Journey home

I've finally made it back to Chicago, and it was a definite journey! In French, "jour" means "day," and I was on planes for over 24 hours yesterday. But I digress...

Kerry and I finished our trip to Port Douglas, and walked in the morning along 4 mile beach, the major beach in Port Douglas. My mom and Nancy would have loved this little quaint town, and the beach was magnificent! We walked and looked at shells, and saw some guys wind-surfing. At least, I think that's what they were doing. They were holding things that looked like kites, and they were on things that looked like surfboards. Then the kites were holding the guys up. It was pretty cool to see.

On our way back to Cairns, we went to the Cairns Tropical Zoo, so I finally got to see a koala! They are cute, with huge claws, which would make you think they were mean, but they were pretty nice. This zoo was very unique because most of the animals weren't completely contained, so they could walk right up to you. There was a kangaroo section where you could feed a kangaroo! We also saw a bunch of crocodiles, and they were completely penned up! Thank goodness because each croc had its life story posted, such as "Zac came to live with us due to the disappearances of many farmers' dogs. He is serving life in prison!" All the crocs had stories like this with them, and it was hilarious!

When we returned to Cairns, Kerry and I checked into our hostel "Caravella 149", and saw the nice folks there again, then headed out to dinner at the Woolshed. It was backpackers' night, and you could get a free dinner, or you could upgrade your meal. I couldn't believe how good it was! We had a couple of drinks to celebrate my last night, and then headed back to the hostel to get ready to go home!

I was up at 4am Sydney time, and took a plane from Cairns to Brisbane, Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to LA, and LA to Chicago! The bad thing...I had to collect my luggage from every single airport I went to! In Sydney, I had to go through customs BEFORE leaving the country, then in LA had to go through customs in LA! Crazy.

I leave for Costa Rica tomorrow, but currently I'm about to go to the Sox game...I'm suffering from withdrawal!