Sorry for being absent for a few days – we had the opportunity to take our first weekend trip outside of Manila. We ventured South to the island of Mindoro via a 4 hour car trip plus 1 hour...
Asia
Oh, but WAIT! The story’s not yet over from our weekend in Batangas. As if failing at SCUBA wasn’t enough for my weekend, we got another little surprise when we got in the car to go...
Hi All- Forgive me the LONG absence! After 5 days of being away, I was swamped with emails and to-do’s upon arriving home. Oh yeah and it took me 6 hours to edit down the 400 photos from...
Greetings- I apologize for the long overdue recap of our trip to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. We got in late Friday night to the Kota Kinabalu (KK) airport and were transported to the Pacific Sutera...
I’ve been waiting for this day to arrive for a long, long time. Back in May I was awarded a Fellowship from the State Department to continue my coach training overseas. I am so impressed by...
The good news is that I can say I’ve finally been to Hong Kong. The bad news is that I can’t say that I’ve actually seen much of Hong Kong… here’s a peek into how my 4...
Greetings blog readers- Sarah here. Remember me?? Sorry for the gap in posts! I’ve really missed blogging these last few days, but the time and/or internet connection just wasn’t...
I’m quite behind in my blogging, so I thought I’d use a moment of down time to fill you in! Nick and I are adjusting nicely to Balinese life. We are enjoying our private water...
I am well aware that I have been a horrible blogger lately and I promise to make it up to you. Soon. It’s just that there was the honeymoon and then the nasty cough decided to come back for...
My parents, Janet and Steve, arrived in Manila late on the 28th. Instead of letting them rest and adjust to the time change, we jumped on another airplane and flew to Bangkok, where we’ll...
Delightful, delicious Bangkok. Like Manila in many ways, but about 20 years ahead from an infrastructure standpoint and with way better food (No offense to my Filipino friends, there’s just...
I am not sure how I got talked into this, but over V-day weekend, instead of going to a romantic dinner, I will be jumping into the ocean to swim with whale sharks. Seriously, have I lost my mind...
Must give all the credit to my talented husband for this great video and the underwater shots. My coordination is definitely not at the level where I can keep up with a shark and shoot video of it...
On Monday we got back from what could surely be titled one of those “once in a lifetime” adventures. We had left early Saturday morning and flown to Legazpi, on the Southern part of...
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons by Bingbing I am happy to report that we are off to spend our Easter in a stunning destination called Batanes. It’s the Northernmost point of the...
Happy Easter everyone! I’m in the final stages of photo editing after 4 sensational days in Batanes. I shot nearly 500 frames and narrowed it down to my best 250 for you to enjoy. I think...
Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about our recent trip to Batanes. What a stunning, remote location! It was like something that time forgot, but in an oh-so-wonderful kind of way. ...
Zoom in on me, looking VERY CRABBY as I waited to board our boat to Sabtang Island. Here’s the back story…I woke up at 5:30 AM so that I could be ready to join the group at 6 AM to...
Note: This guest post is by Sarah J, who is staying with us right now. This is her second contribution to the blog! Maybe we’ll even get one more! On the list of things to try in life...
Wow, we’re just gearing up to head out from 4 days in Paradise. Â Everyone told me that it would be sensational, and oh were they right! Â It was the finest sand I have ever stepped on –...
Lots more where those came from at SMUGMUG!
Just got back last night from 4 peaceful days in Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines. Now I should clarify, we weren’t actually in the city, we stayed on Mactan Island, which is...
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting my first Corporate workshop. It was a DREAM gig because I a.) got flown to a resort in Malaysia to present and b.) spent 4 hours identifying core...
Bohol has long been at the top of our list of “Favorite Places in the Philippines”. We love so many things about it: the undeveloped nature, the quality of the diving & snorkeling...
As many of you know, my friend Karolanne is in town for 6 days, following her 2 week tour of China. Â Given the short duration of her stay, we’ve been cramming in the fun double-time...
I desperately tried to like you Shanghai, I really did. Â I know it’s cool to like China right now, with you being a rising super power and all, but I just wasn’t into being a part of...
