Happy 2013!

Happy New Year all!

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Years back home in the states! It was pretty awesome around here, although a little more unusual than years past.

I worked on Christmas day, which wasn't so bad... it was a little hectic, we had 110 guests on the boat when we normally top it off around 95. Most of the people on the boat couldn't swim, which always makes life a little challenging. But everyone was festive and in a good mood. All the crew had on the most ridiculous Christmas hats ever. No one can be sad when you have a foot tall Christmas tree hat on your head. When we got back into the dock at the end of the day and got the boat all cleaned up, I  found these two lost-looking Americans waiting at the dock for me! My parents had arrived!

Had a great time with them... had calamari for Christmas dinner at a cafe on the Esplanade, had a couple of glasses of wine and they passed out. 30 hours of traveling will wear you out! I met up with the "Orphan Christmas Party"... the party the boat crew had for everyone that didn't have family around. I had family around... they just went to bed at 8 o'clock... haha. It was actually an awesome party... complete with fake snow, water guns and Nerf guns.

They spent the week playing tourist in Cairns and the surrounding areas. I had a couple of days off work, so we spent one day in Kuranda in the rainforest, a day at the beach in Port Douglas and a day whitewater rafting in Tully! It was all a lot of fun and great time to spend with Mom and Dad again. It was fun to play tourist a little bit! When I was back at work, they came out on the boat with us a couple of times and met all the ridiculous crew and spent some good quality time at the Pier Bar, our daily afternoon stop after work.

Had a great New Years with my parents and with some of my friends from the boat... watched the fireworks over the water at the lagoon on midnight and wandered around town a bit... work at 645 New Years Day? Not so much fun. A bit of a hangover cruise for all parties, but we did alright!

Mom and Dad left on the 2nd :( It was great to have them in town for a while and I think they really enjoyed Australia. I wouldn't be surprised to see them here again before my year out here is up!

Hope everyone had a great New Years. Here's to a great 2013!

Love and fishes!