Cairns because you can can

Finally! After about three years of let's go and then let's not go, I dragged my parents to Cairns last Anzac day long weekend. This was a huge deal for me, as ever since I was 10 I had wanted to go to Cairns on a family holiday. Although, admittedly the desire has ebbed a little with growing up and having so many more exotic destinations becoming accessible and possible. I had discussed the matter with my parents a few months prior, but because of logistics and general parental inertia (I think it happens when you are retired) nothing was finalised until two weeks ago, and then I booked the plane tickets which meant we had to go!!!
Impressions? Cairns feels like a mix between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, a lot of the residences are similar in design to what you would expect from Brisbane suburbs, while the apartments and hotels are the type that one would tend to see on the Gold Coast except more sedate and less ostentatious. The landscape is also rather flat, and the highrises not so vertically impressive compared with the GC.
On the first day, after recovering from not sleeping the night before and our regrettable choice of fish and chips at an asian takeaway in a super doggy mall, we made our way to Palm Cove. Travelling North for about half an hour, we were struck with a heavy downpour on the way but it only helped to heighten the feeling of freedom and adventure.
Palm Cove is a lovely relaxed spot of the world, with a thin strip of goldy sands and expansive clear blue water. There are several islands just off the mainland, although they were tiny and did not look inhabited. The vibe at Palm Cove is a mix of upmarket and touristy kitsch. We walked on the beach, visited a few resorts to gawk at the gorgeous decor and just relaxed...it was a lovely gorgeous wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
We decamped with the last rays of the evening to Cairns, where my parents and I walked around Cairns city, it looked admittedly a little desolate, a lot of lit stores but few shoppers. Walking up and down the rows of stores, and narrowly just escaping my father's (who is highly biased towards Chinese cuisine) half hearted attempts at trying to direct us towards several tourist traps..we finally settled on a small Japanese Ramen joint, the food was decent the service attentive and fast. I had the spicy Ramen with paper think pork slices and some exotic dark vegetable drowned in their delicious collagen soup. My mother had the same and my father a variant with less oil. We also ordered a family serving of their dumplings. We were in and out under one hour, refreshed and ready to continue or rambling aimless walk. Our next stop was the Cairns night markets, which was disappointingly just a lot of vendors selling various tourist souvenirs...was mildly tempted to go for a massage for $10...but it looked too public for it to be within my comfort zone. We finished the self directed city tour fairly early and left for our comfortable rented apartment to sleep and prepare for the early departure the next day.