March 17th, 2015 - Port Douglas, Australia - Day 213
Being in Northern Australia during the Cyclone (hurricane) season has turned out to be a real adventure. We were all up having breakfast this morning when the house manager, Mia, stopped by to make sure we had heard the news about the cyclone. "Ha, of course we had heard the news, the cyclone was nearby by did not make landfall." Captain Obvious (me) said with confidence.
"Uh, no, it went out to sea and is now coming back and is forecasted to hit somewhere very close and as a bigger more intense storm. You guys need to be ready to evacuate if it comes close to Port Douglas". Mia informed me, with just a little bit of concern over which rock I had been living under.
"Oh that cyclone - yeah we are watching it" I said trying to recover. "We are on it".
We were not on it, we had no idea it was coming back or intensifying, so it was a good thing Mia stopped by. Cyclone Nathan has been giving forecasters a hard time by lolly gaging around out in the ocean just doing little twirls because it can't make up its mind what it wants to be. It's like a little kid in a candy store, finger twirling a strand of hair while they are trying to decide on which candy to binge on. We are the pissed off parents who just want them to make up their freaking mind so we can get on with it. I digress...
So now we are full fledged cyclone watchers. Normally I would not want to spoil the suspense of what is happening by posting an update from the future, but because my mother is one of four people who actually read these posts (hello to Jeanne, Abby and Andrew as well) I figured I would let you know how things are tracking in real time. It is now Thursday morning as I write this and Nathan has decided he wants to be a big boy and take out half the coast. However, he has decided to move north of Port Douglas. So as of right now it looks like we are going to have one hell of a storm, but be spared from the real destruction. Nathan is expected to be a Category 4 storm though when it hits, so we are thankful it is moving away from us. Here is the latest updated track map:
So we are not out of the woods yet, but things are looking better for us.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming:
So the rest of the day after Mia's visit was pretty much par for the course. We got in a good workout, worked on our respective projects. Took a nap and then got ready for the evening. Stacie and I were going to head out for a dinner on our own. We have been trying to do this every week while traveling and it has been wonderful. However, this date night had some special significance to it because it was St. Patricks day. You probably know we are not Irish, but St. Patricks day does hold a special place in our hearts. On St. Patricks day in 1995 Stacie and I along with a few of our friends took a trip to San Diego. At this point Stacie and I were just flirtatious friends, not a couple. It was on this trip on the evening of St. Patricks day that we shared our first kiss and became a couple. We have been together ever since without interruption and by some magical stroke of luck we love each other more today than we ever have.
We went out and had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Salsa. The food was awesome, but the ambiance needs some work, unless you like super bright white lights and wait staff who wants you to vacate the table as quickly as possible. But we still had a great time. And just to top off the night we made a special stop at the GROCERY STORE! We know how to party! We wanted to stock up on some food in case the hurricane did hit.
We were all on edge a little bit as we went to bed, because at that point we did not know where the cyclone was tracking and we were in the blast zone. But all in all it was a special 20th anniversary of becoming Stacie and Pete (and Nathan).