Happy Valentine's Day to Me!

Today was Valentine's Day and I had a great day here on Hamilton Island! I started the day off by sleeping in a bit (I had been so exhausted from the synchrotron shift that I went to bed at 8:30pm and woke up at 9am this morning). It felt good to be fully rested and I was ready to enjoy the day. Unfortunately, some clouds and rain storms had rolled in during the night, so the weather wasn't great in the morning. I took advantage of the opportunity to (while still enjoying the awesome view from the room) watch some of the coverage of the Olympics! I saw the first ski jump event and the women's moguls (featuring the youngest athlete at the Vancouver games, a 15-year old Aussie - though she didn't advance to the finals, she was quite the object of the telecast). As they closed the broadcast, one of the Australian anchors made a comment about how the U.S. hadn't won a medal in the first three medal events. It kind of surprised me considering that there weren't any Americans favored in those events. In any case, it was nice to see some of the games and it was a good way to spend a rainy morning. I was hoping to go snorkeling today out on the Great Barrier Reef, but a jellyfish advisory kept that from happening. Apparently, there are jellyfish here that have an optical index of refraction essentially equal to that of seawater - thus you can't see these jellyfish in the water. They are very dangerous in that you have to go to the hospital if you get stung by one. I'll willingly yield to things that I can't see but could put me in the hospital... I guess it is better to view the reef during the spring or fall when the water temperatures are lower - apparently, the jellyfish don't like the cooler water.

By lunch, the weather had begun to improve. I went to a cafe and had a yummy chicken salad. Afterward, I decided to try another hiking option since the weather was improving. I lathered up with sunscreen and a little bit of my super-awesome bug repellent and I was on my way. I went a different route today and reached a secluded beach called coral cove. No one else was there and so it was nice to enjoy the scenery before thinking about the difficult hike back up the very steep trail. The clouds burned off to a large degree and it got really hot while I was hiking back. I was very happy to make it to the part of the trail that was highly shaded. The views along the track were really great though and I really enjoyed the fact that I felt completely in the middle of nowhere. By law, 80% of Hamilton island is natural terrain, so it makes it very easy to find unique scenery and wildlife!

When I got back to the resort, I decided to head straight for the beach. After a quick cool-down, I found an awesome chase lounge. I ended up sitting there relaxing for close to 2 hours. This photo was taken while relaxing on the chase lounge - not a bad view. I sat and watched the Coral Sea tide go out. As more and more of the beach was revealed, people were walking pretty far out to go swimming and look for seashells. All in all, this was definitely a pretty nice way to spend my Valentine's day afternoon!

I had dinner at the steakhouse on the island. The steak was great and I was able to enjoy it while watching the sunset over the harbor and marina. After dinner, I came back to the resort and went for a swim in the pool. No one else was in the pool so it was nice to be able to float up and down the pool on my back enjoying the palm trees and colorful sky above.