Chris whisked me away for a long weekend get away! Monday is a day off to celebrate Australia Day so Chris planned a long weekend for us which is wonderful!
____Australia Day, also known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day and Invasion Day, is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, marking the start of British colonisation of Australia–thanks Wikipedia!!!!!!____

After spending 30 minutes or so on the phone with the Northwest Airlines folks to try to pinpoint where my suitcase is i have pretty much decided that despite Chris’ best efforts to impress upon them that it is in their best interest to locate it the suitcase will never be seen again. I am trying not to obsess about this but I am afraid I am not being successful at it. But the weekend away will help me refocus on the important matters at hand and that is not one of them!

We got on the road early and stopped along the way to photograph some waterfalls which are pretty spectacular now with all of the heavy rainfall. We also stopped at the Neranda Tea Plantation and took tons of tea pictures and checked out the gift shoppe and museum part. They were not operating today so we did not take a tour of the facility but hope to do that some day. After all this time I finally got to a tea plantation!!! Chris had planned this all out for me and it was a wonderful thing!

We stopped at a great little dairy (Mungalli Creek Dairy) and had a delicious lunch of frittata and quiche and the best ice cream we have ever tasted—-I had mango and Chris had macademia and it was rich, rich, rich!!! One scoop was all you could handle! The restaurant was called “Out of the Whey” and we sampled some of their cheeses also which were really yummy.

We stopped at another beautiful waterfall in Millaa Millaa and it was probably the best one I have ever seen and we might stop on the way back to go swimming there. No danger of crocs or stingers up here!!!

We made it to Yunngaburra and checked into our B & B —-a cute little place called the Kookaburra Lodge—nothing fancy and the room is small but it is clean and will definitely be good for a two night stay. We can have our breakfast on our veranda and enjoy the sounds of the birds and geckos (I will never escape them). Tonight we are going to walk into town for dinner and hope to catch some platypus (platypi???) in the viewing areas that are around in the town. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Chris has always wanted to see one so we will see if it happens!!!

All in all a wonderful day—-I am feeling a little foggy and jetlagged still but hopefully that will pass soon. I slept like a rock last night—-but I dreamed I missed my flight somewhere and it took me awhile after I woke up to realize that it was a dream. I think the whole flying thing has me stressed out or something.

I had to take pictures on Chris’ camera today as my battery was flat so I will get those uploaded soon and include some of the pictures from today. I know you are all waiting!!! LOL