was hot showers and bed for the boys.  Let us all sleep well tonight.

New Holiday - New blog name!

We are heading to Queensland - Far North Queensland - FNQ, so time for another blog name change.  Let the sun shine in!

Day 21: New Orleans to Austin

We set the alarms for 6am to make sure we had enough time to pack before the boys woke.  Obviously they slept in, so we had to wake them.

I had re-read the location of the breakfast joint and discovered that yesterday we were a block out, so today we walked the very short distance to The Ruby Slipper Cafe for breakfast.  Another guy that I work with recommended the place and it was awesome!  I had the Southern Breakfast which was eggs, bacon, a scone, a fried green tomato and grits.  It was delicious and very filling.  Steve had Eggs Couchon which was a scone topped with slow cooked pulled pork, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce and it was delicious too!  The boys had eggs, bacon and pancakes :)  I can't find the photos of this place and the food - grr!

We rolled out of there back to our apartment and finished the packing.  Rohan and I haled a cab and we all went to the airport.  We are now very relaxed with the rigmarole of check-in and security - it helps when you arrive with plenty of time - so there were no problems.  The flight to Houston was just over an hour and was easy compared to the previous flights as we were hardly in the air.  It was a small plane so I had the boys and Steve sat across the aisle.  He passed the time talking to the guy next to him (who was from England and whos wife was a Mechanical Engineer and worked on the rigs!).

Anyway, we arrived in Houston  just after midday and caught the bus to the rental car facility.  We were convinced to upgrade to a larger car/SUV and it took us until just after 1pm to finally leave the airport.  Rohan was exhausted and was fast asleep within minutes.  We hadn't eaten and were going to go to McDonalds (again!) for lunch but Jane had other ideas!  We eventually found one and bought the usual "to go".  It was here that I discovered that the price of McDonalds changes across the country - the same meal here cost $21.77 that cost $36 at the Grand Canyon! We ate in the car whilst Rohan slept (for 2 hours).  He had his cold when he woke up.

We found the countryside in Texas to look a lot like eastern Victoria - around Sale way.

We did see a well head which was a bit unusual for us.

We took the scenic route to Ali and Scott's house as I had their old address - apparently it only delayed us by about 10mins so it wasn't too bad :)  When we arrived, Julian was all shy and Finley hid in the house but it didn't last and soon they were running around like crazy 5 year olds.  Little Charley was all smiles and was very cute especially with her little helmet on :)

The adults stood chatting in the kitchen drinking local wine whilst the children got every single toy out in the upstairs living area!  Rohan immediately fell in love with Hank (the 11 year old, nearly blind, type 1 diabetic dog) - he was all kisses, cuddles and giggles!

Scott made Fajitas for dinner and they were excellent.  All the boys were too excited to eat much and they went to bed much later than normal.  We sat up talking wine and food until we called it quits just before midnight!

Day 20 : New Orleans - Alligators, Beignets, Tattoo

Steve and I woke at 5am local time and the boys slept until 7:30, so those early starts a few days ago have paid off :)  We were out the door by 8am and went in search of breakfast.  The place I wanted to go to wasn't where I thought it was, so we back tracked and went to  Mena's Palace instead.  The waitress last night had said they did good pancakes, omelets and hash browns.  Julian had pancakes, Steve had a Cajun sausage omelet with grits and I ordered a bacon omelet with hash browns.  Rohan had a bit of everything.  The grits were a lighter, tastier version of a porridge consistency polenta and actually completed the omelet nicely.  I would have them again over the hash browns which were just chopped up fried potato.  Julian's serve of hot cakes wiped him out and Rohan out and they were finished by Steve - it was a massive serving!

It was a leisurely breakfast, so we got back to the apartment around 9:30am and did some more laundry washing/drying :)  We packed the backpack with drinks, snacks and a peanut butter roll and headed down to our Cajun Encounters pick up location.  The pick-up time was from 10:30 to 11am and the location was a street corner.  Julian and I had a look in a sweet shop and Steve thought it would be better to go and wait for the bus.  Thankfully we all met up just as the bus arrived at 10:30am.  We climbed aboard and then the driver only made about 4 more stops before we headed out of town to Honey Island Swamp.


On the way out he told us a little about the devastation caused by Katrina and how the rebuild was still continuing.  He pretty much whetted our appetite for the city tour that they also run.  It was a 35min drive out to the swamp where we went into the gift shop to get our tour wrist bands.  Julian was so excited that he nearly refused to go to the toilet before the boat ride.  Thankfully the driver scared him saying that he would have to get out of the boat with the alligators if he needed to go - this worked :)  The boys had to wear life jackets but thankfully this didn't bother them.

