Work is beyond busy, but there’s one thing getting me through each day – Bali in 22 days! Sasha has begged me not to over-book us, so I’ve limited my planning to a famous Balinese cooking class, volcano tour, temple tour, yoga class, Ubud day trip, and my favorite – an elephant ride! The first time I saw elephants in the wide (i.e. not at a zoo) was in South Africa three years ago, and I fell in love. They are so darn cute.
photo by vicki grafton via entouriste
As you may know from here, we’re going on our honeymoon to Bali in December. I’ve already bought a travel book that I’m going through page-by-page, learning about the history, food and traditions of Indonesia. I was inspired to book the trip after seeing these pictures of Ubud on Entouriste. Recently, another set of Bali pictures were posted – my favorites are below. I seriously cannot wait! How gorgeous is Vicki’s photography?
Photos by Vicki Grafton
We have explored all sorts of options for the honeymoon – our favorites being Croatia, New Zealand, and Thailand. Then, as I mentioned in my previous post, I stumbled upon Entouriste and my mind was made – we’re going to Bali! In her post about Bali, Ami talks about her visits in Ubud, which is about an hour away from our hotel – the Conrad Bali Resort & Spa (see pictures below). After reading about her experiences (and seeing those pictures!), we’ll definitely make a trip north to see those sites as well. I am so excited – and relieved to have picked a spot! While the wedding is in July, we’ll wait until December to go, as Sasha has finals at the end of November. It’s a long, long journey there (29 hours, to be exact), but I know it’ll be worth it!
Happy Monday/back to reality! We spent the last week at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, which is located on Miramar Beach near Destin, Florida. It was one of the best weeks of my whole life, truly. We were up at sunrise every morning, first in line for the breakfast buffet (more on that below, but it was so delicious!), first at the beach to get our umbrella and baby tent setup (Emi napped every single morning in it!), ate the best lunches at Barefoot’s by the pool, snoozed hard in the afternoon, then were back out for more fun around 3pm. Around 5pm, we’d head back to the hotel, all take baths/shower, then get dressed and eat dinner, either at the resort, or taking the free shuttle to Baytowne Wharf nearby. We were relaxed the whole time, and I couldn’t imagine it going more smoothly. I have some tips for beachin’ with baby below as well – we learned some things during our first time doing it! Isla was about 20 months old when we took her to the beach the first time, so her eating the sand was not a concern of ours! Ha.
I have always struggled with the ‘About’ page of my blog and website or with even writing a short blurb describing myself. I remember when I was interviewing for a job at Accenture in college, and I’d cringe overtime the standard question was asked: “Tell me about yourself.” I mean, where does one start?! Of course, I had my canned answer, but it would seem disingenuous to share something similar here. Although I post lots of details about our lives here on the blog, I don’t really get too, too personal. I always love reading people’s ‘fun/random fact’ posts, so I set off to come up with some things about me that you might not know (hopefully a few that even my closest friends are surprised by!). I kept going, and going, and going (this has been a note in my iPhone for ages!) – I finally made it to 100 with the help of my sister-in-law, who suggested the final fact (thanks, Ivana).
So, here’s a little light reading for you! Ha. And then a request from me. If you’ve been reading for awhile but we’ve never been in contact, I would love to hear from you (truly). Even just an email with a ‘Hi’ – I love connecting with people. Some of my sweetest friendships have started as online ones, but blossomed into much more.