Friday, November 9

McDonalds has wifi, so our first mission of the day is to head to McD and download e-mail, post to FB, etc.  We were meeting Angela and (almost three year old) Rhiann sometime around 9am to spend the day together, and to de-ballast the 10 kilos or so of stuff I brought for her... two boxes of Cream of Wheat, which are surprisingly heavy, and her Landsharkz order!  We went off to Ginninderra Village (think 'there's gin in dare'), which has an old schoolhouse dating back to 1884.  Today its kind of like Whippletree Junction, with some shops and a couple of tea rooms... and a big outside bird aviary!  We did a nearby geocache, so that I could add ACT to our Australia map.

 

Beware the swooping magpies!  Since it's spring here, they are nesting and can be quite defensive.

We went to lunch at a nearby club that Angela and Geoff are members of.  Part casino, part betting hall, part golf club... it was nice, and had great sandwiches, and a stunning view.

After lunch, we headed up to Mt Ainsley, which gives a fabulous view of the city.  It is directly lined up with the War Memorial, Anzac Parade, and Parliament House.  This view really shows that Canberra was a planned city, and laid out on a drafting board with rulers and protractors!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the War Memorial. This is without a doubt one of the most comprehensive museums I have ever been to.  The kids area was very hands on, with a very real helicopter playing videos of Viet Nam.  I know a few people who would not be able to enter, with the fear of flashbacks.  A temporary exhibit was also on.  During WWI, Allied soldiers (many of them Aussies, as they were active in the area) would stop at a photography studio run by a French couple and have their portraits taken... sometimes their last.  Someone had found all these glass plate negatives in the farmhouse before it was to be sold, so the Museum printed the portraits and has them on display.  Everything is so well researched... if they didn't know the fellow's name, they could at least tell which regiment they were with, and could piece together a story and timeline.  They even had the photographers original backdrop that could be seen in most of the portraits.  This museum/memorial is vast, so we knew we would have to come back a number of times to do it justice.  At 5pm, there was a closing ceremony with the piper playing the all so familiar lament.  It was very moving. 

We got Angela and Rhi home, and Geoff, Stewart and Gabby were there to meet us.  Geoff asked me if I liked mushrooms, which I thought was a very random question.  Seems Angela and Drew and talked about having dinner together!  We had steaks and sausage, and some very excellent MANGOES for dessert.  We really enjoyed our day together, and visiting at dinner, so made plans to meet for the following day.

We were out the hostel door by about 8 am, and back in well past 2130... a long, active day with lots of walking.  Rhi was absolutely fabulous for a little one, and we were able to keep up to her pace!  I'm glad we didn't book a fancy hotel, cuz once we got to the room, we were pretty much unconscious!