Packing Day Tuesday 3/25/08

This is it, our last non-travel day of the trip. We have egg muffins and fruit and try to figure out how to fit 4 suitcases of stuff into two suitcases. Mary bustles around with a last laundry load while John, helpless and hopeless, stares at the packing task. Part of the problem is solved when Mary begins a Goodwill pile of beach towels and usable odds and ends, and another throw-away pile for frayed shirts, and other detritus that is not worth toting home. We have some sense of how it might work by lunch time and we do our best to get down to zero inventory in the refrigerator with super-stacked sandwiches.

Now, as true natives, we take it easy for a few hours in the early afternoon. There is an evening market in Cairns that begins at 4:30 so we leave early to have one last internet session, hit the Goodwill bins and find a book exchange to refresh our supplies for the trip home. We also do an airport run-through just to get the lay of the land for our departure tomorrow. The market is mostly Asian run and there is a new and interesting selection of "stuff" that we haven't seen before. We pick up a couple more items that have no future place in our suitcases and are home for a last cocktail.

Dinner tonight is at Nunu, a restaurant that has been recommended by every source we have searched. We have booked a table closest to the beach and announce to everyone there that this is our "last supper" and it better be good!! Pressure. Our server is pleasant and knowledgeable, the wine is good and there is still a mostly full moon shining off the water in front of us. Mary has the beef fillet, marinated in beet juice that is served with beets, celery root and a baked potato in a bowl of rock salt. John has the barramundi, wrapped in basil and braised with leeks. Mary's steak is melt-in-the-mouth good and John's fish is almost perfect. Our server snaps a final picture of the elderly midwestern couple and we proclaim their performance a success. They give a "golly, thanks" and get back to work.

Our dinner conversation was a rehashing of our trip and we will journal some final impressions later. Now it is with mixed emotions that we take our final beach walk back to the apartment. We're a little sad that it is over, but very anxious to get home.

Today's local headline: Rudd Leaves for US The Australian (PM Kevin Rudd leaves tomorrow for meetings with Bush)