The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

 This small island was mainly a beach stop. We tendered in from the boat to the dock. Beaches stretched on both sides of it with good snorkeling. It stayed pretty shallow for a long ways out, too. We spent the morning on the left side of the pier, seeing a sea turtle and a ton of fish. After lunch on the boat, we came back out and tried the right side of the pier. This time we swam with sea turtles for quite a bit of time plus saw a ton more fish. Of course, we forgot our camera in the afternoon. All the pictures are from the mroning. The dark spot in the middle is a sea turtle seen from the pier and his friend in the water.

 This small group of islands in Micronesia were discovered by the French. It helped me realize how bad my French still is. I had a few short conversations with people, but between my deaf ear on the right side and my lack of memory, the conversations were very brief. The water here is beautiful blue. Approaching the island, there were some cool coral reefs that caused the water to do some weird beach waves in the middle of the ocean. It was pretty awesome to watch the water break and roll in over the water. The pictures don't do it justice.  The port was a protected cove with lots of hills. We walked uphill through the Plaza de Pais. From the viewpoint, we got a great view of the harbor and the area behind us. They also had a statue of a woman praising God at the viewpoint.  Jack had to do a Touchdown Jesus pose with the Hail Mary. We also visited the Catholic Church, or as Jack called it, the Church of Barry Manilow. The priest's picture did look amazingly like him. Love...

 Our big adventure today was going to church. Our first Uber made it to the wrong pier and cancelled on us. Our second Uber would at least text with us and answer our call. He picked us up around 10 am, which is when church started. Luckily we made it to the meeting just as the y were singing the sacrament hymn. After church, we took the train into downtown where we caught the free shuttle back to the ship. The train was cool- double decker with seats backs that would switch so the seat could face either direction.  That night we left going out under the Harbor Bridge and past the Sydney Opera House. Jack got some great pictures for us. Harbor Bridge Sydney Opera House Barely clearing the bridge. Sydeney skyline behind us Some seagulls playing Abducktion in the water below us trying to get a picture of the double decker train and the cool seats. Now you know why I'm a nurse.

 Today's posted should be entitled Failed Foto Blogger. We didn't think to take a picture of us at the Melbourne Temple or with our miraculous missionary rescuers. Story to follow. We left the ship early so we could make the almost 2 hour trip to the temple. Jack was thinking Uber but we would have to wait almost an hour for someone to come get us. We could be there via public transport by then. We hopped the tram to the city center where we transferred to the train heading out of the city to the East. At the train station, we hopped on a bus to take us to the temple. Everything went very smoothly until the bus. I was checking with the driver to make sure we had the right bus. He had no idea what we were talking about. We tried giving him the street address. He was looking up the address on his map when I looked over Jack's shoulder and saw 2 sister missionaries. They confirmed it was the right bus. We then sat and talked with Sister Hudson, from Utah, and Sister Naiak, fro...

 We finally made it to the land downunder. It was a rainy, gray day. After going through mandatory immigration, we went to the free museum a few blocks away.  Hobart was also a penal colony. Many men, women and children were brought here, the biggest crime often being the fact that they were poor. They had a cool memorial near the docks dedicated to the women and children brought here. The kids often were imprissioned with their mothers and even though they committed no crime, were often not released as they grew up. The museum had all kinds of areas- history of the land, people, animals, etc. We wandered for hours there until hunger drove us back to the ship.  My favorite animal, the wombat. Isn't he cute. They try to make him look terrifying. A little bit of confusion on what is a kangaroo and what is a sheep. For Lauren especially, one of these in each picture is not a bird. My birding skills are doing better! For Jason, how would you like to have built this Lego set. ...

 We spent the day cruising through Fjordland National Parks. It's a series of fjords accessible mainly by the sea. The scenery was gorgeous. They get a lot of rainful here and today was not an exception. It made the many waterfalls so much more impressive. We were outside on the deck for a bit, but it was chilly so we came inside to watch the scenery go by. We managed to see some penguins from the distance and an albatross up close. Didn't get pictures of any animals. Just to prove that it is us here, even with our colds.

 While I initially called it Doned-in, the locals pronounce it dun-E-din, a small Edinborough in the south seas. It didn't really matter because we were the former and didn't make it to the town. We did wander a bit around Port Chambers. We saw the beautiful Iona Presbyterian Church. The inside was beautiful as well with an upstairs balcony and maritime memorabilia. However, we didn't think to take a picture while inside and didn't want to climb back up to take those pictures. It was lovely. The bell clock chimed every hour, a few minutes early so you had time to get home before you were in trouble. We also went to the little market at the Town Hall. They were well prepared for us. Love their sense of humor here. Or is it humour? I did find a local artist selling her children's books. These were well written and beautifully illustrated about various ecosystems and being true to ourselves. She has a new book coming out in November. Dani let me take a picture with her...