A few months ago we looked at the gradually loosening travel rules for Singapore and cautiously decided to consider traveling for spring break in March. We looked at the options available and settled on Sydney, Australia. Because it’s “only” an eight hour flight away!

Mark and I started day one at one of Australia’s oldest distilleries, Archie Rose Distilling Co. Most people may balk at sampling whisky and gin starting at 10:30AM, but frankly for me it’s just like a day at work, only a lot more fun because I can finish the samples.

After returning to the apartment to collect the kids, we set out to explore on foot.

We encountered a somewhat messianic statue commemorating James Cook, who is basically Oceania’s Columbus in terms of the impact on Australia’s indigenous people. The base of the statue included this inscription which made us laugh and raised more questions than it answered:

This plaque marks the site of a previous plaque which disappeared in November 1991 and had the following inscription:

This tablet was affixed by the Yorkshire Society of NSW as their tribute to the memory of Captain James Cook.

Sydney City Council 1994

We popped in to the ANZAC Memorial and learned that ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps—the docent explained that the two nations combined their military forces since both were rather small. I sort of recalled that ANZAC forces fought in World Wars I and II but did not know that they were in Vietnam as well.

We continued on to University of Sydney, a sprawling campus with over 70,000 students. Both children looked up the majors available, noticed the tuition as far lower than in the US, and basically decided that they were moving to Sydney for university. So glad that is settled.

For dinner we met our friend From Yokohama, Cassie. She left Japan in the last few years for her native Australia, and we loved hearing the latest about her, and her kids, and gleaning tips on Australian junk food and day trips from Sydney.