We got on board a long 20 seat flat bottomed tinny and zoomed off down the river.  We soon came across 1 alligator which was looking a bit worse for wear.  He had been in a fight with another gator and had a ripped throat, broken jaw and a blind eye.  He was mad keen for marshmallows :)

We also saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on branches in the river.

Further up the river we saw another 2 alligators just sunning themselves too.  It was 80F/27C today and this is cold for alligators, so there weren't many about.

We saw a nice forest of Cypress tress covered in Spanish Moss growing in the swamp.  These trees sound a lot like Huon pine.

We also saw a Racoon and a very large pig.  We didn't see any snakes much to the disappointment of the captain.

The tour was 90mins and Rohan fell asleep just before we docked.  Julian is loving the gift shops and this time he walked away with a 60cm long alligator soft toy.  Rohan stayed asleep, in my arms, for the next 90mins!  On the bus ride back, I had a nap and so did Julian!

We got off the bus at Cafe du Monde to try their famous Beignets.  Julian had to be woken to get off the bus, so he was complaining a lot about having to eat donuts!  He just wanted to eat the icing sugar.  We ordered 2 serves, along with 2 coffees, and they were devoured by Steve, Rohan and I.  Julian had a bite at the end and decided that he did like them.  So we ordered more :)

A little bit of sugar put some zing back into everyone.  It was now nearing 4pm, so I gave up any idea of riding a tram past some of the fancy houses in the Garden district, and we went for a walk around Jackson Square.  There happened to be a Tabasco sauce shop (it is made in South East Louisiana) where we bought a bottle of Chipotle Tabasco sauce and another 2 stubby holders.

Back out in the square, we were walking around listening to the buskers and then we walked past a woman doing Henna tattoos and I thought - why not!  So I got a tattoo in New Orleans.  We were all fascinated watching her draw on my arm :)  Now I had to be careful not to rub it before it dried.

It was a hot day, so Julian needed Ice Cream and there was a Gelati shop around the corner.  We all happily ate a dark chocolate and vanilla gelati whilst listening to a percussion group behind us.  Rohan was bopping along as usual. It was a short walk to our apartment, so we went back there to change Rohan and give the boys a short break before dinner.

I guy I worked with now lives in New Orleans and recommended a Cajun restaurant about 1km from our apartment.  Julian was up for a walk which ended in fried shrimp, so we walked down to Mulate's.  From the moment we walked in we knew this was our kind of place.  We ordered fried and grilled alligator, southern fried chicken wings, a cup of seafood gumbo, a cup of jamabalaya and a fried oyster Po'boy platter.  Julian had his fried shrimp and Rohan had shrimp pasta alfredo.  It was excellent and Julian even ate alligator and loved it!  Rohan ate everything but he seems to be doing that at the moment.  The only bad thing was the pasta which was nearly inedible due to garlic overload.

Even though the dessert menu looked good, we had all decided that a walk back to Landry's Seafood had to happen so we could have their Banana Foster again.  It is so good!  We were going to walk back along the river but then thought that we were idiots for even considering it at night time!  So we went back and had more Bananas Foster.  We got 2 serves this time :)

Then we rolled home, bathed the boys and they were asleep soon afterwards.

Today was a cracker!  Julian really enjoyed the alligators and he is loving his toy alligator.  Every shop we went into commented on his alligator and he happily told stories about it.  Rohan was excited to have seen so many turtles - he keep pointing at every log in the river saying "Tur-til".  In all it was a wonderful 9th Wedding anniversary!

Day 19: Phoenix to New Orleans LA

None of us had a very good nights sleep mainly because Julian was complaining that he was hungry (!!) and then he had run out of water and then he needed to go to the toilet.  Then he was asleep and Rohan started whimpering everytime he turned over.  Needless to say, they both had to be woken at 6:15am.  We had a reasonable breakfast of toast, cereal and scrambled eggs at the hotel - we left the donuts, sausages and meat patties alone.

The hotel had a courtesy shuttle to the airport and we hopped onto that at 7:25am and 10 minutes later we were checking in.  We now understand how it all works, especially with the car seat and stroller bags, so it was stress-free.  Also the United terminal was pretty empty, so there weren't any queues to negotiate.  We went through the TSA screening and had to have the baby food double checked which took a little bit of time but it wasn't stressful either.  We got to the gates just as boarding was commencing, so we didn't have to wait around in the terminal.

