EP and I (JMP) went on a little adventure to downtown Canberra today to look around.  Not that it’s really much of an adventure but I find driving on the other side of the road a little hair raising.  There is a nice pedestrian zone in the City Centre and we had fun roaming around for a while.  TP asked if it reminded me of our pedestrian zone in Ithaca and my response was yes, except they have nice shops and restaurants and there were actually lots of people there.  There is a small outdoor skating rink for the month of July and EP enjoyed watching the people glide around.  I also scoped out a few cafes and Asian restaurants that look like fun but we’ll have to see if they are toddler friendly.

Yesterday EP and I visited the National Museum of Australia, a beautiful, free museum that is a 3 minute drive from our place.  I have a feeling we’ll be spending lots of time there, especially on windy, rainy days.  It was actually very interesting and I’m looking forward to going back with TP so we can trade off chasing EP and actually looking at the exhibits.  From my quick glances around I was struck by just how new everything was.  Their idea of artifacts included old farm equipment and clothes from the 1800’s.  To be fair, there was a large section dedicated to the Aboriginals which did feature some ancient artifacts, but overall the museum just didn’t seem that historical.  It was however a lovely place to chase a toddler and I hope to get to examine the exhibits more in depth one of these days.