In the morning, Fiona dropped us off at a nearby Avis so we could pick up our rental car. Driving on the left side of the road was surprisingly easier than I expected, but there were still a few hiccups. Luckily, Valerie would flinch whenever I got too close to the edge of the road or another vehicle. I’m really glad we got a GPS. Not only does it tell you where to go, it also tells you where speed cameras are located and NSW is full of them.

Our first touristic stop of the day was Featherdale Wildline Park. It contains an impressive collection of Australian animals, including koalas, wombats, kangaroos, tasmanian devils, and flying foxes. Most of the koalas were unapproachable (I hear they can be quite vicious), but the staff let us take a picture with one of the tamer ones. We also bought some kangaroo food for $1 and fed some wallabies.

After the park, we drove to Canberra and checked into our B&B. We stopped in downtown Dickson (a suburb of Canberra) for some dinner. Dickson has an impressive collection of pan-Asian restaurants. Unfortunately, most of them were closed because it was a Monday, so we settled for an inexpensive Korean restaurant with okay TripAdvisor ratings.

Glenn and Fiona drove us up to the Blue Mountains. From a distance, the mountains have a slightly bluish tint. Glenn says that the bluish hue is caused by a chemical released into the air by the many eucalyptus trees that grow upon the mountains. We stopped at several scenic viewpoints along the way. Australia is a truly beautiful country (and I’ve only seen a tiny part of it).

One particularly memorable stop were the Leura Cascades, a series of small waterfalls followed by much larger waterfall. We hiked the trail down along the stream, taking pictures along the way. Valerie was initially frightened that she would be bitten by mosquitos along the way, but later revised her fear to include some kind of Australian biting fly.

We were all hungry from the hiking, so we stopped at a favorite local eatery for lunch (or dinner or whatever Australians call the mid-day meal). Unfortunately, they were full, so we found a nearby French restaurant that was notable for its particularly non-descript dish names such as “piece de boeuf.”

Our drive continued into Katoomba where we saw the Three Sisters, a formation of three adjacent pillar-like rocks. Glenn, Valerie, and I hiked a bit to a better viewpoint of the Sisters and the top of something called the “Giant Staircase.” Perhaps earlier in the trip Valerie and I would have attempted to descend the staircase, but by this point in the trip neither of us was in good enough shape to do so. Thus, Valerie descended a couple flights of stairs for a picture and then we returned to the parking area. From the top, we could see Scenic World, which offers a touristic mine car ride down into the old mine shaft as well as a gondola to somewhere in the adjacent valley. We decided against taking the death-defying descent into the mine shaft.

In the morning, Glenn took Valerie and me on a nice scenic drive along Lake Burragorang culminating in a visit to Warragamba Dam. Glenn says that visitors used to be able to walk along the top of the dam (similar to Hoover Dam in the US), but after 9/11, new security measures disallowed it. Tomorrow, there is some sort of dam celebration during which people can once again walk on the dam, but we’ll be busy visiting the Blue Mountains.

The highlight of the day was the Fernandez family gathering. I finally got a chance to meet so many of my relatives living in Australia including several of my grandmother’s siblings, their children, and their families. We ate a feast of Indian food while discussing the family, Australia, and current events. It was great to meet and talk to everyone who came and hopefully some of them will come to visit us in the Bay Area in the future.