It’s been over four years since I last saw my sister and her family. In that time that family has grown is both size and number.
In fact, she was the reason for this trip. They drove south from Rockhampton while we drove north from Sydney.
We arrange to meet at the Queensland Museum across the river. The regular museum exhibits are free, including the preserved giant squid, but we pay extra for the Sparklab science centre and the Magic of Disney exhibition.
And so arrives that challenge of wrangling four adults, two teenagers, three children and one stroller around a busy museum.
Sparklab is pretty fun, nothing we haven’t encountered in science centres before but a good selection demonstrating a range of scientific principles. The Disney exhibition is pretty disappointing unless you are obsessed with their animation techniques through the ages. Very little interactivity.
Starving this late in the day, we walk across the South Bank food area for lunch and exchange belated Christmas presents. Then Alex and my sister’s family all jump in the lagoon for some water play. It looks like fun by they emerge cold and wet.
It is surprisingly late in the day, so we walk back to the car park with my sister and agree to meet up again tomorrow.
Exhausted and free of the constant need for chatter, we struggle to decide where we will eat dinner, eventually heading further away from our hotel to trendy West End.
Many eateries are still closed for the public holiday, but we eventually find Izakaya Goko. It’s not the best Japanese food we’ve eaten, but it’s nice to sit down and have some cold drinks
We return to the hotel under skies of orange and deepening azure with a backdrop of bulging tropical clouds. From our hotel room’s window we admire them further, the lights of the landmarks, of the waxing moon. It is a lovely end to the day.
