What a great kids holiday destination Canberra is! Both my husband and I used to live in Canberra (it was where we met and fell in lerv) and didn't like it much then at all. Once the initial excitement at leaving and moving to exciting Sydney had worn off, I kept experiencing a yearning to go back and visit. In 2006, I took both kids there for a long weekend. We met my brother there and had a great time. This time I just took my son and met up with another friend and her two young sons for a three day 'boyfest'. It was great! There were so many free or cheap things to do with kids and being January, the whole of Canberra was like a ghost town so it was even easier than usual to get around. We re-visited the National Museum on Lake Burley Griffin (this was a highlight last time) and Questacon and also went to the Botanic Gardens (where we came upon a huge water dragon sunning itself on a rock), the Black Mountain Tower and the War Memorial. We also found a few good playgrounds (esp recommend John Knight Park at Belconnen) and went swimming a few times (including once at Dickson Pool). Mostly cooked our own meals but did have one (fairly unmemorable) dinner out at the Dickson 'Tradies' - main attraction of that was the kids could sit and eat their meal in a train carriage - unfortunately this was the best thing about eating at this place!
The photo is from our 2006 trip to the National Museum (didn't have my camera with me this time so waiting for my friend to send me copies of her photos):
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