Stop and Enjoy the Scenery (that's an order)

So it's the school holidays and the cult clan has decided we are going on a driving holiday to visit friends interstate. After that we'll take the long way home along the coast, stopping at all the scenic/touristy places. It'll be fun I was assured.

Right now most of you are probably thinking to yourselves "Are they serious?" and I don't blame you. A holiday is meant to be just that - a holiday for all members of the family. Also remembering, I am a cyclist - so I don't do a lot of driving and therefore am a pretty bad driver......... but they were insistent and it was all go.

After I flew into Canberra to meet up with the family, we stayed for a few days with close friends. We went to the War memorial and Questacon during the day and at night we redefined the way you cheat at UNO. Then after parting ways, drove all the way down to Bemm river via Cann river.

Now anyone who has spent any time with  the minions children in a confined space such as the family car, knows that its not just a case of sit back and watch the scenery go by whilst talking maturely about the Australian economy and the impacts of monetary policy.

You actually have to engage with them or they will amuse themselves and not in a way that will assist your blood pressure. Their expectation is that everything will be interesting and worthy of their precious attention span.

We still laugh about the time the kids went to the Dog on the Tuckerbox and when they finally saw it, uttered " Is that it ?" followed by " That is just sooo disappointing"

"You dragged us all the way here to see this ?"

"It's not even the real one !"

So back to our trip.

We ended up stopping about every 2 hours to run around, look at, touch and generally experience this great country we live in and  I actually really enjoyed it.

This was because we didn't do the one thing that all parents have done - "The rush to get there and start holidaying ASAP" - trap.

You see it all the time, people driving/travelling huge distances in a single trip to hurry up and get to where they are going. Everybody is stressed and no-one is having a good time.

So next time you are going somewhere, I highly recommend stopping constantly to look around and who knows what you may find out.

Like we found out that the that the real Ned Kelley suit of amour is actually in the State Library (which is a 15 minute tram ride from our house) and not in his hometown of Glenrowan.