Quick Trips- Sydney and the Gold Coast

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed up to Sydney to once again attend VIVID, a winter light festival. We did this our first year in Australia, but that time Shannon and Mike caught covid and we had to leave early. 

We took another boat tour to see the lights turn on at 6pm. It was a really nice experience.

We also visited the aquarium in Sydney for the first time. It was better than we expected. Lauren particularly enjoyed watching the octopus. 

The next break that we had off from work and school was over the King's Birthday weekend in June. The weekend is not on the monarch's actual birthday, and it is not actually celebrated in all the Australian states on the same day. It was a holiday in the ACT, but not in Queensland. We traveled to the Gold Coast for the weekend. It was the cheapest direct flight we could get from Canberra. Also it was warmer, so we could actually do some swimming, at least in the outdoor heated pool we found.