Archive for 'Travels'
Nicole is the Alberto Granado to my Che Guevara.
Or is she Che, and I, Alberto?
The bike I wanted but too small for the both of us…nor could it go more than 40mph
Our helmets from back home. We didn’t trust the Vietnam standard of safety…
She’s pretty thrilled about getting to Hải Vân Pass. Note: This is one of the BEST driving roads in the world.
When we got to the top of the mountain, we found a little known strong hold from the war.
Ha Long Bay. Translation: Descending Dragon Bay
Our little private beach in the middle of Ha Long Bay fully equipped with hot water, only from 8-10PM, clogged toilets that are sucked out in the morning by a septic boat and painfully chilled nights. BUT we had a rock climbing instructor!
AND! Water-tubing!
Christmas tree in Ha Long Bay. Juxtaposition anyone?
This is pretty much what the middle of Vietnam looks like.
The entire country is pretty much covered in rice fields. Hence why they’re the 2nd biggest exporters of rice.
After a hard day’s work.
Quintessential rural Vietnam.
There were cold nights. So cold that Nicole refused to take her gloves off and instead, snapped pictures with her nose.
Lost in the middle of no where.
I can’t do a travel blog without an old wrinkly man. I JUST LOVE THEM!
When we finally made our way into Cambodia for Christmas!
Photobombed.
Angkor Wat just made for a nice backdrop for my real attraction. MONKEYS!
We’re lunch buddies.
Nicole was also taken in by the monkeys.
A group of monks checking out a bombed temple (One of many casualties from the Khmer Rouge regime) in Siem Reap.
Getting her praying on.
Big temple. Little people.
Angkor Wat is ABSOLUTELY amazing! Which is why I really wish they closed it off from the public. We’re only going to ruin it.
These guys should be the only ones touching this temple.
I found an odd-looking monkey by Ta Prohm.
Learning the ways of the monkey.
Cambodia is an AMAZING honeymoon locale. I’d personally prefer it over a Bora Bora or Maui…
THE bridge over the river Kwai.
When Nicole met a rather large kitty cat.
This is how the Thai’s play tug of war…Notice the team work on the cat’s end.
She soon saw something…much larger.
My favorite 4 legged creature in the world! Sorry Chubs…
We took a bath with one.
We traveled half way around the world, to feel at home all over again. =)
Crucial for comfort when doing tea ceremony.
Love the accent of the T’s.
Michelle’s super cute parents.
Like a BOSS.
Listening closely to Jason singing.
I believe that was a written declaration of Jason’s love for her.
Alvin aka. Brother aka. Groomsmen aka. Wardrobe Stylist aka. Hair Stylist.
Love me a giddy bride.
Also love completely random location shoots.
We decided to do a very HK thing and take pictures in a tram.
Didn’t seem to be a good idea when it started pulling away, and I, almost running into a lamp post chasing it…while taking pictures. Not Advised! Not to mention, Michelle laughing at me while doing so. =)
Love HK Red Cabs.
NYC Benches!
I think Michelle & Jason robbed a bilzillion business cards from all of their favorite restaurants back in NY.
NYC Lamps!
Yeah, you see the theme here? =)
Yeup! Even street signs!
What a way to end the night. =)
My two favorite islands in the world, Hawaii and the Philippines.
The last time the casing worked. Canon has officially told me, that the camera is economically unrepairable. GREAT!
My ride or die chick.
Steph is loving our view enroute to the summit of Mauna Kea.
One of the many reasons why Big Island is my favorite of the bunch.
Well worth the freezing hike up to that top.
Never will one be so cold and be so close to the Equator.
The other reason why I love Big Island so much.
Watching Big Island grow.
An unachievable dream at this point…but kudos to all our service men and women.
Quite the landscape to be flying and landing from.
It’s hard to believe but some of the biggest buildings in the world were constructed with the help of simple bamboos…the scaffolding of Asia.
Wonder why these red cabs never got the attention our yellow cab has gotten. I find them very comfortable and roomy.
Siargao, Philippines. I knew I was in the right place when I saw this as a mode of transportation.
The beautiful people of the Philippines.
I don’t know what this local was doing…
Our Thai inspired lunch @ Buddha’s Surf Resort.
Their super cute Beagle!
Really gotta get used to spooning dudes in Asia, or else you’ll never get anywhere.
What should be much larger Tuna. The people here catch what they can. The years of dynamite fishing has unfortunately killed most of the marine & coral life in the region.
As gorgeous as the water is, there is a disturbing lack of fish.
I miss having warm tropical waters between my toes…
They did have oysters.
Don’t really know what he’s fishing for…didn’t see ONE fish.
There were a bunch of these guys.
Keeping ourselves entertained.
Sept 3rd (Day after a long wedding and a wild night out) 2:00PM – Leave for airport.
Sept 3rd 2:20PM – Turn around on BQE, forgot my passport.
JFK to CDG – 7 Hours & 16 minutes (Couldn’t sleep for a minute)
Sept 4th (In Paris) 7:00AM – Waiting for 10AM train…forgot charging adapter and nothing to read…BORED OUTTA MY MIND!
Sept 4th (Arriving in Aix) 1:30PM – Panicking because I can’t find Steph and no phone.
