Canberra with Kids – Part 2

Governor General’s office is WAY nicer than the old Prime Minister’s office.

Still on Day 3, and still in Government House, we travel down the hallway past her office and into the dining room. Note the lovely views of the lake out the windows of all the rooms on this side of the house.

Can seat up to 56 – this was for about 36.

That is a serious table.

The Gov Gen and her husband sit in the middle of the table – not at the ends. Look at this crazy place setting!!!!!!

The cabinet in the photo below cost something like $90 000 and one that the same guy built very recently cost over 1.4 million. YIKES. It’s a giant jewellery box, but used simply for display here. I can’t remember how many different types of wood there are or how few nails and so on were used, and this photo – no photo – would do it justice, just know it was breath-taking!

Something like over 45 drawers or something??

Pretty bland outside….

The car was pretty “flash” though!

That evening we visited CSIRO Discovery – Don’t ask me what it stands for, I’m certain that the R is for research but that’s all I know! It was a little bit Science World-ish and we learned a lot about polymers in a 3D video!

Instantly to bed again tonight.

Day 4 – Sunny and beautiful start to the day which had us touring around the AIS where we were staying.

Statues of sports were throughout the campus.

We stopped for birthday cake on the edge of the lake and strolled among all the flags before heading over for some educational tours of the High Court of Australia.

Birthday cake lakeside stop!

High Court!

Court 1 for Constitutional matters.

Next we were off to the Mint! Very cool and wish we’d have more time with our tour guide.

Stair rises full of blanks moving up to 5 cent coins. Not called nickels here…

Titan dumps barrels of ‘blanks’ into the counting machine then takes a bow.

Questacon came next and it was DEFINITELY Science World-like and fantastic. The evening’s entertainment was laser tag and arcade games. I spent it hiding in a semi-quiet room with the bus drivers and Donna for part of it and enjoyed a hot hot chocolate and a Picnic bar – a new taste experience and one that was entirely satisfying.

Yum.

Day 5 and the trip wraps up with a visit to the National Museum of Australia.

During our “Meet the People” presentation in the plush chairs of this wonderful room we were so rudely interrupted repeatedly over the loudspeaker by the fire warden explaining a fault in the system. Shortly after that, we were less rudely interrupted by a couple of smiling firefighters….it wasn’t such a bad interruption. 😀

Onward ho! And back to planes and airports for the rest of the afternoon!

SSSNNNNOOOOOWWWWW!!!!