Our flight to New Orleans was via Denver.  The Denver flight was 1h20m and about 20mins of that was waiting for a spot in the take off queue (when we flew out we counted 14 planes behind us!).  It was an easy flight, helped by bananas and muesli bars.  We had a 50 minute transfer in Denver but we were 20mins late, so it just gave us enough to get to our gate, go to the toilet and buy Julian a hotdog (he asked and we could deliver) and us BLT sandwiches.  We bought them from a place called Steve's Snappin'Dogs.

Once again our flight was boarding and now Rohan was getting very hyperactive.  On the plane, he had a yoghurt and half a peanut butter roll and was then out like a light - 1.5hour sleep thank you!  The hotdog and BLTs were absolutely delicious.  With Rohan asleep for most of the flight, it was a piece of cake (it was only 2h10m anyway).

We landed without fuss at New Orleans and called the apartment rental company.  We had to make special arrangements as we didn't have a working smartphone which would give us access to the apartment (In the end it was all done remotely and we had no problems.).   At the baggage carousel, a guy approached us with a massive trolley which we loaded with our 2 suitcases, 1 large duffel, a stroller bag, a carseat and a trunki!  He then took us out to the taxi rank and bypassed the VERY long queue to get us a big taxi.  Steve only had a $20, but for me this was a win.  It was very humid and I really just wanted to get going and to see the place.

It was an exceptionally sedate ride to the apartment - this guy drove normally! - and we discovered that our apartment was in a good location.  We can see the Mississippi out of our lounge windows!  Steve had a lot of fun hauling the bags from the lobby into the lift, then into another lobby and down a short hallway into our MASSIVE apartment.

The apartment has 2 large bedrooms, the master with an ensuite bath, a large open plan lounge/dining/kitchen and a hallway laundry (we have already done a load of washing!).  Even Julian was impressed with the place.  He and Rohan raced up and down the hallway screaming and giggling.  It was now 5:30pm local time (2 hours ahead of Phoenix) but we were all starting to feel hungry, so we headed out.

We are on North Peters Street which is a block back from the river and runs parallel to it.  We walked up to where all the action is and passed some very colourful characters on the street including a woman with cat whiskers drawn on her face!  We stopped at a hat shop to try on a selection of Trilby's which looked dreadful on Steve but fantastic on Julian.  We then saw the sign for Johnny's Po'boys (which are famous and we wanted to try) BUT it is closed for renovations :(

Julian's stomach was bothering him, so we found a place called Landry's Seafood which looked good.  It also had a kids menu with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables -  a winner!  We had to wait for a table but we passed the time talking to woman (who thought we might be locals and was going to ask us for advice!) about Australia as her son lives near Adelaide (she was from Illinois).  We didn't know until then that it was a chain restaurant but we didn't mind too much as the food sounded good.

We ordered a seafood Gumbo bowl and Crawfish bread to share.   The Gumbo was a green/brown soup which tasted peppery, salty and a bit muddy.  It wasn't memorable.  The Crawfish bread was like a crayfish bruschetta and was fantastic.  Rohan loved it and Julian refused to eat it :)  For mains, we shared the Blackened Redfish Etouffee and the Crawfish Etouffee.  The Redfish came with "dirty rice" and Cajun beans and was quite nice.  I found the Crawfish too spicy hot but Steve preferred it.  Julian happily ate his Fried Scrimp and a couple of fries.  Rohan happily ate his grilled fish, a few beans and a lot of my plain rice.

New Orleans Crawfish Bread

Seafood Gumbo

Julian - Fried Shrimp and chips; Crawfish Etouffee; Rohan - Chicken and vege; Blackened Redfish Etouffee (Yes Rohan is trying to eat the plate!)

Now desert was the best bit.  Another classic in New Orleans is Bananas Foster - crepes rolled around vanilla ice cream topped with sliced banana, whipped cream and Foster sauce which is a light caramel cinnamon banana sauce.  It was huge but Julian and Rohan ate most of it.  It was delicious and we all wanted more! We also ordered a Key Lime Pie but it was just too sweet for us.

Bananas Foster (Internet photo - you can see why ours was inhaled as soon as it reached the table!)

Key Lime Pie

We walked back to the apartment and the boys had an awesome time in the HUGE bath.  We have a large bath but Rohan was able to swim laps in this one!  They both happily climbed into bed and were asleep at about 9pm (7pm old time).

