5 humans, 1 world, lots of adventures!

Rather randomly, we ended up adding a stop on our journey. We hadn’t planned on a Blue Mountains trip until about 6 days ago. We found a lovely little cabin and came up here. Turns out we coincidentally spent my dad’s birthday (April 1) in a town he and Anna took G and me to back in 2009. We are in the town of Katoomba. We started out at Echo Point, looking at the Three Sisters rock formation. This area is another UNESCO World Heritage Site (our 4th of this trip - Other ones were Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia / Shark Bay, and the Great Barrier Reef). We walked down the great staircase to sit beneath the closest sister. And we picked up a LOT of trash. :( Then we went to “Scenic World” inside the National Park. We hiked the same trails as we hiked with my dad a decade ago. And had a beer / popsicle / hot chocolate on the same open-air cafe where we had beers back then. Lots of lovely memories created today, and lots of memories reflected on. And Dianne, who served us the drinks, gave...

We had such fun at the park in Thirroul (just north of Wollongong). Jeremy and Lena drove down from Sydney, amd after my sister and her family left, the rest of us went out for a yummy lunch. Then our family of 5 headed off to the Blue Mountains and the Mountain Heritage Hotel. Breathtaking views at this old hotel, the only one in Australia still working in its designed purpose (hotel then, hotel now). It is ccccccccold here, though, so we pulled out the cold weather clothes and started a fire! G made lentil souo for dinner.

We are in Wollongong, a lovely ocean-side city about 90 minutes south of Sydney. We got here via a GORGEOUS scenic route, high above the ocean. Once in Wollongong, we went straight to the Botanic Gardens to run around. Then we went to our apartment ... only to find 4 cockroaches in 2 minutes. Sydney was to sleep on the floor there, and that just wasn’t going to work, so we checked out, got a refund, and started searching for another spot. G convinced the beach front hotel to give us a good rate so in we went. The fun part of the cockroach story is thaI s caught and released her first bug. The girls have been watching me do it for years so this was wonderful for me to see. Very proud mama! The girls and G went to a beach front park while I got take-out (no kitchen in the new hotel). On March 30, we woke up and had breaky. Then the girls and G went to the Science Museum and the Discovery Centre while I had coffee with my siater. Then more running around as the sun came out. Tomor...

Our final full day in Sydney and we had a great day! I started out by taking Dan and Michele to the airport early morning, and stopped at the dive shop (same chain as in Melbourne) where we bought the wetsuits. Ii's fell apart so I handed in the warranty for an exchange. I had a great lamington / donut and a soy latte from a coffee shop down the street. It is owned by a 21 year old who opened her own business and makes her own pastries. It was delicious! Back to downtown Sydney I went (with my phone battery dying on me so I had to wing it in getting back to the hotel!). Meanwhile, G took the girls to "The Walrus" for breakfast where they had delicious food and finished breaky up with macaroons! We met back up at the hotel and I took over kid duty while G headed to "Kids on Cotton." He got a bug in his hat that the girls needed some new t-shirts and since all things summer are on crazy discounts here (fall started on March 21), it seemed like a good time ...