A Fun Weekend in The Blue Mountains by Suzanne

We've had a busy weekend, so I feel like I need to blog about it!  Friday was Ethan and my 16th anniversary.  Usually we take turns planning the date, I do even numbered years.  But since he has more contacts down here, he took this year to plan.  We are fortunate that the kids are old enough we can leave them in the hotel for a couple of hours to go out.  We went to The Rocks area, just a short walk from our hotel, and ate at an Italian restaurant called Apetito.  It was a very nice meal, probably the nicest we've had since being down here.  The funny thing was, as we ordered, another couple ordered next to us.  They both had the lasagna, and so did I.  (Ethan had gnocci.)  Both of these people quickly finished the quite large portion of lasagna, and I thought to myself, "they sure are going through their meal quickly!"  I ended up really only eating a little more than half of the lasagna.  (To be fair, we did share some bruschetta first.)  But soon I realized that these people next to us both had another even larger entree in front of each of them.  The lasagna apparently was only their appetizer!  They each finished another full meal...one I think was the swordfish special, and the other some sort of chicken entree.  With each entree not only being quite large, but expensive as well, (mostly in the $30's) we were very surprised with their appetites!!!

Anyway, the meal was good.  Then we went next door to have a drink at the "oldest pub in Sydney,"  Fortune of War.  A solo guitarist was just starting to play, and he ended up playing all covers to songs that we knew.  It was a blast, the crowd was getting larger as he continued to play and eventually everyone was dancing and singing at the top of their lungs.  He even handed out instruments to those close by, and Ethan played the cowbell for several songs.  We had a wonderful time!

This pic was taken on our tiny balcony off of our hotel room.

Then Saturday morning we got up early and rented a car to drive to The Blue Mountains.  We had been told to stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park on our way there.  It was a great place!  There were many areas with the wallabies and kangaroos just wandering around where you could not only pet them but even get some food to feed them.  They were not too scared of people so it was fun to get to spend time with them.

Look at the little baby sticking out of the mama's pouch!

It was also the closest we had gotten to koalas.  We didn't get to hold them, but got pictures right with them and pet them.  Yes, they do stink!!!  :)

Here are several more animals that we saw there...

(That dingo ate my baby!!!)

There is a huge salt water crocodile behind him...

Here is the saltwater croc...

OK so on to the Blue Mountains!  We stayed at a lovely resort much like a mountain lodge in Leura, called The Fairmont Resort.  The two towns that we looked through were Leura and Katoomba.  Both felt like quaint European towns with one main street filled with cafes and shops down both sides.  Ethan had to get used to driving on the left side of the road.  We did have a few scary moments!  

We got to see the main attraction of the Blue Mountains, "The Three Sisters" and we hiked down to them as well.  There is an old legend that a witch doctor turned 3 aborigine sisters into stone long ago.  

Amazingly, the first day we were there it rained on and off...but we got a perfect shot of a rainbow over the 3 sisters!  It's not fake!!!  Absolutely gorgeous...

We got to ride on a skyway, a railway, and do many walks through these mountains.

This is the railway, originally made for coal miners to ride down into the valley.  Now it is only used for tourists.  It is the steepest railway in the world, I believe...it goes down at a 52 degree slope!

This is in the Fairmont Resort Hotel

Katoomba Falls, one of the waterfalls in the Blue Mountains.

Inside the Skyway!

We had a great weekend, and it was nice to have a change of scenery from the big city!  We do miss you all back in the states, but our time here is going fast already and we'll be home before we know it!

Suzanne