The Blue Mountains

After our trip to heavenly Avoca, we decided to keep the rental car an extra day and take a trip up to the Blue Mountains. These are not like mountains we have in the northwest, but they are very beautiful in their own way. These mountains are more like really big hills covered in eucalyptus trees. Fun fact - The Blue Mountains actually have a perennial blue haze, caused by light striking eucalyptus oil particles.

There are several cute and quaint towns along the road as you get into the blue mountains. Our first stop was a wonderful little town called Leura. We wandered many little shops and Amy got a delicious scone (served with fresh cream and jam). We really loved wandering around here.

Actually, one of our first stops was a really REALLY good chocolate shop. We each picked one chocolate (Amy with a cappuchino chocolate, Jason with a Peanut Butter Chocolate) and ate them up immediately....but we stopped to get a quick pic because they were so pretty....

Ella had fun trying on sun glasses at one of the many toy shops....

And then continuing on to Katoomba, we went and saw these famous mountains pictured below, the Three Sisters.

We took a Scenic Skyway tram ride across the rain forest in this.....it was really cool! It even had a glass floor.

Here is Wentworth Falls - you get a beautiful view of it from the tram. Once we got to the other side of the rain forest canyon, we hiked around to the top of this waterfall. The picture really doesn't do the height of the waterfall justice....

We thought that all the trees below us looked like broccoli. :) A nice older couple took this picture for us while we were hiking around. They (along with every other person we've met here!) were incredibly kind.