Day 11: It's Beautiful in Katoomba

Wow. Okay so this will probably be the longest blog I will ever do in my life, and probably the most disorganized. You don't have to read to the end if you don't want to. True story: all these pictures were taken in one day, and they're only about a third of them. Anywho...we went a wandering the Blue Mountains this misty and rather chilly Saturday, and all I can say is: phenomenal. It's truly like a different world up there. The gum trees are unbelievable cool, and they are everywhere, and then you have parts that look like a little rainforest, and other parts look kinda similar to what you might see in Utah, only with flat tops, and no snow as it was, after all, winter.

Hey guess what? I love this lady. 

But before we began our journey into the mountains, we naturally had to stop at a few shops. This picture was taken at an antique shop in Leura. It was HUGE. Now, I like to shop, don't get me wrong. But Sam and Judith REALLY like to shop. Janne and Rob were the first to tire of the antiques, and as Tanya and I began to fade, we found things to amuse ourselves, including, but not limited to: picking out future wedding presents for each other, mocking the horrid Di and Charles wedding china, and talking to cute little children who seemed amazed by the shop. I also found this rather amusing conductor's hat, and tried it on for fun. Hot right? I know. It just comes naturally.

After the antique shop, it was time to sight see. I was the only "kid" going sight seeing. Everyone else had gone four-wheeling with Tony (bless his heart). Unfortunately, our sight seeing attempts we a little less than successful to begin with. It was SO misty that morning. Any attempt to see anything past the first row of trees was useless. Just to give you an idea of how incredibly difficult it was to see anything...look below. 

After a few hours of pleasant, yet unfruitful driving, we made our way down to Megalong Valley. This picture here, while seemingly random, is one of my favorites-for off in the distance, as was pointed out by Janne after the fact, is a Kangaroo Crossing sign. Not a joke. It's legit. You can barely see it if you look closely, but it's there.

This picture took me back to my childhood. Did any of you ever watch Rescuers Down Under? Remember in the beginning where it goes across the outback and then all of the sudden a random house pops up next to what seems to be Ares Rock? I like to think that there is a curious little boy living in this little hut who will one day rescue a giant bird with the help of his mice friends.

CODY!!

Here is the cute little "tearoom" as it was called that we ate lunch at in Megalong Valley. I'm pretty sure snow white lives here, but it can't be proven. We had some soup, I had something and leek soup. Although I can't recall it's name, I remember it being really good especially since the weather was so crummy outside.

I also enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate, and as you can see, hot chocolate does not always come in mugs in Australia.

An then, just some more beautiful scenery that we enjoyed. The shot on the left makes me think of Emperor's New Grove with the monkey on the branch. Like I said, a new world.

On the right is a waterfall called, funnily enough, Bridal Vale Falls. We saw this at a lookout point around Katoomba that had a really steep drop and a rather flimsy chain link fence between us and death, but the view was pretty.

This picture is of the three sisters, or at least it was supposed to be. It's kind of the big tourist attraction of the blue mountains. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a great shot of it, but what can you do?

And now...for your viewing pleasure...I present: The BLUE MOUNTAINS

And here I am in front of the Three Sisters...can't you tell? I mean honestly. Look harder. 

We found this guy in a shopping center in Katoomba where I actually bought the opals I brought home for my mom and me. Since Koala's are my favorite, I simply had to take a picutre with him :)

There's nothing better than a weekend with people you love in such a beautiful setting. 

After sight seeing all day, we went back to the house and headed pretty soon after for dinner at this great Chinese Restaurant in Wentworth Falls. Judy was kind enough to treat us all to some of the greatest Chinese food I have ever had, and I learned to rock a pair of chopsticks which would funnily enough come in handy later on in the week when Tanya and I became Thai experts. (Well...she was the Thai expert. I was just experiencing.)

This trip, while filled with regular family vacation tension, was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was laid back, but full of amazing experiences and sights that one could only possibly see in Australia, and specifically the Blue Mountains, making me once again grateful for the connections I have to this great country, as Judy actually grew up in the Mountain and Tanya, Sam and Janne lived there for most of their lives. They knew exactly where to take me. Back at the house, Tanya and I used the time we had left to book ourselves into the most Sydney-packed week there ever was. Details to come...