Esplanade and Lagoon

Back to our first day here -- we arrived in Cairns on Wednesday afternoon after an overnight flight from Singapore (connecting in Sydney).  After checking in to our hotel, our first stops were an audiology office and a guitar store, because that's how we roll. :)  (The audiologist was because James's hearing teacher at school had taken off the microphone attachment, but hadn't switched the battery doors back to the regular ones -- which meant that his hearing aids were not water-resistant! So, the audiologist here was able to take care of it in just a few minutes, and it was a great relief to me, given all the water -- and as it turns out, rain -- around here.  And we passed the guitar stores on the way, so of course Mike had to stop in and see if there were any rare treasures.)

Then we walked up toward the water, and we came to the big swimming area, called the Lagoon.  Of course Matthew was thrilled to go in (and James was, too, although the cold water was a bit more of a deterrent for him!)  The pool had mostly shallower areas with a few deeper ones.  I loved the big fish sculptures; the boys were excited to play on the fountain.

Apparently you can't actually swim on the beaches here -- for one thing, as you can see from the pictures, they're more mud flats.  And second, they have crocodiles!