Tourism with young boys

Tourism with lively boys is not for the faint hearted! Shopping is out, browsing is out, trying out restaurants and coffee shops is largely out, art galleries and craft shops are out. Historical tours, especially those which require lots of reading and good, quiet behaviour are definitely not on. Long public transport journeys are pretty much out too, at least for our mob. Walking is okay. Forests, playgrounds and large open spaces are good. Kid-friendly museums are not bad. Swimming is great. Zoos, aquariums and caves are definitely worth the effort. We decided that as we had our exchange student for only eight days, we should make a little bit of an effort to show him Brisbane. Our boys also were asking to go on the CityCat as we did two years ago when we visited briefly, so we thought it'd be something fun and manageable. We drove to our Alma Mater, University of Queensland and caught the river ferry up to New Farm Park, where we discovered a wonderful playground for the kids. Ate a home-made picnic lunch and headed back again. Stopping at South Bank for an icecream (and a coffee for me) and short exploration before getting back to UQ and driving home. The whole outing cost less than $50. Ice cream being the biggest expense. The boat trip only $15. The most difficult part was supervising spirited and competitive boys on the boat. Closely supervising four boys on a boat is not the easiest task. It worked fairly well, but there was plenty of pushing and shoving along the side, in order to get the "optimal" position for viewing. Thankfully the side was high and the chance of a dunking was minimal. The 50 minute trip was about 30 minutes too long, however! I even discovered a brochure advertising a local performance of Les Miserables, which will be a good birthday present for the-worst-person-in-the-world-to-buy-a-present-for, my husband. Overall - a good day. I didn't even have to cook dinner. We had left-overs and David assembled it all (while I folded several days of washing). Now I'm looking forward to cross-stitching in front of some great cricket viewing (finally the Aussies have got their act together over in England).