The Australian Institute of Sport

Today has been a very long one not only for the players but also for the band of merry parents who not only lead the road trippers around but also pick up after them whenever we stop. After a very well organised breakfast this morning we headed off in our buses toward Canberra. The first stop of the day being Holbrook where we investigated the submarine conveniently parked in the middle of town. It was here that the boys got to again demonstrate thier push ups whilst the rest of us watched without an ounce of pity (but it was cold).
Another 170 km on and it was lunch time and once again our support vehicle was ready and waiting and so was a yummy lunch. The trippers got a look at the dog on the tucker box, but we didnt stop for long at Gundagai as we had a very important appointment to keep at The Institute.
We arrived into Canberra at exactly 3.00pm where we firstly watched the girl trippers drop for 20 push ups (I think it was more to show the boys who was better at push ups and not for any particular punishment), then went inside to visit the AIS shop and then we were taken on a 1.5 hour tour of the Institute. We visted the pool, the gymnasium the volleyball centre and best of all was sportstek where the trippers got to try our all of the electronic equiipment and experience soccer, rowing, bike riding, rock climbing football, cricket, and wheelchair basketball amongst other things. If any of those trippers were bored during the afternoon today, then I would have to say that there would be no pleasing them.
We had a bit of time to kill, so after a compulsory fruit stop we took a scenic drive around canberra to see Parliament house and then a quick return to the AIS for the much anticipated games.

Scores tonight were

Girls squad lost to ACT  54-57
Rotating a bench of 15 can't be easy, however Jamie managed to get all of the girls on for a significant run even managing to add a 5th quarter to the match. The team managed to hold the ACT team at bay coming back from being 14 points behind at one stage.

Boys 1 defeated ACT 57-21
Boys 2 defeated ACT 28-22
The boys game commentaries will need to wait until tomorrow as our coaches have retired after a very busy day.

After the games the trippers were each introduced to their hosts and whisked away for the remainder of the evening and I am sure that the parents will all be up very early to welcome them back to us with open arms. In the meantime this blogger is also very tired......more tomorrow.
Check back for photos in the morning.