Thursday, Mar 20th, 2014

I sleep in after the late night at Gilligan’s. It’s raining so I write from 11am – 4:30pm and get caught up through Perth, AU. I meet mom and dad for our last happy hour at Rattle n Hum before dinner at Bavarian Beer House. It’s been raining on and off all day and supposed to continue for the next week. We have our last beers together at Rattle n Hum before they head to New Zealand tomorrow. I make my almost nightly stop at Gilligan’s before heading to my hostel.

Friday, Mar 21st, 2014

It’s raining again when I get up so I head to the lounge at the hostel to watch some of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I get to watch about half of the Michigan State vs. Delaware game. After the MSU win, I have breakfast at Perrotta’s. With MSU’s win and Ohio State’s loss to Dayton my buddy Dan has to have a Spartan head magnet on his car until the end of April.  He’s already had it on his car since Dec 26th with MSU’s win over OSU in the Big Ten Championship Game.  It’s been raining on and off all morning so after breakfast I spend 3 hours writing and get caught up halfway through Darwin. I also try posting for an hour but the wifi keeps dropping and I don’t get much done. Between the downpours, I head to the dive shop to check on the weather conditions for Sunday. There is a chance of rain and a little wind but looks good. I talk with Bethany at the visitor center about doing the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation tour Tuesday. She calls the tour operator to check about accessibility of the tour. Two parts of the tour are not accessible, Mossman Gorge and the beach walk. The tour operator has a 4 person minimum to do the tour and I’m the only one interested right now. She asks me to check back Saturday or Sunday to see if more people are interested in the tour. I have a few beers at Rattle n Hum before dinner at Spicy Bite Indian food. It’s located on Shields Street right down from the TUSA dive shop. They have an outside eating area but no accessible bathroom. I stop for drinks at Gilligan’s for my last late night partying. I have diving on Sunday, possible tour Tuesday, packing Wednesday and I leave very early Thursday.

Saturday, Mar 22nd, 2014

It’s raining again when I wake up. I head to the hostel lounge to watch some of the NCAA tournament while trying to post and surf the internet. I get one photo posted in 2 hours. I work on writing for about 1-1/2 hours and am almost done writing through Darwin. It’s still raining so I get my scuba gear ready for Sunday. It’s 4:30pm so I head down to the visitor center to check on the tour but I’m still the only one. I haven’t eaten all day so I have an early dinner at La Pizza Trattoria on the corner of Esplanade and Aplin Street. The only have outside seating. There is a small eating area on the sidewalk and two seating areas on the raised deck. The seating area on the raised deck on Esplanade has a ramp. There is no bathroom at the restaurant. It’s still raining and I stop at Rattle n Hum on my way back to the hostel. Once back to the hostel I find out that I have several fraud charges on my credit card. Charges from the USA for a Yankees preseason baseball game, donations to the Red Cross and purchases at The Lego Store.  I need to cancel my card when I can get wifi to call the credit card company.