Port Douglas Day Sixteen - 

Dear Lola,

Hip, hip hooray it's my birthday today! 

I am 27. 

Yeah I don't mind the sound of that bubbaloo. "Am I in my mid twenties or late twenties?" I ask Marty. Mid to late is papas answer. Oh okay.   

Starting with a lovely long sleep in while I can faintly hear you laughing in the other room with your papa, is a perfect start. Flowers, banana pancakes & Lola kisses greet me when I awake. Plus there is some money that I am told has been carefully saved by you for mama to buy something special for herself. 

Mossman Gorge is our  destination for our morning adventure. The recent rain has made the gorge extra dramatic. We follow the boardwalk to the swiftly flowing stream and soak it up. A walk on a suspended bridge, chasing scrub turkeys, making friends with little Manu, and a quick dip is a wonderful way to spend a birthday!

We stop by the side of the road on the way home and pick mangoes. Papa tries to teach me to juggle (again), but two is my limit.

 Yum, pizza for lunch and then we stroll into town. We have a peek in some shops along the main road and I score a lovely, colourful, silk patchwork skirt and an anklet. We also buy you two anklets to decorate your ankles, and while putting them on you we discover something you might even love better than shoes!

We cheers with a few cold beers at a pub with a nice, big garden for you to explore & then at the Tin Shed - where we make a pact that we must enter you in the cane toad races before our holiday here comes to an end.

We share a boysenberry ice-cream with extra sprinkles and then have a delicious dinner at a restaurant that spills onto the road. Fish & chips for me, prawn salad for papa, and a mixture of both for you.

I am one lucky birthday girl and if today is anything to go by I can tell this next year is going to be particularly special.

Your mama