We didn't take many photos today because it was just plane travel.  The internet here works and is fast so hopefully there will be some Alligator photos up tomorrow!

Day 18: Camp Verde to Phoenix AZ

Another early wake up - 6am.  Oh well.  We ate breakfast and then proceeded to pack up or throw out the contents of the RV.  This took a while, so we didn't leave until 9:45am but at least we were done and the camper was clean.

We headed down the road to Montezuma's Castle just outside of Camp Verde.  It is a fort built into side of a hill and has nothing to do with Montezuma.  It was built around 1245 and was inhabited until 1425 when the pre-Indian tribe left for reasons unknown.  It was pretty cool and would have been an excellent place to defend as access was by ladder only.  It had a short scenic path which lead to different views of the castle and during this walk Rohan, completely obliviously, stepped on the tail of a lizard and Julian nearly stood on a beetle the side of a 20cent coin!

We left the castle and went up the road to the interstate. There was a Starbucks there, so we had our first coffee in the US and also put a pin in their world map - no one had visited from Melbourne until us.  We then had another food discussion with Julian who was starving so much he was crying.  This meant we went across the road again for McDonalds - our options were McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell or another Taco restaurant.  We weren't up for another Julian tantrum.  Thankfully he ate a bit and didn't create a scene and was his happy self again.

Back in the RV, we headed back onto the Interstate towards Phoenix.  Rohan was asleep within minutes which meant that Julian had the iPad, and we enjoyed the bliss road noise.  Normally there is music playing - Banana's in Pajamas, Big Day Out (Justine Clarke), The Wiggles or Playschool.  We can sing them in our sleep however Rohan LOVES them and Julian happily sings along which makes for a very pleasant journey.

It was 160km to Phoenix and it was a good road.   Up until this point we had had a cactus count going on for Arizona and the tally was at 3.  That was until about 100km out of Phoenix when suddenly they were everywhere and it just looked like in the movies.  We scrapped the count :)

Jane had obviously stayed off the turps last night as she did an excellent job of directing us to our hotel.  We have a 8:50am flight out tomorrow and we decided that an 8am drop off with a 30min drive to the airport didn't leave much extra for any problems, so we had booked into an airport hotel.  This was a new experience for us but so far so good.

We were staying at a Drury Inn and Suites and even though it was only 1pm, we were able to get into our room.  The room has 2 Queen beds and a BATH!  I may have been more excited than Rohan.  When we left Camp Verde it was 65F, Phoenix was 95F.  So we changed into shorts and drove to drop off the RV. I had tried calling them a number of times but could only leave messages, so they didn't know we were coming and I was worried that we would have issues.  Silly me!  Another person was also dropping off early and there were no problems at all.  We inquired after the cost of an ex-rental RV our size (30ft, sleeps 7) and it would cost $US32,000!  New they are $US40,000.  What an absolute bargin!

They called us a taxi and we waited quite a while.  Julian and I watched "The Peoples Court" and Rohan and Steve explored the RVs that were in the showroom.  The taxi driver filled us in on Cruise America - started in Phoenix by an ex-CEO of Hertz and now owned by his 2 sons.  If we had looked a bit further into the showroom we would have discovered their collection of exotic sports cars.  Lucky them.

Back at the hotel, we all had a rest which included quality TV time for the boys.  Julian was getting sick of the advertisements - "They are not letting me watch television.  I don't like them!"

This hotel has some called "5:30 Kickback" which means they serve complimentary food and alcoholic beverages in their dining room from 5:30 to 7pm.  We headed down there for a dinner of spicy chicken, tomato pasta, baked potatoes and hot dogs.  Thankfully Julian ate 2 hotdogs - yay!  It was here that I learned that Bud Light was a low calorie beer not a low alcohol beer.  Good to know.  Steve stuck with the cabernet.

We gave the boys a bath which they loved so much that they didn't want to get out - of course.  They were both asleep (snoring) by 7:40pm.

Today we said goodbye to our home of 13 nights and we will genuinely miss a lot of things about it.  It was so easy to pack up everyday and get moving in the morning.  It didn't matter what time we arrived somewhere, we were already good to go.  It also allowed us to prepare a lot of our meals, to our tastes, quite cheaply and conveniently.  We had so many lunches sitting comfortably in the carpark of a supermarket - something that we wouldn't have been able to do in a car.  However we wont miss the hard thin mattress or the tiny shower and toilet. We are very happy for this experience and we hope that Julian has fond memories of it.