canberra

Road Trip!

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

Last week, we hit the road for a Mother-Son road trip to the Nation’s Capital.  Yep, that’s right, we went to Canberra.  And it was Can-tastic!  Why was it so great well, let me tell you!

First of all, I will admit to having an affinity to any city that’s a Capital City.  

As a Washington, DC native, I have a special place in my heart for Canberra, London, Rome, Dublin, Vienna, Mexico City, Canberra, Amsterdam– maybe not Paris (it’s a bit overrated) but generally speaking, I really enjoy visiting a Capital City.  It’s normally the city with lots of museums, fancy buildings, and loads of culture.  And I LOVE a bit of culture.  Museums are totally my jam.  Not to say that our weekend away was full of culture, but actually, it kind of was!

Secondly, I love getting out of Sydney.  I like Sydney but it’s nice to get out of town and get out of the city for a weekend.  Canberra is a VERY easy 3 hour drive away which was perfect for our weekend escape.   It’s far enough away to have a totally different landscape (it is called the Bush Capital after all) but also close enough to get there and back without stress.

Thirdly, it was fun!  And we did A LOT!  

We left Sydney on Friday afternoon and after an obligatory stop at Macca’s (seriously, is it a road trip without a McDonald’s stop), we headed straight for the Big Merino aka The Big Sheep in Goulburn.   Thomas did point out that it’s not a sheep at all, it’s actually a ram because sheep don’t have horns.  Well spotted, but unfortunately there is a Big Ram in Australia– but it’s in WA.   

BTW, in case you didn’t know, Australia has LOTS of Big Things- apparently over 600 but that can’t be right.  I wasn’t going to buy the Big Things Checklist this website is advertising but if they’ve made a list and are selling a checklist it must be legit!  I think I’ve only seen three or four big things (Big Banana, Big Sheep, and maybe Big Captain Cook) but if they’re 600 of them I’m sure I’ve seen more.

We stayed at the QT Hotel, which is fantastic.  It’s actually the only place in Canberra I’ve ever stayed.  I even stayed there when it was Rydges, not a QT.  It’s a great location and the vibe of the QT is fun, irreverent, and quirky which was perfect for our mom-son adventure! 

We had matching burgers for dinner in the hotel. They were yum.

Our first full day there, we had breakfast around the corner at Mocan& Grout.  Thomas said they were the best fried eggs he’d ever had.  I don’t know why/how but my child loves eggs.  I do not.  Agree to disagree, we were both happy.  He’s practicing his food blogging skills- like mother, like son.

And off we went to Questacon!  So much fun!  We could have spent an extra hour or two there because there was so much to see and do.  Science, Technology, and lots of fun!  Exhibits on AI and self-driving cars, beehives, the moon, hands on experiments, four way air hockey, and so much more.  We had an absolute blast but it was only the beginning of our day!

We left Questacon and walked along Lake Burley Griffin and then drove up to Parliament Hill for the obligatory photo in front of Parliament House.  We didn’t have time to go inside but had a few minutes to take in the view! 

Then we went to the Australian Institute of Sport.   It was pretty cool.  I learned a lot, we got to try some pretty fun sport related games.  Thomas was both bored and impressed at the same time, but that’s pretty common for 6 year old boys I think.  

We left AIS feeling inspired for greatness- or at least hungry for dinner.  So we went to Baby Su for Bao Burgers.  Thomas was disappointed that it wasn’t a “proper” burger bun, but I thought it was yummy.   You can see the sadness on his face. It was also very big for his little 6 year old hands. He’s at that odd age where he eats more than a kid’s size at most places but his hands are too small to hold a full size burger. He’s desperate to try a Big Mac but also thinks it’s too big to eat.

We headed back to the QT for the night but not before passing by about 10000 rabbits.  Did you know that Canberra is FULL of rabbits?  Literally, they’re everywhere.  Ok, maybe not everywhere but there were a lot in the park across the street from our hotel.  And by a lot, I mean I saw more wild rabbits in that 10 minute walk back to the hotel than I have in my entire life.  Thomas was thrilled.  Seeing the rabbits was *probably* the highlight of his trip, if not his entire life.  He is a South Sydney Rabbitohs fan after all so rabbits are his jam.

