Australia Trip: Where has the time gone? . . .

It is now Sunday evening after a day with worship and a house full of friends and family noisily catching up on our travels and deepening our relationships before we jet off tomorrow for home in the northern hemisphere. We've gotten to know some great people while we've been here and could be seeing some of them in the next year or two as we've invited many to stop in and use our guest room if they are ever coming through. But for now, time is quickly slipping away.

We had spent Friday night at a nice hotel in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains and got up to make one more visit to the little Megalong Valley Tea Rooms for a delicious breakfast, or "brekkie" as the Aussie term goes. We just couldn't stay away from the friendly comfort of the place and the people. We then proceeded to squeeze in as much viewing of the beauty of the mountains and the valley as we could before making our way back down to a late dinner with the whole Andrews family, recapping some of our adventures and observations and having one more good family time together.

And now, as the song goes, our bags are packed (well, 98%) and we're ready to go... tired but full of joy and profoundly thankful for the opportunity to visit dear family and make wonderful new friends as well as to see and learn so much about this amazing land down under and the people who live here. We have a pile of memories to unpack and savor for a long time to come. We'll be writing one more post... this one just some reflections on some of the things and experiences that have made this whole trip so delightful along the way.

And, yes, it is a bit strange to be getting on the plane in Sydney at 1:40pm on Monday and, twenty-four hours later be getting off the connecting flight from LAX in SEATAC at only 4:50pm on the same Monday!

A few closing images...