Oh, Pool.

Today was a pretty fantastic relaxing day. We decided we deserved a day to sleep late, so we slept late. Until 9:30! And it was glorious! From there, we headed to the mall to mail...a package home! Huzzah! We were SOOOOO excited to get rid of a few of the goodies we've picked up along the way here. While our bags haven't been completely unmanageable, they haven't been super comfortable to carry around either. We sent our package home by "sea mail"...so hopefully it will reach the US in about 2-3 months lol.

Our next stop was the pool. Our FANTABULOUS hotel pool where we lounged around, relaxing and talking to family for a few hours. We decided that it was definitely our favorite pool we've enjoyed while away so far.

I mean. Seriously.

After relaxing at the pool we took the hotel's bus into town to wander around and explore Cairns. Annnndddd we quickly discovered that there really wasn't much to see or explore... Many people had told us that, but sometimes you just need to see it for yourself. Fortunately, we only planned to have a few hours there anyway, which was plenty of time to wander down the esplanade and then stop to enjoy the lagoon in the middle of town next to the beach :).

The esplanade and lagoon are great public places to relax and hang out. The lagoon is basically just a town swimming pool, with one side more "pool-ish" and the other more "beachy". We stuck to the beach side and enjoyed the sand and sun for a few hours before heading to a smoothie shop for some drinks.

After our smoothies (ok, my smoothie and Jon's beer...) we did a quick stop in the Night Market where I bought... a BOOMERANG! I'd been eyeing these bad boys for a while and I decided it was finally time to take the plunge. I mean, c'mon. Everyone needs one.

After the Night Market we headed to a restaurant overlooking the lagoon for dinner...but not before stumbling upon a row of trees FILLED with fruit bats! More than a little scary!!!

Sure, they're fruit bats - but LOOK HOW MANY!!!

We arrived back at our hotel around 8:30 and decided we needed more pool time, so night swimming was definitely in order :).

All in all a pretty fabulous and relaxing day. Tomorrow's an early start as we head off to the rain forest!

Jess' highlight of the day: night swimming! (Also, my tan is deepening even with wearing 50+ sunscreen every day all day. Pretty big fan of that ;-))
Jon's highlight of the day: night swimming