G'Day, Australia! G'day, Blue Mountains!

We arrived in Sydney late in the evening, so we spent our first Australian night at an AirBnB close to the airport.  The next morning, we headed straight for the Blue Mountains, about 2 hours outside Sydney.  Our plan was to spend a few days there, then head back to Sydney to see the city's sights before we all went our separate ways (my parents back to the US and us on to Tasmania).

The Blue Mountains are so named because oils from the eucalyptus trees evaporate and give the air a bluish hue.  The area is not made up of true mountains but plateaus and enormous gorges, instead.  Just down the road from our rental house was Govetts Leap Lookout, which had a beautiful view over Grose Valley.

I really love this picture of me and my Dad.

We hiked down into the valley on a multi-hour hike through landscape that changed from brush to rainforest as we descended.  It was really pretty and peaceful.

One of the best parts of our stay in the Blue Mountains was the amazing birds that came to the back patio and yard of our house!  We spent a couple of hours just watching these guys interact with each other and with the boys, who were thrilled to feed them up close.

We also saw the famous 3 Sisters, which stand tall above the Jamison Valley.

We took a short walk to get closer to the 3 Sisters, and we were able to walk out to the first of the formations.

Later that afternoon we walked through the small town of Katoomba.  The boys love chess, so they were excited to find this outdoor board set up in a park.

One evening we took the boys to a Bat Night, which was being held close to our house.  We heard several scientists talk about different aspects of the Australian bat population, and we were able to see a flying fox up close.  It was a really nice little community event, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.

And of course.........being foreigners in Australia for the first time........we tried Vegemite!

We all tried a small amount and, since none of us liked it, we decided to donate the rest of the jar to our AirBnB place.  When we opened up the pantry, we found at least 3 other jars of Vegemite that all looked like they had about a spoonful taken out.....apparently quite a few tourists have done exactly the same thing as us.  Good thing we all liked our first days in Australia much better than our first taste of Vegemite....