Not So Much of a Honeymoon

Every year, Daniel and I go on a self described "honeymoon" to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We pick a new island in the Caribbean and enjoy a week together. This year, we had a baby, which resulted in a very different kind of vacation.

My parent's graciously offered to come along for the ride so, this past June, the five of us rented a house down in the Florida Keys.

There was some fun, some swimming, and some celebrating; but mostly there was lots of baby.

I'm glad we went but I am already looking forward to next year's honeymoon, just Daniel and me.

Settling Back In

We are finally home again after a whirl-wind month of travel. Every time I leave, I always come home with more ideas and more love for my home.

There is so much inspiration out there that it can be overwhelming but I love the steady flow of ideas I have when I'm in a new environment.

Warning- This post is picture heavy, so prepare for a virtual slide show. If only I had a dark, wood paneled den to invite you all in to...

This year, for our third honeymoon, we went to the Bahamas.  We relaxed in the sand, took in some cultural sights and played with the local wildlife.

We didn't stay there, but we had to make the trip out to see Atlantis. (Have you seen the commercials? Insane)

It was as over the top and expensive as advertised. We went through their aquariums which were probably the least interesting to most but I loved them. They had a HUGE manta ray.

This doesn't even do it justice, this thing was like 10ft across.

Seeing the cruise ships was pretty neat. They are massive!

Downtown was cute and well maintained.

My favorite trip was to the zoo. It wasn't really an animal zoo but more of a bird zoo. Including a flock of wild flamingos roaming the grounds.

They had some neat reptiles and things too.

But the best was the Capybara.

Don't you just want one?

It looks like we were really busy but that was really the only day we left the comfort of the hotel. The rest of the time was filled with sun, sand, and cocktails. Which to me, is the best type of vacation.

Now that we are home, it is time to settle back in to life. We have some progress to make on the bathroom still but I'm taking my time.

Cheers!

On the Road Again

It's June! Which means we are off on our annual Honeymoon (you can check out our 2011 and 2012 trips if you'd like) and this year we chose the Bahamas. My sister-in-law is holding down the fort while we go get some serious R&R. See you in a few weeks!

Gold Mining and Family

Last weekend we took off to La Paz Mexico for a family reunion. Daniel's family has a pretty strange (and fun) past. Way back, Daniel's grandfather bought a gold mine in Baja California (near La Paz) . Daniel's father, aunt and uncle grew up at the mine living in a house out in the desert.

When Daniel was young his parents took him and his sister there for months on end.

They would pitch a tent in the old building and camp out under the stars.

You can even still see the wall where they marked their heights going back to when Daniel's father was young.

It had been 20 years since Daniel was last at the mine but this year everyone came together and made a vacation out of it. We spent one whole day their checking out the house, the mine, and playing in the arroyo (which of course included posing with some surprisingly shaped flora).

The best thing was getting to spend time with Daniel's cousins and aunts and uncles reminiscing about their youth. 

The mine never really produced any gold but it did produce quite a few fond memories from every generation. 

Now my height is up on the wall officially adding me to the legacy. Who knows, maybe we will bring our children out here some day to experience the fun.

Cheers!

Viva la Paris!

Daniel and I prefer trips to presents, so for this Christmas we took ourselves to Paris for New Years. As hinted, it was amazing! We took very few pictures and did very few touristy things but instead, opted to live our 11 days there as if we were at home. We rented the cutest apartment ever in the center of the city (vrbo.com rocks!)

It was a classic Parisian studio with 300 year old beams and a beautiful view.

Most days consisted of wandering the city and seeing the sights. Of course we did the usual. Notre Dame

Daniel was particularly enamored with the crypts and relics. 

Eww finger bones...

 The Louvre was fantastic

On our one sunny day

 Our one mission this trip was to find a particular picture in the Louvre that I saw while I was with my mother back in 2001. Mission accomplished.

Yes that is me looking slightly travel worn pointing to a Capybara. They are the ROUSes of the real world.

I always love the view from the tops of monuments.

The Eiffel Tower was impressive.

 But the best thing about our trip was the evenings. Every afternoon we wandered back towards home and stopped by "our street".

 Nothing particularly special about it from the outside, but as you wandered down it was full of anything and everything. Pastries, bread, wine, cheese.

How can you not want to just bite there little heads off?

It was just the perfect street. So that was our ritual. Sight-see and then pretend we lived there for the evening. So there it is, my perfect Parisian adventure.

My advice to you if you are planning a trip to Paris any time soon:

1. Rent an apartment. Vbro.com is great but there are a lot of options out there. It is wonderful to have a kitchen (and it keeps the cost down) and we made sure to have a washer and dryer which meant packing for 4 days instead of 11. 
2. Give yourself time. It would have been a lot less fun if we were trying to do this trip in a week or less. I figure 10 days is a minimum (but if you have less, it is still worth it!)
3. Buy a museum pass. This was such a life saver. You have access to basically all of the major museums and monuments for free. It costs a bit up front (around 100$ for a 6 day pass) but in most cases you get to jump the line which can save you hours of waiting around to see things. As long as you are up for at least one museum or monument a day it pays for itself.   
4. Fly non-stop. This was the best. Surprisingly it didn't cost any more (Delta flies direct from Seattle) and I would probably be willing to pay a bit more even if it did. You are just a happier person if you get even the opportunity to sleep. 

Anyone else have good travel tips? We are pretty good travelers but I still learn something new every trip.

Cheers!

Road Trip Scores

What's a road trip without a little shopping? I love checking out random thrift stores and antique stores in the middle of no-where and on this trip it payed out in spades.

Probably my favorite score of the trip is this little diddy birdy.

She was picked up in a random (and free) prairie town in North Dakota. The shops were full of cute old books and treasures. We also got to see the world's largest Buffalo.



Is it strange that I was disappointed he wasn't real?

I also managed to finally visit a Home Goods on this trip. WA doesn't have one (yet) and their adds have been torturing me for years. Update: We do have HomeGoods! They are new! Yay!

I picked up this super cute handwoven basket.

And this great garden stool

Which is the perfect foil to my other stool I recovered last year.

They are both in the library which needs a reveal post when I get a little further along. More details to follow as usual (you'd think one day I would have learned to only work on one project at a time).

On the way home Daniel and I stopped at a random antiques place in South Dakota and found this great bar set.

I love the texture and the caddy. Too cute.

Where in South Dakota you ask? Right about here

We had been driving so long and it mostly looked like this, but, if you are ever driving along the I-90 and happen to pass an huge antique mall in the middle of nowhere it is worth the stop, I promise.

Anyone else like to check out thrift stores/ antique malls on road trips? I wouldn't have thought Daniel would go for it but I think he was as tired of driving as I was.

Cheers!