September 19 Travel to Townsville and explore Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef (Environmental)

Today we are traveling to Townsville and this city is known as the second capital of Queensland and has a population of about 190,000 people. There is a wide variety of freshwater parks and good amount of different animal species. Townsville is a Burdekin Dry Tropics Region and has over 95,000 kilometers of open land. We got up at 8am that morning in search of some open land to just take a hike or have some fun until our trip to the Great Barrier Reef at 2pm. Before we started the day, we went to go get some food at a really good breakfast place called The Balcony. We decided to sit outside which had great street views.   
     After finishing breakfast we went out in search of a good open area. We finally found an open park called Charles Moroney Park to play some soccer and race each other. At the park, all of us decided to race to find out the fastest one out of our group. Surprisingly, it ended up being Dylan despite the fact he is so short. We played soccer for a little bit and saw Tim Cahill, the famous Australian national soccer team captain/defender. To our surprise, he decided to join us and we all got autographs before he left. Dylan went crazy because of his love for soccer. We left after a couple of hours at the park to have a light lunch because we wanted to save room for the BBQ later. We made a quick stop at Subway and took it out on the road. Avery decided to be funny and slap Mason's sandwich on the ground so we had to go back inside and order a new one. Avery tried to do it again, but Diego pined him to the ground so he could not repeat his foolish actions. 

     It was 12:30 and 30 minutes before we had to check in to the snorkeling place so we walked on a pier near the big event of the day. After we killed some time Zach checked us in at 1 O'clock on the dot. We had to wait for the other family arrived and the instructor showed us how to use the gear. We finally got on the water at 1:45 and arrived at the reef at 2. When it was time to put on the gear, which we were already showed how to do, Mason got yelled at for jumping into the water too early without the proper equipment. While the rest of us got in the water, Mason had to through all the steps again which took off 20 minutes of his time. 
     When we finally met up, we started seeing the most magnificent things. Mason must have been good luck because as soon as he joined us we saw a very rare fish called the butterfly fish and it was amazing. Everyone was trying to communicate underwater and they looked really obnoxious attempting to. The instructor was very insightful and whenever we needed something we would just ask. She was willing to help and make sure that our gear was in order the entire time. It was getting later in the day and the sun began to get lower in the sky. The sun dipping down towards the horizon created the coolest effect as its rays shone through parts of the water making illuminating light beams.  We circled the boat a couple more times before it was time to get back on the boat for the provided BBQ dinner. The food was so great we all ate until we were overstuffed and headed back to land. Dylan asked for the instructor's number and she said no. Overall it was a good day to see a famous person just playing soccer and the reef was agreed upon the best experience of our lives.