We woke up the next day a little bit sad.  We didn’t want to leave the QT, we didn’t want to leave Canberra, we didn’t want to go home.  One thing that Thomas gets from me genetically is his love of hotels and not being at home– and that anytime he goes on holidays he pretty much wants to move there, wherever it is.   I agreed with him that Canberra was very cool and that we had had so much fun so far.   I may have also googled a couple of schools and looked up some houses that we could move into, because I also liked the idea of moving to Canberra.  The idea sounded even better after breakfast at Patissez.  A cafe known for its Freakshakes.  Thomas had a kids freakshake which he refused to share with me, which is fair.  It looked pretty good.  My chicken salad sandwich was excellent– Chicken salad sandwiches are underrated and hard to find in Australia. Score another point for Canberra – chicken salad sandwiches.


After breakfast we headed to Yarralumla Play Station for Canberra themed mini-golf and a mini train ride to a petting zoo.  The mini-golf was hilarious, the mini-train was very very small.  

Small was the theme of the rest of our Canberra adventure.  We finished with the Dinsoaur Museum and Cockington Green.  I had low expectations for both but Cockington Green was actually quite cute.  It’s all mini displays of scenes from England- and it was super cute.  The flowers were gorgeous and the displays surpassed my expectations. 

And that’s where our adventure in Canberra ended.  We hopped in the car and drove home (via Macca’s, of course!).    We LOVED every minute of our Canberra adventure – and can’t wait to visit again!

If you ever find yourself in Gundaroo….

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

 

This weekend we were in Canberra for the Half Ironman.  Yes, The Runner went well, No, he did not come off his bike.  Thank goodness!

We had a lovely weekend exploring Canberra- well, that was really only Saturday and really, we spent most of it driving in circles.  Canberra, if you’ve never been, should be called the City of Circles.  It seems like all streets either go in a circle or have at least one roundabout on them.   It was a lovely weekend, but the highlight was clearly our post race lunch.

I had never in my life heard of Gundaroo, NSW and I doubt many of you have either.  However, it’s worth the trip.  The Runner’s work colleague recommended we eat at a restaurant called Grazing, and it was fantastic.

Gundaroo itself is only about 300 people.  I swear it’s the sister village to Ballyorgan, Ireland, where The Runner and I stayed when his brother got married.  They’re both quaint, one road, blink and you’ll miss them villages.  Ballyorgan had a few holiday houses, a pub, and a church.  Gundaroo had a couple of shops and a restaurant.  And what looked to be a Mazda MX-5 convention.  Very weird to see 10 or more Mazda Convertibles in varying colours in a tiny NSW town.  We thought it might be the official village car or we had stepped into a Mazda commercial.

What makes Gundaroo worth the visit isn’t the Mazdas though, it’s the food (and the wine).  We went to Grazing, and it was literally flawless.  The service was amazing, the food was fantastic, the one glass of wine I had was delicious and the experience was second to none.  I even saw an artichoke plant in bloom.  I’m a city girl, I have no idea what plants and animals look like before they get to the grocery store.   It was all local produce and locally produced wines and they were cooked to perfection.   My pork belly was melt in the mouth delish and The Runner’s loved his braised ox cheeks so much I think I probably could have convinced him to move to Gundaroo so he could eat them more often. 

I know it’s unlikely, but if you ever find yourself in or around Gundaroo, you have to try it out.  Gundaroo is about 30 minutes from Canberra and about 2 ½ hours from Sydney.

 

Grazing Restaurant, Cork and Harp Streets, Gundaroo, NSW.  It makes a weekend in Canberra well worth it!

Another Sunday, Another Race

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

Greetings from the Nation’s Capitol! No, sadly I’m not home for Christmas in Washington, DC. We’re in Canberra and it’s 5:35am and we’re here for the 14th annual Canberra 70.3 half Ironman race.

If you’ve never been to Canberra, it’s worth a trip for a weekend if you don’t have anything else to do. I’m biased when it comes to Capitol cities and on a scale of 1 to 10, Canberra is there somewhere. It’s not Washington, Paris or London but it’s well laid out and well planned. Even amongst Australian cities, I can’t say it’s in my top 4 but I have to say watching the sun come up over Lake Burley Griffin is pretty special.

But that’s not why we’re here or why I’m up before the sun. A half ironman, if you’re new here is just what it sounds like. It’s half an Ironman. So 1.9 kilometers in the water, 90 kilometers on the bike and a half marathon (21 kilometers) to finish!

For The Runner it will be an exciting day pushing himself to his limits and taking in Canberra’s best landmarks. For me, well not so much. It’s a day of watching, waiting and wondering if there’s any good coffee in walking distance— so far unlikely! Luckily, I do have a chair and a newspaper and late checkout at the hotel which is only a 2 minute drive away. Hooray!

Wish us both luck and see you at the finish!