Our apartment is close to a couple of schools and across the street from the public hospital. A block away there is a private hospital which appears to have cardiology and radiology specialists. A block further and on the ocean is a promenade of shops and restaurants, hotels and a beautiful outdoor swimming area. Casinos are mixed in and about all locations.  According to the Sydney airport wait staff they take off for Cairns regularly for the express purpose of gambling. Like Las Vegas, the gambling establishments serve huge portions of food at a really low cost.  We ordered one meal Wednesday evening, at a neighborhood casino, and had enough left overs for a 3rd person.  Culturally this is the first place we've seen aborigines mixed among other Australians and a variety of tourists. There is a Bali retreat center just down the block where we had brekkie Thursday morning.  I ordered toast and a flat white and the waitress (whom I believe was Dutch) said: " I've never had someone just order toast before, I don't  know what to do with that - how much do I charge you - how about $1.50?"  She brought me a couple of slices of white toast with butter and a mixture of jams and it was great! 

It is definitely warmer in Cairns than either Sydney or the Gold Coast, but still quite lovely. Today we walked the Esplanade Boardwalk - saw many birds native to this area and had a wonderful lunch of salmon and snapper while overlooking a wharf of privately owned yachts, sailboats, and other various watercraft with a backdrop of the mountainous rainforest. We also took in a little shopping.  On our promenade walk we discovered that Cairns is a sister city to Scottsdale, AZ. Oh, yes, I almost forgot to tell you...thanks to "Fast Eddie" at the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Helicopters we booked one of the items on Bob's bucket list: a helicopter ride out over the reefs...more about that tomorrow - we take off at 1230 Friday (that's 9:30 pm Thursday where most of you live). Eddie greeted us with his rendition of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA.