holiday

Destination Honeymoons for Frequent Travelers

February 5, 2013 By Lauren

In theory, I’m planning a wedding. On February 18th my Australian fiancé and I will have been engaged for a year. At the time, I said to him, “I don’t want to be one of those couples who are engaged for years before the wedding.”

Oops.https://ishouldlogoff.wpengine.com/2013/02/20/luxury-mud-and-salt-a-visit-to-the-dead-sea/

In that year, we’ve finished working in South Korea, traveled through South America, and come to the US, where we’re putting together a de facto partner visa application so I can get to Australia.

Big Merino, Australia — Only in Australia.

Once that’s approved, we’ll get down to business on the wedding. Like, setting a date. And deciding which country we’ll get married in. But then you get all the messy details like catering, venues, flowers, color schemes; all the stuff that doesn’t interest me.

So I allow my mind to wander to more fun things.

Like our honeymoon.

Among all of the questions we get about our cross-cultural marriage, people are constantly curious about the honeymoon.

“But you’ve been to so many places. What’s left?”

And that is where they are wrong. There are plenty of places left. And it’s our honeymoon, so I figure we’ve got a license to splurge on some luxury. Right?

So I get lost in travel websites like Exsus, imagining what it would be like to let someone else take over the planning. To sleep in a fancy room with windows and fluffy pillows, have everything paid for in advance so we’re not thinking about the budget every day. A vacation in pure, unadulterated, luxury.

Drumroll, please: I now present you with my top three fantasy honeymoon destinations.

Africa

As in, the whole continent. I haven’t narrowed it down to a country yet, but here are some of the things I want to see:

One of those blazing sunsets where the sun takes over the whole sky and multiplies in size to the point where you can’t believe the sun is this big and you’ve never seen it like this before

African Sunset — Like this but BIGGER. Image Credit

Animals. Specifically lions, elephants, or giraffes, doing their thing in the wild. The real wild. Not a fancy-schmancy zoo that looks like the wild (although I am a sucker for those, too).
Victoria Falls. Though whether or not I’d get into that pool on the edge remains to be seen.
Morocco. Everything in Morocco from Marrakech to romantic and luxurious Casablanca.

That’s it, really. Any suggestions for exact locations are welcomed.

Whale Sharks

I realize that ‘whale sharks’ is not a country. But I feel like anywhere that has whale sharks has other desirable aspects, like clear blue waters, tropical climates, and secluded beaches. Countries that could satisfy this requirement include Borneo, Belize, Mexico, and Madagascar, but I’m flexible. Ideally, we’d be able to surf there, too, because it’s only fair that the honeymoon be about both of us.

Caribbean

I know. It’s generic, but I’ve never been there. Except for once, in college, when I went to the Bahamas with a group of friends. We stayed at a rundown spring break resort that had crazy happy hour specials and plenty of drunk students crowding the postage stamp-sized pool. One time I got on a bus and the driver was swigging from an open beer. Taking a trip to the Bahamas or even another island like Anguilla or Antigua would be just plain nice.

I was thinking somewhere a little more swanky for a honeymoon. Not much, but a little.

Help! Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Did you go luxury or backpack?

New Years Resolution(s)?

January 5, 2012 By Jillian

I have never been successful with New Years resolutions. Inevitably two weeks later I’ve forgotten about the promises I’ve made to myself and am charting a course into the new year without a thought as to those resolutions. I will tell you a secret…

It doesn’t both me one bit that I don’t fulfill these promises.

I know, it really should bother me, right? I don’t resolve to go places or do exciting things- those type of “resolutions” I reserve for my bucket list. My resolutions usually involve intangibles that I can’t really be held accountable for – the ever vague and ambiguous “I’m going to exercise more” or “I am going to spend more time with family.” It wasn’t quantified in the first place so I can be completely subjective in achieving or failing at the goal without any data to back me up. That’s probably why the resolutions disappear within two weeks.

This year I wanted to do something different with my “resolutions.” While my concrete goals are reserved in place on my bucket list – why can’t I resolve to cross a few of those off instead of promising myself something intangible and vague.

So out of the 50 items we put on our bucket list last January, we crossed two off this year:

30. Own our own home. (June 2011)

41. Ski (February 2011)

I don’t know how we should rate two, but at least we have a starting point for 2012.

What are you crossing off your bucket list this year?

