A day touring a bit of Canberra

Yesterday was a good little tour of Canberra. It was a mellow morning over breakfast and then Arnold took me on a quick drive-by tour of the major city sights before he and Ann went to their class at the Sports Institute (down the street, where the Olympians train).

When they returned we had lunch, and then Arnold took me downtown and dropped me off so I could go to the National Portrait Gallery. I had seen a sign there when we were driving that there was a Shepard Fairey exhibit and it's close to many other things to see, so he dropped me off there. It's quite a beautiful building!



The portraits were really neat, and they covered all sorts of Australians from several centuries. The Shepard Fairey posters were just a small collection, but very neat to see. And I can't seem to escape Nick Cave, as there is a big portrait of him right at the entrance. It was actually the first commissioned portrait for this relatively new museum. I missed the Nick Cave exhibit at the National Library by a few days, but he does seem to pop up a lot!

After that I walked around a bit. I saw the High Court building, popped by the National Gallery (also a neat building), walked over to the Old Parliament House, and then hung out a bit in the rose gardens. They're just lovely, and of course I stopped to smell the roses.





In my touring, I've also really enjoyed the gum trees everywhere. I think my favorites are the ghost gums, with the smooth white skin:


I was pretty quickly tired in the afternoon after walking around, so I came home, had some tea and cookies (yum), and then Jackie and Lachlan picked me up because they had voluteered to take me and Flat Stanley around for some good photo opportunities. Good people!

We drove up to the Australian Parliament House and walked around. I really love this building because from 3 sides of it, it just looks like a bit hill with a flag on top. Grass and everything! From the front you see this:


But you can actually climb up onto the sides and have a picnic, or just run around on the grass. Plus it's just a beautifully built building.

The "hill" side (or grass as roof) and flag:


Jackie, Lachlan, and Flat Stanley:


There's a bunch more photos of Flat Stanley and the Parliament House, of course. They're all in the set for the day!

And then after hanging out for a bit on the top of Parliament House, we drove all the way to the other end of this planned city and went up Mt. Ainslie. I managed to spot some wild kangaroos on the way up the mountain, so that was fun.



And the view on top was great. Here's me, near sunset, with Canberra behind me (War Memorial, Old Parliament House, and Parliment House all in a line):


And then I came home, had a lovely dinner with Ann and Arnold, discussed our various memories of visiting each others' countries and families, and then relaxed for a bit before bed. Today I've already taken a walk and now we're off to see Shaun's year 10 graduation (10th grade!). Gotta go!