Blue Mountain Excursion Day 2!

So this was today.

After sorta sleeping, I woke up on time and without any help from an alarm clock. Amazing. I ended up taking a shower just to wash my hair and because I didn't pack a towel (my other regret besides not bringing my running shoes and not shaving), I used dirty clothes such as my t-shirts and jeans. It worked pretty well. I remembered soap and shampoo this time, and my flip flops! We had breakfast set out by Brett the tour guide. I ate cereal and 2 pieces of toast. Cameron spilled the apple juice all over the table and I had orange juice. He later drank apple juice when it was cleaned up.

The tour guide packed our lunches too which was nice. Chicken sandwiches, granola bar, and an apple. We ate and tossed our sheets into the laundry hamper and checked out. After gathering everyone together, we set off. We went to a lookout area that showed a good view of the Blue Mountains. We snapped a few shots and then went on to the "Grand Canyon Circuit" trail. I guess they have a Grand Canyon too. They also have a Maple Grove, and I saw the sign for the place as we were driving. At the lookout there was a place that reminded me of the Cair Paravel ruins in Prince Caspian, the movie. Nifty.

Then we went on the long haul. We walked for a few hours up and down and all around these stairs. They were man-made with stones. Others were luckily placed stones in nature. It was rough! My arm was sore from the cave and now both my arms and both legs are sore from either the cave or the walk or both. We were all out of breath at the end. I was running out of room left on the camera for pictures. We had to keep watch of our feet so we didn't misstep. It was pretty tricky. Looking up was very amazing but also not smart if you still walked. I was scared when I was taking a video with the camera while walking and balancing. Luckily I didn't fall! I'm glad Bernard didn't go on this walk because we would have been slowed down I think. He rode a train back to Concord because he didn't want to walk that much. I'm still so amazed he did the cave! He is a bit rounder than any of us...and older too! His mom is 93!

While we were walking I did accidentally CLONK my head on the rock really hard because I was looking at my feet. It hurt but no headache came of it and I was fine. No concussion I assume...and we made it out of the entire place by noon. It was rough!

We got in the van and ate lunch. We were driven around to a bunch of other view areas to take more pics. We had ice cream cones at once place while we waited for Doug and Sonja to do a $14 train up and down the steep cliffs. We went to another town called Leura and went to their shops for an hour. Well all but Jenny took 30 mins, but we had to wait an hour for her. Oh well. I got lemonade for the first time here, fizzy! It was great! We went to a vintage clothes/books/stuff in general store, a tea store, a candle store, and a stationary store. Pretty boring to me but whatever. After that was done, we drove home. It rained a bit on the freeway. It only took like an hour to get home. How weird is that? Traffic I suppose...

Then I caught up online, took a shower, watched some TV and podcasts, blogged a bunch, saw Bourne Ultamatum on TV, put up my pics, talked to my mom on the phone (found out my dad has passed away and the funeral is Tuesday), and now I'm off to bed.