It's the 4th of July!!! Both Karl and I miss being in Virginia right now... it's weird to know the date and not see any indications of the red, white and blue theme anywhere. Speaking to the family, they are all gathered (on the 3rd) to celebrate a bit early, but everyone is there! Apparently the weather is gorgeous, the tides are early, allowing for a great morning water ski, and Pam and Bruce sailed their sailboat up to Yorktown Marina, a perfect location for watching the fireworks! I do miss it, but fortunately, I'm meeting a friend from America here in Cairns. We'll do a bit of celebrating ourselves at the local bars.

Before all that, though, we had to clean out the Tipsy Trail. The poor Nissan desperately needed a bath... it was a graveyard for insects splattered across the grill and all over the front of the beautiful white paint. McSuds had a self car wash, so us girls whipped out the sponges to try to scrape off the insect carcasses while Karl scrubbed the underbelly of the car in an attempt to remove the salt grit from Fraser Island. After the wash down and the vacuum out, the car looked brand new, ready for the return trip next morning.

Tipsy Trail's important counterpart, the tent, also needed a bit of help. With the wet weather, some mildew started to form, and there was a bit of a stain from the red pancake we mentioned earlier. A trip to the grocery was thus in order-- today was full of errands. We also got our Pro-Dive tickets from the booking agency-- we can't WAIT to get started tomorrow!