Last day

Aaron, Lynn, BeBe and baby Damien spent most of their last day in Cairns walking around and shopping. Looking at the photos they took that day it appears they had a good time. Their flight home was shortly after midnight Thursday. As I write this they are already home in Houston.












On Thursday the city was beginning to set up for Festival Cairns 2009 and things were being added to the esplanade area by the hour. There were a number of EsplanArt exhibits already in place. Here is a photo of Elisabeth trying to take a bite out of a cupcake sculpture.

And here is another photo of Lynn and both kids in another of the art sculptures placed on the esplanade. There were many other photos of other art objects, but I think you get the idea.











Yesterday we did all the laundry after having had guests for 3 weeks, cleaned the boat and did major provisioning. Today we made a trip to the weekly local farmers' market and stocked up on fruits and veggies. When walking to the market we took a shortcut through an alleyway between some nice commercial buildings and happened upon the most beautiful and elaborate cakes that we have ever seen. Bill took a few photos with his cell phone, but they don't do justice to these fantastic cakes. The shop was closed so we could not go inside and the photos taken through the window glass are not very good. The one of the Moulin Rouge cake is made like a windmill -- including large decorated chocolate blades on the windmill. It was about 3 feet tall. The one on the right is made like the torso of a woman and has large leaves and fruits on the base. Unfortunately, the glare on the window glass makes the torso almost impossible to discern. But take my word for it, this was a most impressive cake. It was also about 3 feet tall. The last white cake is just an example of the intricate ganache applications and sculpting. There were several cakes with this motif. One of the chocolate cakes was the prettiest. All these cakes were quite large. We were most impressed.




Tomorrow morning (Sunday, 23 Aug 2009) we will depart Cairns and begin working our way to Darwin. So we say goodbye tomorrow morning to internet connection for a few weeks. We will continue to update this blog via email during our passage to Darwin.



My final 2 photos for this posting must be of our new grandson, Damien William Rouse. These photos were taken the day he was 2 months old. The one of him and his grandfather Bill cracked me up. Look at the shape of those 2 heads. You can definitely tell these 2 are related.






And my favorite photo is the last one shown below. I know I am a prejudiced grandmother, but I think he is adorable.