Canberra: the CDSCC

T and I snuck out of work early on Friday and made the three hour drive to the nation's capital, Canberra.

From what we could see before the sun set, it was a lovely drive down through farm country.

And we arrived in time to find a good dinner of local wine and cheese at A. Baker, right near our hotel.

We didn't keep a late night though, because the next morning was the activity that T had been looking forward to since we'd started talking about the trip: a drive out to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex!

The CDSCC is about 30-40 minutes outside Canberra and it's one of three NASA deep space communication stations in the world. It's in a no-fly, no-radio, no-device area that's surrounded by hills to help shield it from any interference. It is tucked away outside the city, pretty much surrounded by nothing. We crossed farmland, a mountain range, and a one lane bridge; eventually we saw the sight we were waiting for!

Luckily I brought my adult camera, because cell phones had to stay off!

T stood in wonder for a long while before we eventually headed into the visitors center.

The visitors center is fairly small; the main purpose of the facility is for the 90+ scientists and physicists that work on-site to coordinate and research the data being transmitted. But there were the usual space museum-type displays.

One really unique thing was the viewing area which showed which spacecraft each satellite dish at the facility was currently communicating with.

The big dish in the background of that picture was collecting and transmitting data from a satellite studying the sun during the time we were there. It was moving constantly, but of course too slowly for us to tell. We also learned that it is the largest antenna dish in the Southern Hemisphere.

The other really interesting antenna was Deep Space Station 46, which was used in the Apollo Mission and recorded the TV images of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. It was originally in a different complex in Australia but has now been retired and moved to the CDSCC for visitors to see.

Deep Space Station 46

Behind the main buildings at the facility were many other antenna dishes, as well as construction sites for new amtennas that will start operation in the next few years. Exciting stuff!

It was a super fun morning and incredibly interesting! I'm pretty sure T would have stayed there the whole weekend if he'd could!

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Winter festival at Darling Harbour

This was the first weekend of the Winter Festival at Darling Harbour. It was cold, gray, and a little rainy, but I convinced T to go with me. First we put on our activity game faces.

This is an optical illusion, because one of us is actually really excited.

The Winter Festival flags were up in Darling Harbour, as well as an "iceburg" in the middle of the harbour, just to complete the winter effect!

The best part was in Tumbalong Park: it was a full-on winter scene with a winter tunnel and an ice skating rink!

The little penguins at the skating rink were so cute - the little kids skated around with them for balance.

There were also a few cute little snack places, and a "winter lodge" tent. And the Lindt cafe sponsored a zorb ball in the Harbour that you could run around in!

It started raining and got really cold, which made it feel like winter. But it also wrapped up our little adventure for the day. It was still really fun and it was a taste of winter back home!

 

 

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Gurangai Festival

On Saturday there was a festival combined with a market in North Sydney: the ultimate combination for me! The market is a weekly food/craft/farmer's market, and the festival was the Gurangai Festival. It's a yearly festival that's meant to raise awareness of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that originally lived in the area. The festival actually goes on for a month with different events, but I thought it would be nice to check it out along with the market. So off I went!

The market is held in a parking garage, which is good for rainy days but makes everything really dark.

There were some of the usual things like antiques:

But also some very Gurangai-specific things, like this bush tucker vendor:

Everything on the menu made me feel very sad but it was interesting!

There was also a basket-weaving class, but I had just missed the beginning so I didn't go join in. But besides those things and a couple art displays, I have to say that I was a little disappointed at how generic the festival-market was. Maybe I need to go try one of the other festival events! =)

On the bright side, I did get some great produce from this guy selling stuff off his truck!

And it was also gummy bear giveaway day!

 

Who can complain about a day like that!?

 

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Mini road trip to Sea Cliff Bridge

Monday was the Queen's Birthday - happy birthday to Her Majesty!

And because it was such an important day, we got the day off. So I booked a GoGet car, packed some snacks, and tricked Toby into taking a mini road trip south of Sydney to see the Sea Cliff Bridge.

The Sea Cliff Bridge is a pretty new bridge: the road it carries goes down along the coast to Wollongong. Up until 2005, the road went along the side of the cliffs, but it kept getting washed out and destroyed by rockslides. So the clever Aussies decided enough was enough and built this bridge to parallel the cliff but out over the water - far enough that future rock slides would miss it.

The bridge isn't terribly long, but it's really beautiful: the ocean on one side and cliffs on the other.

There's a pedestrian side on the bridge so people can walk across and check out the ocean below. Which of course I thought we should do! From the bridge we could see some fishermen...

And these super cool rocks...

And most of all just the awesome sights of the bridge!

It was a wonderful Queen's Birthday!

 

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