In January, we went to visit our awesome friends, The Hills. They live in beautiful southern California and I’m always jealous of the great weather they have! We had a terrific weekend of beach bonfires, burgers by the ocean, Sprinkles cupcakes, Ferris wheel rides and even a little shopping! Lulu’s favorite part of the trip was going to the beach for the first time!
She was pretty timid at first and never went really far into the water, but she still had a blast! Baby Adams and I had a blast too!
Here is Lulu with her new BFF, Toby. Toby is a golden doodle which is what people always think Lulu is.
Enjoying the sun!
We attempted to get a picture with both dogs and this was the best we could do!
We were so happy to visit our wonderful friends, Joe and Catherine, in London! They moved overseas last January and we have missed them dearly. They came to London to spend Christmas with Joe’s sister and her husband. Of course, when we heard they were going to be in London, we had to come over ourselves!
We arrived on New Year’s Eve and after a little technical difficulty of finding each other, we were finally reunited! We had dinner at a super yummy Persian restaurant and then walked over to Primrose Hill to watch fireworks. We thought about going down to the Thames to watch the show, but were a little concerned that it would be a madhouse. Rick Steve’s recommended watching the show from Primrose so we decided to heed his advice.
Here’s the view of the London skyline. You can see the London eye is lit up red at the moment.
There were a lot of people on the hill; drinking, shooting off fireworks and lighting these super awesome lanterns.
Most of the lanterns made it up in the sky but a few had some mishaps by landing in a tree or crashing into the ground. I have never seen lanterns like this before and couldn’t get enough of how beautiful they were up in the sky!
Some folks in the crowd were shooting off their own fireworks and a few times we all had to dive to the ground as one accidentally came our way. Scary!
Here’s a video of a lantern taking off letting it fly.
Finally the fireworks began!
It was quite surreal being in London for the start of 2011. Makes me think that 2011 is going to be one super fantastic year!
The next day, we met up with the group and headed to Notting Hill for the Portobello Road Market. The streets were packed with vendors and people. I saw some really neat vintage items but didn’t have room in my suitcase to take anything home!
We did a lot of walking on this trip. It has finally caught up to me that I’m six months pregnant and can’t walk fast. I really can’t walk fast anymore. If I do, I get a huge pain in my side. It was pretty frustrating not being able to keep up with the group, but thankfully it gave me a little more time to talk to Catherine since she was willing to hang back with the ol’ preggers!
After Notting Hill, we walked around Hyde Park and ended up in Harrods. They truly sell everything there: ski’s, bikes, cars, beds, chocolate, etc. Everything!!
After walking all day, I was tuckered out so we decided to grab pizza and then parked ourselves in a cafe for a few hours.
We almost called it a night after the cafe, but decided that Normer and I couldn’t come to London without seeing Big Ben at least once, so we hopped on the train to see him!
The next morning we headed home so it was one short trip. We love you Joe and Catherine! It was so, so good to see you guys and we had fun bashing around London with you! Well, shuffling around London in my case, but you get the point.
For our last day of sightseeing, we woke up to a very rainy Sydney. We decided to head out anyway and walk across the Harbour Bridge.
It was a really nice walk despite the rain. We had a great view of the Opera House once we crossed the harbor.
We were waiting for a Ferry in front of Luna Park, a little amusement park. I thought the face was quite creepy!
After our ride back across the harbor, the sun decided to come out and we finally got to take some good shots of the Opera House! The thing that surprised me the most were the tiles! I had no idea that the huge white shells I’ve seen for so long were actually tile!
And yes, I just had to reach out and touch them! I’m totally digging the chevron pattern as well. I haven’t done any stamp carving in awhile and this may just be my next inspiration!
After getting up close and personal with the opera house, we decided to walk around in the Botanical Gardens in search of our living room view. While Normer was in college, he studied abroad in Australia. A few years ago, he had a friend of his mom’s paint our gorgeous living room art.
We think this is a pretty close replica of our art!
The weather was finally cooperating and it was perfect outside!
We decided to catch a ferry out to see Sydney’s Olympic Park. It is really far away from the main part of the city. It took about an hour ride by ferry.
We weren’t too impressed with the park. Everything was so spread out and there was a lot of construction. We ended up walking around forever in the rain just to find a bus back to our ferry stop. We did come along this very “interesting” ring walk. It was just a huge circle where you walked around reading about natural habitats. Pretty invigorating stuff!
