6 Jan : Katoomba

 After yesterday's monster hike, my feet were a little sore. This called for a REST DAY which was good since we had laundry to do anyway. That actually went by pretty fast even while skyping with +Lisa, +Jarrett, Jeffrey and Mollie.

Right before laundry, we stopped at a coffee shop Jill had spotted yesterday. They dabble in waffle of the month and with our incredible luck we scored m&m waffles for January. The owner was funny/cool and loved playing around. He likes my m&m pancakes concept that guests at our house enjoy.

M&M Waffle Pancakes - how do we find these things?

After folding & repacking clothes, we needed a day of "drive up" lookouts. We got some recommendations from the hotel. 2 out of 3 weren't bad with maybe 30 stairs total. But the 3rd one was more than I wanted on a "rest day". The views on that one made up for it but half an hour round trip was more than I was looking for with drive up tourism today.

Fortunately after this we spent a good chunk of the afternoon next to and in the infinity pool at the hotel. Refreshing! I even caught a catnap out there under an umbrella.

Marc enjoying the infinity pool at Echoes

Late in the afternoon, we walked from our hotel (The Echoes) to Echo Point which has fantastic view points. So much of a good thing can be had here that it is one of the few places they charge for street parking all the way to our hotel. It was packed when we drove by there earlier, but not too bad at all at 5pm. We got some panorama pics along with a quick video where I panned our camera. My feet were feeling much better so the day of rest was indeed welcome.

Echo Point and the Three Sisters Panoramic

We ate upstairs at the hotel so that was a simple, easy walk up one flight of stairs. Way easier than the walks on signs that they classify as "easy" yet involve hundreds of stairs.