Wednesday+Jun+17

First, I want to thank all of you parents for your wonderful children. They would make you so proud. They really represent Shikellamy, Pennsylvania and America with dignity and grace. There is no whining or complaining. They are on time and always in good spirits. Our tour guide has commented on how wonderful we are. I am grateful.

Today we slept in until 7 AM!!. After breakfast in the hotel, we loaded a bus and headed into the Blue Mountains. It turns out our bus driver was the same bloke as yesterday. He took us through the 2000 Olympic Village were we had a 10 minute picture stop. Our two-hour ride to the mountains was in the rain. When we arrived at the IMAX theater to see "The Ridge",Sean our guide promised it wouldn't be raining when we got out. "The Ridge" was a movie about the faility of the Australian wild. The cinematography was spectacular. I hope the students got an understanding of man's impact on this fragile environment. We also learned about and saw pictures of the Pine tree from the age of the dinosaurs. Truly amazing. When we left the theater, it wasn't raining, but the fog had set in. It was a lousy day for looking out overlooks!! No worries - we ate a quick lunch and by the time we caught a nearly vertical tram ride into the canyon, it has cleared enough to get some lovely shots of the rock formation called the "Three Sisters". We had a nature walk through the canyon and took a gondola ride back to the rim. On our way back to Sydney, we crossed over the Harbour Bridge (the coat hanger..). We have a free night here in Sydney. Most of us are going to the Sydney Symphony. The rest are planning on watching the Socceroos (the Australian Soccer team) play Japan. What a great experience for everyone!! Tomorrow we fly to tropical Cairns. I hope there is internet there!!

Apologies for lousy spelling and typing.

[|DSC_0002.JPG] The bus

[|DSC_0019.JPG] Overlook in the fog

[|DSC_0028.JPG] What we saw when the fog finally cleared