Mom arrived on Saturday morning safe and sound. I met her at the airport early in the morning. Thank goodness her flights were all late because I was late getting to the airport. I had booked a shuttle to take me to the airport at 5:30am but it didn't show up. Finally it showed up just before 6am, but mom's flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:10, and the shuttle was supposed to take 30-45 min. Luckily the shuttle didn't take to long and I arrived about 6:15. Mom didn't arrive until closer to 7am so she wasn't standing there waiting for me. We then caught the train back to central station and walked to our hostel. We went down to the kitchen and had breakfast and checked out the lonely planet about what we wanted to do. Mom was a bit tired so she laid down for a nap. After about an hour she felt better so we went to Darling harbour, to the Sydney Aquarium. We spent the rest of the morning there and then found a place to have lunch on the harbour. We also stopped in for a visit at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe. Mom did a bit of shopping. We were going to the opera house but mom wanted to go back to the room and put her bags there. Once we got there she was tired and decided to have a nap. I hung out in the room for awhile but then decided to take my computer and go sit in the lounge area of the hostel. I let her sleep about 3 hours and then got her up so we could go for supper. We walked around for about 20 minutes and decided on Subway. I know as if that is what you want to eat when you come to Australia, but mom was still a bit tired and not that hungry. After supper we came back to the room and I was showing mom some of my pictures of the trip when she decided she was ready for bed. I went back to the lounge room and hung out for another few hours. I did go to bed early as well since I was up around 5am.
On mothers day mom was awake fairly early. We had our breakfast and checked out of the hostel. We caught the 10:30am train to Wollongong to go and stay with Anne and Jim. When we arrived we ate lunch and then went for a tour of the city. Mom, Jim and Anne seemed to hit it off well. We stayed up that night drinking Bailey's and playing dice. I could tell that mom was exhausted so I said I was going to bed so she wouldn't feel bad for following me.
The next morning mom was awake early because of the time difference. We didn't do a lot in the morning and after lunch we caught the train back into Sydney. It is about a hour and a half train ride, so we have lots of time to catch up. Once we got checked into our room we went down to the grocery store to grab a few things for breakfast the next morning. We also decided while walking around that we would go to see a movie, but plans changed. When I got back to the room I checked my email to find I was invited out to diner with a friend. Mom and I had picked up a few things for supper so had an early meal. I had a snack since I wasn't meeting my friend until 8pm. By the time I left the room mom was just reading a book and planning on checking her emails before bed. I caught a train to Circular Quay, which is where the opera house is located. I met up with my friend Dean who I met on Fraser Island. We walked around Circular Quay to get some good photos of the opera house as well as the Sydney harbour bridge. Dean had spent the afternoon climbing the bridge, so I was excited to hear all about it. We went for a quick bite and a few drinks at a pub and then spend the rest of the night walking around. Dean then walked me back to Sydney Central even though he was staying in Kings Cross. What a gentleman! I felt a bit bad that he had so far to walk and it was almost midnight, but he didn't seem one bit discouraged. He claims he loves to walk threw cities.
This morning was an early morning. We took a tour to the Blue Mountains and it left at 7:30am. We were up and ate breakfast and waiting outside by 7:15am. I was a bit tired since I didn't get home until 11:30pm the night before. I also felt bad since Dean was taking a tour of the Blue Mountains as well and his started at 7am and he got back to his hostel after me. Our first stop was an animal sanctuary. Mom was delighted to see kangaroos, koalas and all sorts of different animals. (Wombats are by far the cutest.) We then went out to the mountains where we stopped at a lookout for some nice photos. We then had our lunch at a little hotel with a restaurant. Our next stop was a small hike to see the wentworth falls. I was really hoping to write something about how the falls were almost as beautiful as Wentworth Miller but I would be lying if I said they were even that nice. It was about 200 steps down to the lookout and it felt like 2000 coming back up. From there we went to check out the "three sisters" and we lucky to have a clear day to see them so well. After that we went to the scenic railway which is the steepest railway in the world. It felt like a roller coaster ride that only lasted a minute. Then we hiked around the bottom for about 30 min and took the sky cable back up. This was not fun for me and I didn't look out at the view even once. Thank goodness it only took about 3 min, unlike the one coming back from Kurranda. We then got back onto the bus and came back to Sydney. We stopped to have a look at the Olympic stadium. We then boarded a fairy that took us to either Darling Harbour or Circular Quay. We decided to get off at Circular Quay so we could see the bridge and opera house from the water. Although Darling Harbour is closer to our accommodation it was still worth the walk. Since it was just after 6pm we walked threw the city back to our room. It was a nice walk except for mom questioning my navigating skills. We didn't have a map so she didn't believe I actually knew where I was going. We made it back just fine and are now both knackered from our long day. Mom is already asleep and I will be shortly after I post this.
Until next time,
Cindy
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