Ahhhh, Day 2 in Shanghai. Â Despite the challenges of Day 1, Nick and I were determined to start this day with a positive attitude. Â To get things kicked off on the right foot, we decided to indulge...
So after 3 days in Hong Kong, Nick and I can say without hesitation that we prefer to live in big Asian cities rather than visit them. Â It’s not that they’re bad by any means...
Just one week before we left for Hong Kong Nick and I were having one of our nightly debates/discussions. Â The question was: Which sense would you LEAST like to lose? Â I insisted that sight would...
This will be my third and final post about Hong Kong. Â Today’s post will actually focus on Macau, an island that is a 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong. Â Macau is best known as the Vegas of...
On Monday we had the pleasure of taking Nick’s parents to Ocean Adventure in Subic Bay for an up-close-and-personal encounter with the dolphins. Â Nick and I did this back in May of 2010 and...
So when we last connected Nick and I were en route to beautiful Boracay for a weekend of kiteboarding. Â While we did indeed make it to Boracay, we failed to get the kiteboarding experience that we...
I’m well aware that I owe you a MAJOR apology for not posting for the last week. Â It’s just that I’ve been so damn tired and I had to go on Medevac to Singapore for 3 days (more on...
I’m so excited to share this all with you. We just finished up what will undoubtedly be one of the coolest cultural experiences of our lifetimes – a 5 day wedding in a rural village in Gujarat...
The food experience in Gujarat definitely merits its own post. For starters, it was all vegetarian, all the time. What was surprising was how many different distinct dishes they could make out of...
On the day we arrived they were doing Mehndi for the ladies. Mehndi is what we would call a henna tattoo in the States and is very common before an Indian wedding (for both the bride and the women...
Nothing excited me (or freaked me out) more than the clothes. I was given this basic information in advance: – There will be 5 events over 3 days. – People change clothes for every event...
Hello Readers! This is the 5th and final installment of my Gujarat Wedding series. Today’s post will be on the various ceremonies that we got to witness as guests. I’m gonna be honest, I...
What do you think of when I say the words “Hare Krishnas”? Most likely, you think of orange-clad devotees singing and proselytizing in airports in the 1970’s. And yes, you’d...
We were delighted to welcome our first visitors to India last week — my parents! Since all of us are working full-time, we had to jam a month’s worth of fun into a 10 day trip. Thankfully...
Hi – This is Nia. This is my second blog post. We got to go to Bhutan last week and see this really cool Dzong (or fortress) in Punakha. I’m going to tell you about it in this post. And just in...
Happy Holidays all. I hope things are grand in your world. We just wrapped up a one week trip to Bhutan, also known as the Kingdom of Happiness. Since most people haven’t been to the Kingdom, I...
As I’m sure you can tell from the pictures and blog posts I’ve shared thus far, Bhutan as a whole was pretty darn special. However, there are 3 experiences we had that stood out from the...
Nick is away for several weeks on a TDY (temporary duty assignment) in Abu Dhabi. In order to break up what would be a very long stretch of solo parenting, I decided that Nia and I would need to go...
Hello again! This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, so if you haven’t read that yet, do so first to give you some context! We spread our sightseeing out over three days in four hour...
Pic by Kristen Our auto-rickshaw sped through the streets of Jodhpur, careening this way and that, locked in a tight race for God-knows-what with the motorcycle next to us. I close my eyes as I’m...
Hey All – It’s good to be back with you again. I’m thrilled to report that Nick is home after 22 days in Abu Dhabi. We missed him immensely but were so proud of the amazing work he was...
Virupaksha Temple by Priyanka Visaria-Nayak We arrived in India 38 months ago. It was August 2018 and our first time having a three-year tour (which we later extended for a fourth year). It felt like...
Hi Everyone – We spent the morning hiking amongst the beautiful ruins of Hampi, an ancient civilization from the 14th century. I am trying out a more detail-oriented style writing for my book...
Last Thursday marked the end of our first ‘adults-only’ trip in four years, to none other than romantic, stunning Udaipur— the Venice of India—complete with tours of the Maharana’s City...