Extending the track with my remaining rails. Doesn't quite reach the beach shack though.

Decided to take a break from building for now. Traveling east to find some caves to explore. I wasn't sure if it was implemented in this version, but it seems like whatever you build, if it takes up enough square area, it'll appear on the map. You can make out my house by brown pixels near the center of the map. And to its west across the water is where the beach shack is, but it doesn't appear on the map because it's too small, I think.

It's getting dark... I better find a cave hide in for the night...

Thankfully, found a pretty extensive cave system for me to explore and wait out the night. And greetings by a triplet of creepers :)

Also found my next two set of diamonds (if you can make the latter one out).

After some exploring, I checked my clock and found that it was already evening, and the second turn of the night was approaching. I did not want to have to wait another night in the cave, and was worried about losing both my way and time backtracking to find where I entered in the first place, so I resorted to digging upwards.

But in my haste I forgot the two strict no-nos in Minecraft – you should never dig straight down, and you should never dig straight up. As I tunneled upwards, gravel fell onto me and I started suffocating. While digging myself out, water started filling the cavity so not only was I suffocating, I was also going to drown. I had to pause and recollect myself. Observe both my hearts and bubbles going down in the hotbar.

But by some miracle I made it out alive, with a single heart to spare. My efforts were in vain anyway as you can see – it was already dark by the time I got out.

It's fine. I just waited till the sun rose again before making my way back home.

So I said I was going home, but I stumbled upon another cave and heard a slime, and I really wanted to find it because I knew I was going to need its slime ball(s) in the future. I eventually found and slayed it but it didn't drop anything.

Well, since I was already here, I thought I might as well explore it. And look what I found again :)

I didn't take more screenshots, but this cave system was pretty extensive too, and I spent another night in here gathering materials.

Eventually, I made it back home in the nick of time.

And here's the loot for today. 11 diamonds, nearly three stacks of iron, and nearly a full stack of gold. Plus lots of lapis lazuli, redstone and wood. Pretty happy! This opens the door to a lot more things to play around with. But first, I want to continue building out my railway system.