So boutique hotels are the “in” thing now. Minneapolis is getting a slew of them, the most famous ones recently being The Chambers, The W Foshay and the Ivy. The key differentiator of...
Travel
Waiting for a vacation to arrive can be so hard, no matter whether it’s a cabin up north or Disney World. Now take that yearning and multiply it by ten, because I have the most grandiose...
Hello all! I’m back and better than ever. The trip was unbelievable, but boy do I have some serious jet lag from the 14 hour time difference. Remind me not to cross the date line again...
Hello – Welcome to this overview of “Millers Take Mexico 2009”. We’re going to do only a brief bit of commentary and let the pictures speak for themselves. Photo 1: Our...
Loved this! Check it out…
We’ll start with a video. Music on the video is by the Hotdogs, a Filipino pop/rock band that topped the Filipino charts in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Watch out, it’s a...
We got back on Sunday from a relaxing weekend in Philly. We were in desperate need of a getaway, as our place is becoming overrun with foodstuffs and paper products as we wrap up our shopping. It...
Sorry folks! All this packing has been getting in the way of my blogging. I’m going to attempt 2 posts today to make up for it! This tardy post is a follow-up from last weekend’s...
Day 1 of our trek to Manila is complete. The day started out a little rough, requiring us to awake at 4 AM to catch our flight. I hadn’t slept very well, most likely because I was so eager...
Honestly, I did nothing all day except eat on day 2. And it was FABULOUS! I love food and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I don’t like to do it all the time, but a well-researched gem...
Sorry for being absent for a few days – we had the opportunity to take our first weekend trip outside of Manila. We ventured South to the island of Mindoro via a 4 hour car trip plus 1 hour...
Oh, but WAIT! The story’s not yet over from our weekend in Batangas. As if failing at SCUBA wasn’t enough for my weekend, we got another little surprise when we got in the car to go...
Hi All- Forgive me the LONG absence! After 5 days of being away, I was swamped with emails and to-do’s upon arriving home. Oh yeah and it took me 6 hours to edit down the 400 photos from...
Greetings- I apologize for the long overdue recap of our trip to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. We got in late Friday night to the Kota Kinabalu (KK) airport and were transported to the Pacific Sutera...
I’ve been waiting for this day to arrive for a long, long time. Back in May I was awarded a Fellowship from the State Department to continue my coach training overseas. I am so impressed by...
The good news is that I can say I’ve finally been to Hong Kong. The bad news is that I can’t say that I’ve actually seen much of Hong Kong… here’s a peek into how my 4...
As many of you know, our honeymoon had to be indefinitely postponed after our May 2nd wedding due to our transfer to Manila. We received incredibly generous wedding gifts to fund this trip and put...
Greetings blog readers- Sarah here. Remember me?? Sorry for the gap in posts! I’ve really missed blogging these last few days, but the time and/or internet connection just wasn’t...
I’m quite behind in my blogging, so I thought I’d use a moment of down time to fill you in! Nick and I are adjusting nicely to Balinese life. We are enjoying our private water...
I am well aware that I have been a horrible blogger lately and I promise to make it up to you. Soon. It’s just that there was the honeymoon and then the nasty cough decided to come back for...
Just got back from 5 glorious days in Bohol, an island in the Southern Philippines. As you know, my friend Rachel is visiting and we wanted to take her somewhere that would give her a feel of the...
My parents, Janet and Steve, arrived in Manila late on the 28th. Instead of letting them rest and adjust to the time change, we jumped on another airplane and flew to Bangkok, where we’ll...
Greetings readers- I’m well aware that I haven’t posted in days or shown you pictures of our Bangkok trip. The thing is, there just hasn’t been any time! We have been go, go...
Delightful, delicious Bangkok. Like Manila in many ways, but about 20 years ahead from an infrastructure standpoint and with way better food (No offense to my Filipino friends, there’s just...
