For Chinese New Year this year, we decided to go back to Boracay, Philippines. We thought about going to Bali, but we were so busy with work that I didn’t have time to do much research, and I know that Bali will take some research as there are so many different places to see. That might be on the list for our next October break instead.
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This Christmas holiday was definitely a trip of a lifetime. We started in Dubai and did a cruise around the Arab Gulf, and then flew to Kenya to do a safari in the Masai Mara, then to Tanzania to go to the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Crater. It was a very busy three weeks, but definitely a vacation that I will cherish forever.
October was a crazy month. Brandon's parents came to visit Hong Kong for a week, and then we went to Macau (a surprise trip we planned for them!) and Siem Reap with them. And then Brandon and I went to Singapore. The first day that they were in Hong Kong was 'Beertopia' craft beer festival. A great way to get over jet lag ;) It's a huge craft beer festival that has beers from all over the world. And it's on the Central waterfront in HK, so it's an awesome view. It was a great way to introduce Nichols to the city! We also went on the HK Ferris Wheel, to Big Buddha (with the cable car), Happy Valley Races, and Disneyland during their time in HK.
After a hectic start to the school year, Brandon decided that he wanted to surprise me with a weekend away. As you may know, he never does any of the travel planning. I propose an idea of where to do or what to do, and he says okay and tells me to book it. If I give him options between different hotels or things to do, he says to do whatever I want. For a control freak like me, this works out perfectly. So at the end of September, Brandon said, "Can I plan a weekend away for us this weekend?" We had nothing on, so I said "Sure." I'll admit, I was nervous. Brandon had never booked anything for us before, so I was worried that he wouldn't get as good of a deal that he could have. He wouldn't know which coupons to use where, and how to maximize our reward points. But I tried to calm myself and just be glad that Brandon wanted to do this for me.
The summer was spent mostly in Minnesota, trying to see as many of our family and friends as possible. Our first stop was Brainerd. We stayed with my parents and saw lots of my extended family from both sides. Luke was working in the Cities for the summer, so we got to see him. Pete was still in DC and wasn’t able to make it home at all, so we missed out on seeing him. We spent lots of time on the lake with friends and family.
For our Easter break, we decided to do a road trip in Australia. We flew into Sydney and then rented a campervan and drove the coast to Melbourne. Overall, it was one of my favorite vacations. We went with a different campervan company than in NZ because we wanted one that was a bit newer and smaller so it would be easier to drive and consume less gas. The US dollar was a lot stronger at the time of this trip (opposed to when we went to NZ), so it actually ended up being a fairly inexpensive vacation. We took a daytime flight to Sydney, so we arrived late at night. We decided to get a hotel so that we wouldn’t have to figure out our first night of camping in the dark. Very good decision. We picked up our van on day 2 and headed out of Sydney. We stopped at a few places to pick up the essentials, and found “Target” on the map and got really excited. Very disappointing to realize that Aussie Target is nothing compared to the US. We did find a French press coffee maker there though, which was a definite ‘necessity’ for the trip! Our first stop was at Royal National Park. We did some short hikes along the water and it was gorgeous. Our campsite was okay. Nothing special, but definitely not bad.
For Chinese New Year break, we decided to go on a (our first!) relaxing vacation. We've always been in the mindset that vacation is for doing stuff and seeing new things. Not sitting on a beach. But after we got back from India in October, we decided that we needed a vacation that would be more relaxing instead of sight-seeing. Christmas break was already booked, so we booked Philippines for CNY. I had been to Boracay with my mom in 2013, but Brandon had never been. It took a bit of convincing to get him to go there because he didn't want to "just sit on the beach for a whole week." We actually didn't end up sitting on the beach too much. We did lots of activities... Jet skiing, scuba diving, sailboat ride, and banana boat ride. And lots of massages and beer.
So now that I'm done with grad school (yay!!), I have no excuse for getting updated (and keeping updated!) on the blog... So I'll start where I left off... Last Christmas... Brandon and I went to Europe. We started in Italy for a week, then met my family in Barcelona, and then went to Croatia on our own to end the trip. It was an incredible trip.
The highlight to this month was a service trip to Borneo with twenty of my 10th grade students. Each year, all 9th-11th grade students spend a week somewhere in SE Asia doing a service trip. The trip consisted of helping paint a local community center in Sabah, Malaysia (on the island of Borneo) and doing some jungle trekking and camping. It was an amazing opportunity not only for the students, but for myself as well.
Yes, I realize this is now one who year late. But I'm determined to make my blog my new project, now that my Masters is almost done (which is probably why I'm doing this now....I'm procrastinating on studying for my final exam on Friday). So, I'm going to attempt to summarize the last year, but definitely focusing on travel, because that's definitely the highlight to our lives now!
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