Canberra, Australia's Capitol

Over the Queen's Birthday, Travis and I travelled to Canberra to check out Australia's capitol city.  We visited the National Museum of Australia and toured the Old and New Parliament Houses.  I didn't realize that there was a Senate and House of Representatives, just like us.  The town is located almost half way between Sydney and Melbourne in a small mountain town.  You can tell that it was modeled after some of the more modern capitol cities, but it just isn't there yet.  I couldn't believe how quiet it was.  Still fun though...

Oh, and yes you will see a little yellow car in a few pics.  That's my new car!  

(Link to PicasaWeb)  

Manly Beach

We took the ferry from Sydney Harbour to Manly Beach and met up with Travis' friends, Rutger and Nadine, for the Manly Food & Wine Festival.  It was such a chill day on the beach... 

(Link to PicasaWeb)

Coogee Beach, NSW

A few weeks ago, Travis and I took Molly to Coogee Beach.  It was her first time to see the ocean, and she loved it!  Too bad she wasn't allowed on sand though.  We could only take her on the walking trail, but she was able to see the waves from the cliffs above.  I think she was ready to dive in...

(Link to PicasaWeb)

Speeding

So, there is a huge campaign in New South Wales to combat speeding.  There are speed cameras and red light cameras everywhere, and there is a fairly low tolerance as to the miles over the speed limit you can drive.  Anyway, the RTA, which is the equivalent to the DMV, released this commercial, and I thought it was clever.  Hope you enjoy.

(Link to RTA commercial)

State of Origin

Wow, do Aussies love their footy! Actually, footy covers just about all sports here in Australia. Australian Football League is called footy. Rugby Union is called footy. Then, there is National Rugby League, and you guessed it, it's called FOOTY! The NRL is what I've watched the most of. This version of rugby is played by all the local state teams. My local team is the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and it's actually the team that Russell Crowe owns. You might not think that a rabbit could be scary, but the mascot reminds me more of the bunny from Monty Python when they flash him up on the jumbotron screen... "He has fangs like this..." (Link to Rabbitohs site)

Out of Rugby League comes State of Origin games, the most watched rugby games here. Tonight, NSW (the Blues) and Queensland (the Maroons) played against each other in the tie-breaker game. For this game, each state makes a team from the NRL players based on the state in which the team members played on their first senior footy team. So, you have local teemmates playing a pretty huge rivalry against each other, and the games are played mid-season. (Link to State of Origin explained) The Blues took the first win, and Queensland took the second. This game is certainly the most intense game I have seen since I've been here. Apparently, there's a Queensland fan down the street because I can hear him yelling every time the Maroons score or do anything remotely interesting.. It's 80 minutes of serious play. I saw quite a few cuts, bruises, and maybe a significant head injury. THEY DON'T PLAY WITH PADS OR HELMETS! Just full on muscle and grit! What a game... GO THE BLUES!!

Sadly, I must report that Queensland took the series...