Sept 4th, Approximately 7:00PM – Finally getting to the Chateau and seeing everyone for the first time. Followed by a quick rehearsal and a nice dinner in.
Side question: What makes a chateau…a chateau?
Sept 5th – The BIG day, as you can see below.
Sept 6th 7:30AM, Wake up with cotton mouth, a headache and a severely bruised hip *Ahem…Stephanie! to go to the train station.
Sept 6th 5:00PM, @ CDG airport…BORED OUTTA MY MIND AGAIN!
CDG to JFK 8 Hours of 40 minutes. (Why does it always take longer to go home?)
Sept 6th 8:00PM – Touchdown JFK.
Sept 6th 10:00PM – Prepping for a 3 wedding weekend.
In conclusion:
16 Hours of flight.
7 Hours of Train.
11 Hours of waiting in train stations & airports.
To spend a day and a half in Aix…AND I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN IN A HEART BEAT!
The grapes were DELICIOUS!
Nana wasn't fond of cars...
Start em' young.
Tara's in running for the cutest flower girl...ever. She was collecting rocks with her flower basket!
Steph's taking little kid's money...no bueno.
Future photographers?
As the girls worked...
The boys played...
And played they did!
Wasn't sure what David was doing here...
Here she comes!
Love that David was still teary...I can't imagine his reaction if he hadn't seen her yet.
Tara collecting back her flowers.
Practically bathing in lavender.
I think he was trying to get even with the crowd...
But trajectory was a bit off...
"Salut"
Her grandma's so cute!
...not so innocent with the pole dancing.
The boys showing some skin. It's traditional to go commando...I learned it the hard way...
Not sure what's going on here...
Trevor obviously didn't like Steph's method of picking up as much.
Like mother...
Like son?
"I've had...the time of my life"
The sequence of events that led to my severely bruised ass.
What Darwin didn’t know was, as special as the wildlife is on the Galapagos, it is 100x more incredible below. The convergence of the cold Humboldt currents, the warm Panama currents & the deep sea Cromwell currents brings together an incredible array of marine life.
Trip started with a Ecuadorian road trip…Lucked out in finding Santa Marianita, an amazing coast town with GREAT kite surfing!
Chilly waters but isn’t crowded like the Philippines or Hawaii. And if you’re lucky, there’s an occasional whale that’ll swim by.
I prefer this over surfing…
The landscape of Quito.
Strange things happens on full moons…
The fog between the valleys in Quito.
Cangrejo! Blue crab is much better…
An ancient calendar.
You know it’s not the REAL Equator line, when one has no problems walking on it.
The huge monument that supposedly sits on the equator line. They missed it by about 200 yards.
THE reason why you shouldn’t pee in the amazon…
A real shrunken head…about the size of a miniature Poland Spring bottle…
An ancient clock.
I don’t know how to explain this…another weird phenomenon that happens on the equator line is that you lose a lot of strength…
The bay of San Cristobal, Galapagos. Half the boats are occupied by sleeping sea lions.
The Galapagos in plentiful in weird star fish.
And green sea turtles. It’s a bad dive if you don’t spot at least 3.
Got SUPER excited when we saw our first school of eagle rays.
Endangered fur seals!
This sums up how difficult underwater photography is…I got lucky on this shot.
Look how BIG their eyes are! Incredible!
STOKED to find my first Galapagos shark!
An injured hammerhead, swimming sideways. Nature can be cruel…didn’t think he had much left in the tank.
When I was still excited to see eagle rays. By the 3rd day, you just wanted them to get out of your way.
Most hammerheads are pretty shy…NOT this guy.
Getting too close for my comfort.
The silhouette of a hammer still amazes me.
Beautiful creatures…but they started getting in the way of things. This is the point where we were just getting spoiled.
Another curious shark. And no, sharks are not scary. His close cousin, the great white…different story.
My favorite image from the trip.
Yes…eagle rays again. They have very comical faces.
Cute little blue puffer.
Nature’s submarine going right under us.
Javier, my wing man for chasing tail.
A shot of the pregger whale shark. I went into video mode after this shot. Figured it’s a bit more epic with me chasing her the whole time…Video is on Facebook…
Orcas! I really wished we could’ve encountered them in the ocean, but they were hunting…so…not the brightest idea…
A massive school of hammerheads. This stream of them went on for a while…
A school of jacks that can rival the sardine run in South Africa.
Darwin’s Arch. BEST BEST single dive site in the world.
Darwin island…a very magical place for divers.
I’m all about swimming with dolphins…in the wild.
Due to the lack of human contact, the dolphins here aren’t quite as friendly. They keep their distance.
MOLA MOLA!!!! Biggest non-shark fish in the oceans. Record was 5,000+ lbs.
Bullhead shark.
I can’t get sick of turtles. They’re too cute.
MANTAS!!! Super shy…didn’t get within 10 yards of them…
Shark super highway.
Small fish are safe with these guys. Tuna…not so much.
Migrating somewhere…
Byron finally has a boy! Camillo!
Aren’t dream catchers an North American thing?
The dive team with our naturalist.
Turtle turtle!
The crabs are getting it on…
I was hoping she didn’t notice that I wasn’t a sea lion…
Disturbing the peace.
Very cute.