It was a while ago now but this postcard is about our Easter weekend trip to Canberra. This trip features not only Liz and Cheryl but also Cheryl's dad, Les, step mum, Julie and step sister, Faye plus (of course) a lot of festive Easter chocolate. The purpose of this little road trip was not only to visit the infamous Canberra that none of us had yet seen but also to enjoy is major annual event - the balloon festival. With this in mind everyone rushed home from work and school as fast as possible on Friday afternoon and piled into the car furtively sneaking chocolate eggs, bunnies, sweets, marshmallows and anything else remotely chocolate related that they could find in with them. Bill Bryson (Liz's new life guru) describes Canberra as a ghost town like park with identical roundabouts and suburbs with the odd person driving around and looking confused saying to themselves 'now where the hell is my house?' He was spot on with his observations! We arrived around 6.30pm and predictably drove around and around those very same roundabouts and suburbs until finally stumbling across our little hotel which Les had so kindly treated us all to. Tired and hungry we unanimously decided to go out for dinner somewhere nice. Back to the suburban/ roundabout maze we went traveling around and around Canberra only to see no-one and to find nothing remotely open - at 6.30pm on a Friday night! No wonder even the Prime Minister refuses to live there preferring to commute from Sydney! Finally on the near verge of starvation we saw some lights shimmering in the distance - McDonalds! Well beggars can't be choosers and at least we didn't go to bed on empty stomachs. The following morning we were up bright and early - 5.45am to be precise for the long awaited balloon festival - hooray! Even if cold and sleepy we were intrigued what big event this could be to be held in such high regard. When we arrived however following the crowds towards the field next to Lake Burley Griffin there was a distinct lack of balloons - hmmm! Investigations revealed that the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so there would be no balloon flying allowed. What to do? The sun was rising over the lake showing it and its surrounding park to be very pretty so we went to explore. This we followed by a mosey around the farmers market (open in conjunction with the balloon festival) where we bought breakfast. So far so good but it wasn't even 8am yet so nothing else was open. Plus it was still cold. We retreated to the car to ponder deciding the Telstra Tower would be a good next destination firstly to look at Canberra from high up and secondly to make use of their coffee shop within (or should that be the other way around). When they eventually let up in the tower (it didn't open until 9.30am) the views were very good and showed Canberra at its park-like best. You would not believe how planned this city is, even the trees were planted so that in autumn they would change colour in uniform precision! At least now it was properly day time, our day could get under way so next we headed to the Australian Institute of Sport. This had to be the highlight of our weekend it. The main part was a tour around where the big Australian athletes (of which we all know are very numerous and hideously good, or at least that was the impression we got from the Commonwealth Games. Saying that, Australian media is ridiculously biased and we don't actually recall seeing any other athletes compete at all!) train. The best part however was the big room they let you loose in until there are enough people to make a tour. It was great fun! You could test you strength, stamina, balance, flexibility even how high you can jump - we were reluctant to leave! Les, being in the Navy is a big fan of war memorials, Faye and Julie having lived with Les for years are not so after lunch we parted ways. Faye and Julie to the shopping mall and Les, Liz and Cheryl to the war memorial - a very informative and educational afternoon and we particularly liked the tributes to the nurses during the war. We did actually manage to find a lovely little Italian restaurant to eat in that evening but there was no way we could persuade our hotel manager to keep the bar open beyond 10.15pm - on a Saturday night! Sunday (happy Easter by the way) was back to Sydney via the Southern Highlands. This part of the world is very beautiful and we would have loved to appreciate it more but it has been a busy morning looking around the bus depot antique markets and visiting wineries so we fell asleep - oops! Thanks Les and Julie for a fantastic weekend away xx