Two weeks ago Jeremy and I snuck off to Australia just to get away for a little bit.  I’d never been to Australia before so I was really excited to visit & explore the land down under!  We spent half our time in Sydney and half on the Gold Coast (near Brisbane).  Here are some pictures from the first part of our trip in Sydney.

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Enjoyed the pink lighting on our Virgin Australia flight!  The flight was 13 hours but I LOVE long flights…mostly because I get to watch a ton of new movies!

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We arrived early Sunday morning so we decided to try and visit Hillsong church.  We had forgotten to write down an address or directions to the church, but we had a general idea of where it was, so we wandered semi-aimlessly through the streets of Sydney.  At one point we were about to give up….but then we saw a Hillsong shuttle bus drive by so we knew we were still on the right track!  As you can see, we did eventually find it. =)

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We were lucky enough to be in town for Sydney Opera House’s Open Day (basically an open house).  We got to go inside and see the opera theater, concert hall, green room, rehearsal rooms, backstage areas….all for FREE!

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They had lots of performers walking around that day.
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There was a guy up top playing the organ.
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The green room and some costumes from their shows.
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I thought this photo from Trent Parke’s exhibition of life backstage at the Sydney Opera House was hilarious!  Some people had used the copy machine to photocopy themselves.  The first post-it reads, “Is this correct use of government property?”  The second reads, “Absolutely not! And we have your fingerprints.”

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Went to the Sydney Wildlife World and saw cute koalas, boxing kangaroos, and other cool insects & animals.
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A humongous stick bug!
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Looks like the dugong is smiling!
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Check out the size of that stingray!
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Queen Victoria Building shopping complex
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Visited Cockatoo Island, the site of a former prison as well as shipyard.  Since Jeremy worked at a naval shipyard before, I think he was pretty excited to see the giant cranes & dry docks they used for building ships.

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Rented some bikes and rode around Manly Beach…
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…then enjoyed dinner on the wharf with this lovely view.
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Why does the design on the seats in this train look like an ocean swarming with sharks?!
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