I am not sure how I got talked into this, but over V-day weekend, instead of going to a romantic dinner, I will be jumping into the ocean to swim with whale sharks. Seriously, have I lost my mind...
Must give all the credit to my talented husband for this great video and the underwater shots. My coordination is definitely not at the level where I can keep up with a shark and shoot video of it...
On Monday we got back from what could surely be titled one of those “once in a lifetime” adventures. We had left early Saturday morning and flown to Legazpi, on the Southern part of...
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons by Bingbing I am happy to report that we are off to spend our Easter in a stunning destination called Batanes. It’s the Northernmost point of the...
Happy Easter everyone! I’m in the final stages of photo editing after 4 sensational days in Batanes. I shot nearly 500 frames and narrowed it down to my best 250 for you to enjoy. I think...
Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about our recent trip to Batanes. What a stunning, remote location! It was like something that time forgot, but in an oh-so-wonderful kind of way. ...
Zoom in on me, looking VERY CRABBY as I waited to board our boat to Sabtang Island. Here’s the back story…I woke up at 5:30 AM so that I could be ready to join the group at 6 AM to...
Note: This guest post is by Sarah J, who is staying with us right now. This is her second contribution to the blog! Maybe we’ll even get one more! On the list of things to try in life...
Wow, we’re just gearing up to head out from 4 days in Paradise. Â Everyone told me that it would be sensational, and oh were they right! Â It was the finest sand I have ever stepped on –...
Lots more where those came from at SMUGMUG!
Just got back last night from 4 peaceful days in Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines. Now I should clarify, we weren’t actually in the city, we stayed on Mactan Island, which is...
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting my first Corporate workshop. It was a DREAM gig because I a.) got flown to a resort in Malaysia to present and b.) spent 4 hours identifying core...
Bohol has long been at the top of our list of “Favorite Places in the Philippines”. We love so many things about it: the undeveloped nature, the quality of the diving & snorkeling...
As many of you know, my friend Karolanne is in town for 6 days, following her 2 week tour of China. Â Given the short duration of her stay, we’ve been cramming in the fun double-time...
Since it’s become obvious that I can’t stop time and prevent the one year mark from happening, I’ve decided that for today’s 1 Year Commemorative Post we’ll take a more...
I desperately tried to like you Shanghai, I really did. Â I know it’s cool to like China right now, with you being a rising super power and all, but I just wasn’t into being a part of...
Ahhhh, Day 2 in Shanghai. Â Despite the challenges of Day 1, Nick and I were determined to start this day with a positive attitude. Â To get things kicked off on the right foot, we decided to indulge...
I am less than 40 days away from returning to my mother-land. In preparation of my month-long trip, I have begun making a list of all my ‘must-do’s’ while I’m home. Those...
When Friday evening rolled around this week, Nick and I looked at each other and agreed that we’d spent one too many weekend in Manila recently. Â We were already planning to make a drive down...
So after 3 days in Hong Kong, Nick and I can say without hesitation that we prefer to live in big Asian cities rather than visit them. Â It’s not that they’re bad by any means...
Just one week before we left for Hong Kong Nick and I were having one of our nightly debates/discussions. Â The question was: Which sense would you LEAST like to lose? Â I insisted that sight would...
This will be my third and final post about Hong Kong. Â Today’s post will actually focus on Macau, an island that is a 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong. Â Macau is best known as the Vegas of...
Greetings all – We are T minus 5 days until our 23 day ‘rest and relaxation’ trip to New Zealand. Because we are at a hardship post (I know some of you would debate that, but I...
After our patience-trying flight experience, we needed things to take a turn for the better. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we got. We arrived in Sydney and took a cab to Darlington, a suburb...
Finally got a chance to break in my new ZOOM lens that Nick got me for my birthday. It was a ton of fun to get so up-close-and-personal with the animals. Hope you enjoy the pics! Lots more on...
I know I said that sailing past the Sydney Opera House was as good as it gets, but I’m going to have to retract that because the last 24 hours topped it. Â This last day was out-of-this...