We got up this morning to clear skies, cold air and wind – which is better that cold, wet wind. There are a variety of hikes around the cliffs. We bought trolley passes which allowed us to get on and off in different places.

On the walk up through town I spotted some lovely flowers outside a flower shop. Do orchids really come in this shade of blue?

And these were pretty. I'd have gotten a bunch but we're moving around too much.

We're in the Blue Mountains. Do they look a little blue there behind me?

There are cliffs that look a little bit like the Grand Canyon. The Three Sisters are a famous rock formation…

We went over to Scenic World and road the (sort of scary) cable car across the canyon. We also rode down into rain forest at the bottom of the canyon and the railway back up. In all cases I was busy enough holding firmly onto the rails that I did not take photos.

And one last photo to share is of the crosswalk sign. I do love the signs in Australia. I don't know if it's just that they are different, but I think the graphics are better. This says 'crosswalk' better than the signs at home do.

We left Canberra and headed to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. We drove through lots of sheep stations (ranches). In fact, we saw the Big Merino in Goulburn. I didn't go in the shop and now wish I had.

The backside of the Big Merino cracked me up…

The countryside was really lovely…

We've seen kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats on the drive. These are all big enough that you really don't want to hit them with a car but it's obvious from the roadkill that cars are hitting a fair number of these animals. We saw this wallaby on the drive…

On all of our drives we've seen these fire danger signs. Australia is a dry continent and they have been in drought for many years. This year they have gotten more rain so the arrows on the signs we've seen point to low-moderate. Notice the highest danger – catastrophic.

I bought some pretty candy. Steve got the lemon drops which are pretty tasty. The flavor I bought is sort of unusual, but it's a good color.

…is a great shop in Canberra. I had the pleasure of teaching a 2-day class at Addicted to Fabric. The women in my class were wonderful and everyone made excellent progress on their own quilt based on The Ground from our book, Applique Outside the Lines. It was fun to be in the room and share in the creative energy. Did I take pictures? Well, no. I was way too busy teaching. Did I find time to buy fabric? Yes, of course!

Addicted to Fabric has some of the most wonderful Australian and Japanese fabric.

(I'm teaching in Melbourne September 3-5 and I hear there is still room in the workshops. If you are interested, give the folks at Amitie a call.)

Steve got out and about. He went back to Booroomba Rocks and got the actual rocks.

And he went to the Australian National Botanic Gardens – with the camera… This looks like holly with golden flowers.

Don't know what this is, but I like it…

We drove from Canberra to the coast – about 2
hours away. We crossed some mountains and the roads were as winding and steep
as many I’ve been on in Colorado. At Murramarang we found a friendly group of
what I think are kangaroos (as opposed to wallabies which.

I saw what looked like a dandelion on steroids.
On closer inspection I realized that it had spikes on the leaves – lots of
them! I dubbed it the scary plant.

There were lovely sandy beaches and outcroppings of sandstone that have been carved by the sea.
 

The clouds in the sky were especially nice…

On the drive out I saw what looked like some
sort of animal in the trees. They didn’t look particularly good, in fact they
sort of looked like scruffy stuffed bears. One resembled a gorilla. I asked
about them in Bateman’s Bay and found that there are, in fact, hundreds of
stuffed animals in the trees on highway 52 between Canberra and Bateman’s Bay.
On the way home I took photos…

Can you spot the bear?

On close inspection you can tell that these have
been out there a while.

…is the seat of government. Elections are this coming weekend and the politicians are out and about and not here. I don’t think I miss them. We are staying at the Medina Apartments so we have a kitchen which is very nice. Here's a view out of our front door:

The trees in the courtyard are budding out!

I love Australia – more specifically, I love Australians. They are both friendly and polite, casual and helpful. There are probably cranky Australians, but we haven’t met any.

A case in point was our experience picking up our rental car this morning. We arrived at 10:00 with paperwork in hand showing that we had paid in advance for our car. Unfortunately we were not in the Eurocar system. It took three people and call to the US (boy was I glad my cell phone worked and that there was someone awake in the US to take the call) to figure out that somehow our reservation had turned into a 2-day (rather than 11-day) reservation in Tasmania (rather than Canberra) in June (rather than August). Only our name was correct. But the three people on the business side of the counter were helpful, assumed that it was a problem on their end (not ours) and we did end up with a car in a reasonable amount of time. All in all, it was an amazingly good experience.

After getting the (tiny, baby blue) car, we went to the National Library for a look-see and lunch. Next was the National Portrait Gallery. I loved that – a museum full of contemporary and traditional portraits of Australians. I much prefer faces to landscapes so this was a treat. No photos allowed or I’d share some.

In the afternoon we drove south to Booroomba Rocks, part of a national park whose name I forget. The land is similar to that in the US, but it is not the same. The trees are different – mostly eucalyptus. They remind me so much of trees drawn by Dr. Seuss. The birds are different – we saw parrots, cockatoos, and magpies today. Their calls are are new to my ears and that caught me by surprise. (We didn't start early enough to make it to the actual rocks, but we did put in a 4-5 mile hike.)

Spotted these mail barrels (not exactly mailboxes). They look functional.

So, driving on the other side of the road is not for the faint of heart. I navigate and Steve drives. Traffic is different and it’s not just that you drive on the left. There are traffic circles in many places instead of traffic lights. Steve missed the yield sign once and we barely escaped death but that experience had a focusing effect. He’s mostly got them figured out now. (Jeff, if you are reading this, I didn’t grab the dash or scream. It happened too fast.) Traffic appears to move better with the circles because there is a lot less stopping.

I took this photo out the car window on the way home from Booroomba Rocks. The gray branches against the gray sky were lovely.

Steve and I are in Canberra, Australia! It was a 3-plane trip: Dallas to Los Angeles to Sydney to Canberra. The long ride over the water took 14 hours but it wasn’t as bad as I remember it being. The Qantas aircraft was a practically new A380. We were in economy but the seats were pretty comfortable and there is a really nice foot-net under the seats. It’s not really a foot-rest – it is more of a net (or sling) that supports your feet and lower legs. Every plane should have them.

We bought some flat, inflatable seat cushions from LL Bean before we left home. I will never again fly without mine. Plane seats are very hard and these help.

On the flight from Sydney to Canberra we were on a prop plane. The propellers were right outside my window. I try not to dwell on them when they are moving.

It was a short flight but the flight attendants hid time to serve tea and coffee. They gave us each a tablemat ‘package’. The mat is similar to a thick paper towel – but better. I got a green one and Steve’s was a purple/indigo. When open they almost cover the tray table. A fold on the left holds a sleeve with a napkin, sugar, and stirrer. I have to say that Qantas pays a lot more attention to design details than I am used to in an airline.

It is hot at home in Texas – hovering around 100 degrees. It’s late winter in Canberra and the trees are just budding out. We got out and walked in the breezy cold air – and later in the rain. As Steve says “we are training our circadian rhythm to a new zeitgeber” (zeit means time and geber means giver). I hope to go to bed around 10:00 PM and wake up in the morning good as new.

PS – That didn't happen. We crashed at 7:30 and slept for 11 hours!