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Arlington has just spent the last two and a half days in Cairns, Australia! What an amazing place! God's beauty is really shown here, even though it's quite a secular town.

The Great Barrier Reef yesterday (July 24) was absolutely epic! Admittedly, I only snorkeled in the direct area surrounding MarineWorld (search Magic Reef Cruises), but what I saw there in terms of coral and fish was stunning. My friend Erin said that the immediate area to MarineWorld was lame compared to what she saw diving, but I still loved it. It is absolutely incredible that God took the time to lovingly make each one of those fish and add such awesome colors to them, yet still loves us infinitely more- He did not come to Earth to die on the cross in order to save fishes.

Today (July 25) we saw so many sights around the Cairns area. We started off with the Kuranda Scenic Railway. It took an hour and forty five minutes to go from Cairns to Kuranda, but the views were awesome. We passed through 15 tunnels, over tons of bridges, and through rainforests. It took a lot of toil and human work in order to make the railway, as we learned during a pretty interesting history commentary. The waterfalls that we got to view were spectacular. I took over 100 pictures on the train ride alone and have now taken about 1,060 pictures during the whole trip.

After we disembarked from the train we got to explore the village of Kuranda. There was a koala park with kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas. There was also a $15 dollar opportunity (on top of the $15 entry fee) to hold a koala and have your picture taken with it. My Dad held a koala when he came to Australia on a Navy deployment back in 1987 (well before I was born) and he said that they were surprisingly heavy and had sharp claws. That statement turned out to be true, but Chibby (the koala- a girl) was so cute and so worth it. Koalas are absolutely adorable- an information sign said that most people react to seeing koalas like they do to seeing a human baby, which is so true, especially for girls. We then got to pet kangaroos and wallabies. Unfortunately lunch was next and I had pre-ordered a kangaroo pie. It was not pleasant to have the adult next to me saying over and over "Oh, I could never eat the cute kangaroos," especially as I was eating one and I had just petted several.

We then got to ride the SkyRail over the Daintree Rainforest. I could finally see that my teachers weren't talking bogus- there are really several layers to a rainforest. They are easy to see from several hundred feet (maybe 300 or so) in the air. It turns out that the Daintree Rainforest is over 135 million years old and is the oldest in the world. What an incredible example yet again of God's beauty in His awesome creation!

The Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park was next. The center had a museum with some shields and whatnot and an opportunity to get your face painted, so I did. We saw presentations on history, food, medicine, and I don't know the other one because I fell asleep. We also got to throw spears and boomerangs. It turns out that I am not good at throwing either.

Arlington flies back to Sydney tomorrow afternoon and then back to Virignia on Sunday afternoon. I can't believe that the trip that I have looked forward to for over a year is almost over! How sad- especially since I don't want to go back to Virginia's heat and humidity. Cairns has got the absolute perfect weather at the moment.