Mom's Visit - Part 2 - Bus Trips to the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains

I don't know if it's the "senior" in me but there's something about bus trips that I just love. We took two while in Sydney...one to the Hunter Valley during Mom's first week and another to the Blue Mountains during her third and final week. The Hunter Valley is the oldest wine-producing region in Australia, famous for it's semillons (yum). We visited three wineries on our tour, with an exceptionally impressive number of tastings at each. I don't think I've ever seen my mom drink so much all in one day...in one month, actually (holding her alcohol is not one of her best traits).

The Blue Mountain region, an area of bush and unique rock formations, is approximately an hour and a half northwest of Sydney in a national park. On the way there, we visited Olympic Park, home of the 2000 summer Olympics, and an area of the national park with large kangaroo and wallaby populations, before heading to the main attractions...the famous "Three Sisters" (the three-headed rock formation above Mom's left shoulder), Wentworth Falls and Katoomba Falls. Mom was such a trouper, agreeing (despite bursitis in one knee) to walk down over 1000 steps, a lot very steep, to visit the rainforest at the foot of the 'mountains'. She did great! Fortunately, we were able to take the (so-called) steepest train in the world to get back up.