A night in Canberra

Over the weekend, we took a trip down to our nation's capital, Canberra, to visit our very good friends, Martine and Jurgen. We left on Saturday morning after breakfast and planned it so that Justin would have his nap in the car. It was a hot sunny day and poor Justin's seat was right in the sun and the window shade was not doing much for him. About an hour and a half into our journey, we stopped off at a petrol station so Justin could stretch his legs and for Row to move Justin's car seat into the middle. 

Stretching my legs

 Ahhh, at long last...a nap! I fell asleep before Justin so it was up to dad to entertain Justin until he (Justin) also passed out. We met Martine and Jurgen at a restaurant called Grazing which is about 30kms outside of Canberra. This didn't seem like a particularly child-friendly restaurant; to call it fine dining would be a stretch but it was no Spur. It was an old house converted into a restaurant and most of the patrons were a little more dressed up than shorts and slip slops. But they did have booster seats and children's menu so at least we knew they did cater for children. This was the first time we ordered food off the menu for Justin; he had fish and chips with a side salad, of which he only ate the chips :( Row and Martine had the rabbit, Jurgen had shepherd's pie and I had fish. The food was quite good, not the best, but it was still pretty good. Row and Justin discovered the vegetable patch behind the restaurant and this kept him busy for a good while. Then I took over and we discovered some ducks and their little pool. So at least Justin was able to run around and stretch his legs for a long time before resuming our trip and  he fell asleep until we reached Martine and Jurgen's home.

Eating fish and chips

Smelling the herbs in the vegetable patch

Justin was full of beans after his nap and was ready to go; he helped Jurgen clean their patio and this kept him entertained and busy while Martine made a delicious pasta and napoletana sauce for his dinner. Cleaning their patio was probably the highlight of Justin's entire trip! After dinner it was bath and bed time and then we (the adults) had the evening to ourselves. Unfortunately, being a foreign environment, Justin did not sleep well which meant Row and I did not sleep well either. We woke up to a very wet and miserable Sunday and got off to a slow start. After a delicious breakfast, we headed out to the Parliament Buildings. I would like to write more about these buildings but running after Justin doesn't allow for a slow leisurely tour to read about the country's past, its laws and its government. Plus we had to cut the tour very short as it totally coincided  with Justin's nap time and he was growing extremely agitated. The good thing is that he slept practically the whole way home. We will definitely have to make another trip down to Canberra.