John's Visit - I

Uncle John arrived on Friday, February 23. I was so excited waiting for him in the airport I thought I was going to be sick! Eventually he appeared through the doors and I must say he looked pretty rough, which is normal considering amount of travelling a person has to do to get here from the east coast of Canada. Oh yes, and William was not excited at all that Uncle John was coming to Canberra...not at all...

We started out John's visit the next day at a good old fashioned game of Australian rules football, otherwise known as AFL football (Australian Football League). Did I mention these guys' bodies in an earlier e-mail? If not, I'm mentioning it now...
















Here is William having a "sausage sizzle" at the game - that's a sausage wrapped in a piece of white bread with tomato sauce (ketchup) on it. Have I mentioned that the Aussies like their sausages....?




















We soon started the local sight seeing. Here are John, William and I atop Mount Ainslie in the centre of Canberra. Directly above William's head, on the other side of the lake, is Parliament Hill.
















Here is a view of the down town area with Lake Burley Griffin (named after the man who designed the city) in the background. The hills in the background are known as the Brindabellas. Notice there are no sky scrapers or tall buildings. Canberra is known as the "bush capital". Buildings are purposely built to blend in to the surroundings and there is lots of green (or brown as is the case during the drought) space between suburbs.
















Here is another view of part of the city. The long avenue in the forground is Anzac Parade (Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). It is lined with war memorials from various countries and organizations. Near the bottom of the picture at the end of Anzac Parade is the Australian War Memorial, an amazing war museum. Just to the left of centre, there is a white "stick" looking building. This is the National Carillon. There are performances there very frequently. The lake is surrounded by great walking and biking paths.