Happy Birthday

This year my birthday was extra special. My birthday was on Monday and Friday afternoon I got an email from Stan telling me to "pick an option" from the options below. Each option was a different adventures near Sydney AND each option was for an overnight/weekend out...Stan even got the babysitter. I was so excited I didn't know what to choose; here were some of the options: Rock climbing, horseback riding or hiking through the blue mountains just 45 minutes west of Sydney (it looks like Yellowstone national park) and the overnight option was either camping or a bed and breakfast. Another option was going two hours north to some of the more pristine beaches and swim, shop and kayak. Another option was to go down south two hours to Kangaroo Valley where there are mountain rainforest's and rivers and waterfalls and obviously Australia's natural wildlife (wallabies and wombats). The last option was a night in the city in a fancy hotel and dinner at a nice restaurant.

Since I had already been to the blue mountains (although we couldn't hike because we had the kids with us), and I had already been up north to some beautiful beaches (again with kids so kayaking couldn't happen) and I had already been around the city quite a bit both with and without kids I opted for Kangaroo Valley. In addition we were supposed to go down there with our USA friends the following weekend but had to cancel last minute since Olivia was due back in the hospital to get her stents out.

So our trip began. Stan still pulled out all the fancy stops along the way so it was more like a morphing of all the options. For instance he found a fancy gourmet restaurant that specializes in degustation about half way down to the valley. Stan's business partner offered to treat the dinner (especially because he knew we didn't drink) and the whole experience lasted over two hours. We drove the rest of the way down a windy mountain (I felt car sick) and then finally came to a valley that was completely covered in fog and reminded me a lot of England because it was so green. Apparently the valley is surrounded by mountains of rainforest (not the Amazonian jungle type) so it is really moist and not as dry as the rest of Australia. We stayed in a bed and breakfast and were the only guests that evening. The host was a fun and feisty old lady who was very prompt and detailed. She made the most amazing spread for breakfast and informed us it was all from the farm. We looked out the window and saw chickens, cows, rainbow lorikeets and a big lake. It reminded me a lot of Montana in a more temperate climate.

Once we checked out we headed off to the rainforest and waterfalls. The drives were beautiful. Big trees and forest everywhere. One part of the road intersected with the beginning of a waterfall and you got to drive through the water.

Just to the left you could see where the water fell off the ledge.

After seeing three waterfalls we headed back to the valley where Stan booked me a massage at this natural outdoor spa place.

It was really relaxing and while I relaxed for one hour Stan grabbed some picnic food and we headed over to the place where you rent boats. We rented a canoe and Stan paddled me for about two hours down a lazy river while I turned around and talked to him the whole time. There were some fish that would jump out of the water, it was obviously a great fishing spot but we had no gear. Here are some pictures of the boat ride.

It was mostly just peaceful and quite with nature all around, in addition we were completely secluded. The most the river offered were level 1 rapids which meant that our boat got stuck a few times on the rocks in slow current :-) Stan got out to push :-)

After canoeing we turned in our boat and headed back home. On our way back the fog came back into the valley (this was during sunset) we tried to take a picture with Stan's phone but it did not compare to how beautiful it really was.

Also, we were laughing because we never saw any Kangaroos in Kangaroo valley! Overall, it was a great weekend out and one of the few in our marriage (going on 8 years). Thanks Stan for a great birthday!