Proud of My Country

July 4, 2011 By Danny

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a conference with some big name speakers. The first day, we heard from former President George W. Bush. On the second day we heard from the former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

Bush’s speech was anecdotal and funny. He found a voice with the audience that, I think, if he’d had at the White House he would have found a far greater amount of popularity. He vehemently defended many of his most controversial decisions and went so far as to offer information that many in the audience had not heard before…which seriously affected my view of his presidency. The next day when Brown spoke the mood was more business like as the conference was filled with financial professionals and Brown was the former British finance minister. He was still jovial but in speaking on much more ‘bread and butter’ topics he found two opportunities to share this thought:

I’m proud of you and of the things you have done in this country. I’m proud of America.

The audience was moved and took the time to clap and cheer. I doubt that many really understood though where Brown was coming from. He didn’t care about the size of our economy or the might of our military. He probably has never had the [mis]fortune to see a US flag turned into a tank top and I know for certain he’s never tried Jillian’s delicious bison chili. As the talk went on he explained, tactfully, where he and his compliments came from and he did what any British politician does…quote Winston Churchill.

–You can always count on America to do the right thing…after they’ve tried everything else. —Winston Churchill.

As cynical as that statement is and sounds, it’s right. All over the world we’ve met people who have been awed in some way by something America has done. In Cape Town, it was the hospice worker who raved of the value of the AIDS drugs that were being provided for free. In Colombia, one man remarked to me that he had a friend in the US…Obama. In Munich a man outside a beer hall stopped Jillian to tell her about how US servicemen would rip their uniforms on purpose so they could pay his mother to mend the seams.

My proudest “America” moment came before our big trip ever began. We were back in Washington, DC at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. During the festival a US state, foreign country and government agency showcase themselves on the national mall for a few weeks around Independence Day. This particular year, the agency was NASA while the foreign country was Bhutan. I’ll never forget walking into the tent with the space suits, watching as one of the Bhutanese archers I had just watched shoot his arrows, stood silently with a boot in his hands. Here he was, about as far away from his village in the Himalaya as he thought possible, holding a boot that had been on the moon.

Photo: Flag Waving

May 30, 2011 By Jillian

America is a bit like Washington, D.C. That is to say almost everyone is from somewhere else and we’re proud of it. We label ourselves as Irish Americans, Asian Americans or Jewish Americans, and although we may be proud of our heritage, unlike transients in D.C., we have no intention of ever going back.

My father’s side of the family has been in the U.S since the early 18th century when one man arrived from Ireland as an indentured servant. Eventually he was freed and we can trace our lineage, although it’s a bit spotty, back to the founding years of this country. The other side of my family arrived in the early 20th century. We are what my dad says lovingly “Heinz-57”, our family heritage has a little bit of everything. I’m part Native American (several different tribes), part Irish, part Scottish, part English, part Ukrainian and the list goes on and on…

Today in the U.S, we celebrate memorial day, a day to remember those that have given their lives for our country. They have fought and died for the ideals and values that we hold sacred. They are from all sorts of backgrounds, races, cultures and classes. Some arrived as servants, others as slaves and others as refugees. Since our founding days we have been a country of immigrants and over time we’ve meshed into the society we are today. Hopefully when you look at the U.S. be you an American or a foreigner, you see that same mosaic of cultures today. Not one ideology represents us all, not one way of thinking or one political party can encompass all our opinions. We are a “Heinz 57” nation, a nation comprised of many varieties of people.

Today’s picture comes from Hawaii, it’s the flag that commemorates the USS Arizona, destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

Photo: Pink Elephant

May 13, 2011 By Jillian

It’s not every day you see a man riding a pink elephant. We were fortunate enough to be in Bangkok and Chang Mai for the Yi Peng (Lantern)and Loi Krathong Festivals. On a night of the full-moon, the festival celebrates the spirit of the water. Today it’s generally a time to have fun, release lanterns into the sky and small decorated rafts (krathongs) onto a river.

Part of the festival in Chang Mai was a huge parade, complete with enormous floats, beauty queens, music and even monks! The parade wound it’s way through the center of Chang Mai, but I have to say the floats seemed to be unevenly spaced. After a float would pass, the crowd would surge again into the street until the next float came. We ended up seeking refuge in a pizzeria along the sidewalk and ate our dinner leisurely as the parade passed.

White elephants are revered as objects of good fortune and blessing all over southern Asia. In Thailand, they are often depicted as pink, and when one is found they are ceremonially presented to the King. As you can imagine white/pink elephants are a sacred symbol of royalty. This part of the parade was reenacting scenes from the life of Buddha.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

Thailand is probably one of the easiest and most comfortable “exotic” destinations to travel. The people are incredibly warm and friendly and the county has decent infrastructure. If you’re looking for a beach to lay on, there are plenty of cheap all inclusive holidays to be had. We skipped the beach and stuck to the cities to explore Thai culture and religion. We spent several days in Bangkok and Chang Mai and even took a Thai cooking class!