OK, so about this weekend - I had a great time - mostly hiking around Canberra. I love this city! I will tell this story via more pictures :-).
I hiked up to Mt. Ainslie behind my house. But first, I went to the War Memorial which is a fantastic museum here. I didn't spend a lot of time here, but I know Bruce would've loved it. We Americans really are ignorant of the Australians roll in major wars - WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc!
So, inside the War Memorial with tomb of unknown soldier:
Then, while hiking, I saw a beautiful parrot - they are all over here:
At the top - great views of Canberra, the planned city. That is Lake Burley-Griffin. See the 2 main bridges over it? That is my running route - around that part of the lake :-).
Here you can see the rest of Canberra - the lake I bike around, the Central area, ANU, etc. See the mountain with the distinctive tower on top? Stay tuned - that's where I hiked Sunday:
So, I had a great hike! I had a picnic at the top (while being harrassed by birds). Cheese and crackers - yum. And beetroot! It's very popular here (as are Indian and Chinese foods - many Asian things). But yes - bright red beetroot - awesome as a hummus-like dip.
Views of the beautiful War Memorial and down the drive from that, the Parliament House. The main axis of Canberra :-):
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Now, Sunday - at the Botanical Gardens where I met Steve and family for lunch. At the gradens, they have a ton of native Australian plants - from rainforests to deserts! Here's 2 common ones - the Watl:
And the Banksia named for a famous botanist on the 1st boat over - on Cook's boat. There are loads of different kinds of both watl and banksia plants.
Post gardens, I decide to hike for more views of Canberra - can't get enough :-).
That is where I'm hiking to - the Telestra Tower on Black Mountain - lots of cell phone and radio things up there.
Me, in the wind, on the tower viewing beautiful Canberra :-).
Nice view of Canberra from other place - see my running route around the bridges again?
And again - main part of Canberra with city center, ANU, and Mt. Ainslie where I hiked yesterday in the background! See the white line at the very right part of Mt. Ainslie where it comes down to the city? That's the War Memorial - I live close to that, between that and the city center.
So, a great Sunday as well. I had an adventure coming down the mountain. Well, the adventure was at the bottom - they had locked the gate back into the Botanical Garden where I had hiked up from! It was close to 5pm - everything shuts down. So, I had to hike back down to the road and 1/2 hour back to the front of the Botanical Garden, which was locked and had a huge gate up! Oh no - my bike was locked in, and me on the outside. Luckily there were 2 nice blokes drinking beer at the gate - cafe workers. They tracked down the person with the key, and let me rescue my bike :-). Fun times! Then Sunday night (as Saturday night) was working, making dinner, and Sunday - fun fun doing laundry. And a bit of hanging out with Chinese roommate Jet. He's nice. Funny Chinese-Australian accent because he's been here for years :-).
So, I had a great weekend! And now it's Monday, and I need to get work done. Wednesday I leave for a long weekend in Sydney! I have a Rubgy League game to go to on Wednesday night, then Thursday will be at U New South Whales to give a talk. Then a weekend of exploring Sydney with Saturday being a day of hiking in the Blue Mountains. And of course, 4th of July parties with my American friends from the program. Can't wait! Cheers...
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