Labor Day Fun

Chris gets both American and Australian holidays off of work. How great is his job! So since he didn't have to work on Monday, Labor Day in the States, we decided a fun family outing was called for. The plan: take a ferry to Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour, to view Australia's premier international art festival, the Sydney Biennale! Ravi even decided to skip school so that he could join us (the choice was his, and he really loves school! so this was a tough decision for him.)

Monday morning, bright and early, three adults and three children climbed aboard bus #273 and rode across the Harbour Bridge into downtown Sydney. From there, we walked to Circular Quay where we boarded a ferry. This ferry in fact:
As the ferry left the dock, we turned east and went under the Harbour Bridge.

Sydney is really pretty from the Harbour. And we had a beautiful, warm, sunny day!


We arrived on Cockatoo Island, hungry for sandwiches and great art! Cockatoo Island has a long history. Today, it is an urban park. But, at different times, Cockatoo Island has housed an imperial convict prison, and a girls industrial school. It was also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards.

Many of the islands old buildings still stand. Some are in better repair than others. Since the art was set up in various buildings around the island, we also got to explore the prison, transportation tunnels, the muster station, the design offices, ship building warehouses, etc. It was very interesting.



After we'd had our fill of the art and the island, we boarded the ferry for the return trip.

I happened to sit next to this couple and ended up having a great conversation all the way back to Circular Quay. They are originally from Sunderland, which is not far from where my mother was born in northern England. They have lived in Sydney for 35 years. AND he has a Mormon cousin who lives in Salt Lake City. (Dad, did you know any Hough's from Sunderland?) Such a small world!

A good day was had by all!