Things You Must Do: Canberra

I went to Canberra with Deb so that I could meet up with my parents.  My mom and Deb were going to a conference at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which is also where we stayed in dormitory accommodations.  We had two days in Canberra to explore the city.  Unfortunately for my dad, Qantas had a major disconnect and left his suitcase in San Francisco.  Like the smart packer he is, he had packed extra necessities in his carry-on!  We had to wait to two days to get his suitcase which didn’t arrive until we at the airport ready to go back to Perth!

National Portrait Gallery-The National Portrait Gallery was really fun!  I loved the portraits because they portray real people so you feel like can connect with this piece of art.  The gallery had a free audio tour on an iPod Touch, which I definitely took advantage of!  It had interviews with various artists and portrait subjects and it really added a lot of depth to those selected portraits.  Unfortunately I can’t remember that many names since I was inundated with them, but my favorite portrait was of a professor.  There was an interview with him on the tour that talked about the process of the creating the portrait.  The part that I really liked was that he said he always wears a white shirt.  He held up a collage of pictures from his life and he points out that in every one, he’s wearing a white shirt!

City Center-Being an avid shopper, I find it necessary to check out the malls in any given city.  Although Greg doesn’t think City Center is very good, I could have gotten lost!  I swear, it spans for blocks and blocks, in several directions!  This was where I walked into David Lawrence and fell in love with the red dress.  When we first went in, I didn’t try it on.  It was the only thing I saw all day that I really wanted to try on, so we went back later.  (The picture was taken on my phone, so I apologize for the poor quality.)