Blue Mountains

Due to the whirlwind nature of our trip through Australia, we signed up for a couple organized tours in the Sydney area. The first was a tour of the Blue Mountains, about a 2 hour drive from downtown Sydney. We grabbed a quick croissant while waiting for our absurdly early tour bus. We tried to get on the wrong bus twice but luckily the operators checked our names first since there are multiple tour companies doing similar trips.


Our first stop was a nature park that advertised a "free koala". Megan was really excited to get two new koala pets. It turns out that they only give out small koala stuffed animals which aren't nearly as exciting. On the plus side they let us pet whatever we wanted. Megan got to meet her new favorite animal, the wombat. She also saw more of the echidnas which she also liked. We had the good fortune to see one on the great ocean road but only briefly so it was cool to get a photo of one.

Later on, we got to feed kangaroos. Megan liked it at first but she was being stingy with the food and the one kangaroo decided to take matters into its own hands (feet?) and punched the crap out of her to get the food cup she was holding. Luckily it didn't hurt her, but she did lose most of the food she had. Moral of the story : don't get between a kangaroo and its dinner.

Our next stop was the little town of Leura for lunch. We stopped at the Red Door Cafe where Megan got a pumpkin turkish sandwich and I got a delicious steak sandwich. We have had really good luck with our food choices so far this trip. After getting lunch out of the way, we wandered around town shopping. They have a delicious fudge and candy shop that I was most excited about.

After lunch we went to see the "Three Sisters" which are 3 pillars standing near a cliff face. We walked around the scenic outlook there some before heading to a gondola ride across the valley. After a brief stop on the other side, we took another gondola ride down to the valley floor to check out an old mining town. I think I developed the black lung in that time.

We then took the gondola back up and wandered around the gift shop for a while. Megan REALLY liked a wombat stuffed animal there. I promptly asserted dominance on it and that was that.

Afterwards they took us to the Olympic park which was the site of the 2000 olympics. I think it would have been much cooler had it not been pouring rain. We still got out and looked at the fountain where the olympic flame used to be but didn't explore as much as we might have with better weather. Finally we went to the ferry to take us back to Sydney. We pulled in to the harbor which gave us our first view of the iconic Opera House.

After getting off the ferry we opted to walk back to our hotel so we could see more of Sydney. Along the way we discovered a cupcakery. Looks like the fad is sweeping the world! We of course purchased a set of six for later.

We got back to our hotel and asked the concierge to confirm some of our reservations and also suggest a place for dinner. We ended up with an italian restaurant which we thought was called Burpees. Turns out it was Beppi's. We had asked the concierge what atire to wear there and he told us casual. We unfortunately neglected to realize that casual in Sydney does not equal San Francisco casual. Megan walked in and stopped midway with the door open because there was no one wearing jeans, much less with no collared shirt. Luckily they were still willing to seat us and the food was delicious. Megan had lobster ravioli and I had a mixed seafood over angel hair pasta that both were great. Their bruchetta is also amazing. If you want a fun experience you can request a seat in their wine cellar which is quite extensive.

We knew we had another early tour the next day so we headed back home around 11 and passed out.