Two days in Canberra

We all needed a few days out of town and I am always happy for a road trip so to tick another state/territory off of Kelly's tour of Australia we headed down to the ACT (Canberra) for a long weekend.

Luca & Scout at the Big Merino

It takes just over three hours door to door but with the kids there is no way that this is a non-stop drive. We were not even close to being out of Sydney when the inevitable when are we going to get there questions started. We had planned well with a stop scheduled for Goulburn, home of the world's biggest Merino sheep. We had sewn the seed with Luca and he was expecting to see a very large, live sheep (not concrete), his disappointment was tempered by a chance to get out of the car and have something to eat. It was also possibly the coldest weather either of them had experienced at around 4 degrees C.

The journey to Canberra from Goulburn was easy, helped by high rotation of Pitbull (Luca's favourite musician) on the stereo. We had our day planned well, as soon as we reached Canberra we headed to the National War Museum. I could spend two full days in the place easily, it is such an interesting place and so well done. Except for Scouty we were all pretty enthralled in the exhibits and video, it lasted about 90 mins for Luca before he also hit the wall. It was at that point that we rolled into the children's interactive section where kids can play in an actual helicopter from the Vietnam War and reproductions of World War I trenches, among other things - they both found some new energy and all up we were in the museum about three hours.

A quick stop for lunch - Canberra on a Sunday arvo is dead, dead. There is no one around so driving around is painless. After lunch we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery which was amazing, the art was great and the back stories on the people added another element. Kelly and I loved the whole place but keeping quiet for more than 5 mins was too much to ask of Luca and Scout so we cut things short and played chasing outside for as long as we were inside.

By this time the kids were so excited to get to the hotel and as soon as we got into the room they were bouncing on the beds and rearranging furniture to build cubby houses. Staying in a hotel was possibly the highlight of the trip for them.

That night we ate at the Pancake Parlour, another thing the kids were excited about. It had been recommended to me by a friend from work who has a daughter Luca's age, but we will not be recommending it. The kids had pancakes and ice cream for dinner, so although Kelly and I were underwhelmed it met the high expectations the kids had held for it.

Kelly & I with the kids at the Portrait Gallery

Some family Olympics viewing time that night, up early to watch Luca's new heroes Usain Bolt and 'The Beast' (the other Jamaican runner, I can't remember his name) and a buffet breakfast made things different in a good way from our normal weekend schedule. Monday was all about a visit to Questacon- 'Australia's National Science and Technology Centre' - which has floors of cool interactive science stuff for kids  and some great presentations on seemingly boring subjects like 'collisions' which were far from boring for the kids - they loved the place.

An uneventful drive home with a stop off in Bowral for lunch. All up a great couple of days away that seemed more like a week.