We finally got a few night shots of the city but the Opera House still wasn’t lit up at night for some reason.
We had a great time in Sydney! It was also great to check off visiting my 6th continent!
We woke up early the next day and headed to our favorite breakfast spot, the grocery store. Food in Australia was expensive! It cost at least $35 a person to eat a not so nice meal. Normer and I are total bargain hunters. We always use coupons to eat out at home, and rarely would we spend $35 on a meal for both of us! We stopped at a convenience store the first day and picked up some drinks that didn’t have a price on them. Turns out that a bottle of gatorade or coke each cost $5 each! Scam!
So we wisened up the second day, and went shopping at a grocery store. The smaller bottles of coke were still expensive, so we just bought a liter and poured it in to smaller bottles. We also stocked up on fruit and snacks for the rest of the day.
After breakfast, we hopped on a train and headed to Bondi beach. This is Sydney’s most famous beach.
It was really beautiful. The cold weather and the threat of sharks were enough to keep me out of the water though.
We walked along a trail that took us a few miles up the coast. It was absolutely gorgeous.
After our hike, we caught a bus and went back to Circular Quay to catch a ferry back to Manly Beach. Our plan was to rent bikes for the day. Being pregnant and all, I wasn’t too thrilled about riding bikes around. I just don’t have the energy I used to! Somehow I talked Normer into renting a tandem bike with me. I still can’t believe that he did it. The scariest part was getting up on the bike and taking off. We decided to ride up to a National Park. The only thing standing in between us and the National Park was a huge hill that we had to trek up. It was pretty rough going and I may or may not have been accused of not pedaling. I swear I was pedaling the whole time!!
We finally made it up and enjoyed a far away view of Sydney.
This is a great spot to watch whales but we didn’t see any.
It started raining on our way back to the bike shop so we ended up heading back to our hotel. Once again, we had plans to go back out later that night, but of course we fell asleep again! I was so tired I didn’t even eat dinner, which never happens!
Next up, Day 3!
Normer and I traveled to Australia over Thanksgiving.Yes, I’m a little behind on blogging but I’m going to get you all caught up asap! I have been sewing like crazy the past month making Christmas gifts, so didn’t have much time to blog! We just got back from London yesterday and have some fun pics of that trip to post later. Thanks for being patient with me while I roll back the clock to November!!
Back to Sydney….
We actually left right after our family’s Thanksgiving meal. It was perfect timing since we got to enjoy our turkey and an empty airport! We flew to LA first then boarded our super swanky plane to Sydney. We were quite lucky to land in first class complete with flat beds! It was the easiest 15 hours I have ever spent on a plane! I could have easily stayed there for a few more hours watching all the Harry Potter movies.
Once we arrived in Sydney, we dropped off our bags and headed to see the infamous harbor area.
We hopped on a ferry and took a 30 minute ride to Manly Beach. I had prepared for it to be pretty warm in Sydney. However the weather decided to play games with us and kept changing. One minute the sun would be out and you were burning up. The next minute it was windy, raining and freezing!
Take note of the cliff over Normer’s shoulder…we’ll be there on Day 2.
I’m working on mastering the perfectly positioned arm across the belly to show case that baby bump.
Manly Beach
It was so windy over on Manly that we decided to head back to Sydney since we were freezing! We actually ended up going back to our hotel around 6pm with plans of going back out again later. We were so tired that we fell asleep at 7pm and didn’t wake up until the next morning. Tomorrow, we’ll get a closer view of the opera house!
After a full day of driving around Yosemite and getting some rest, we headed over to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. We took the Kings Canyon loop first and saw some amazing views. We thought it was just really cloudy in the canyon…
…but it turned out to be a wildfire. It was so smoky that we really couldn’t see much of the canyon at all. I have no idea how people were camping in all that smoke. I wouldn’t be able to handle that with my asthma, that’s for sure! It was amazing how the smoke blocked out the sun and cast this beautiful glow over everything. We even saw some flames at the tip top of the huge trees. Quite surreal.
After another few hours of driving, we finally arrived in Sequoia! I couldn’t wait to see the big trees!
Our first sighting!
They were absolutely amazing and quite fuzzy! You would think that the trees would feel tough and hard. But they actually felt kinda soft and fuzzy! Not kidding!
We visited with the General Sherman- the world’s largest tree! I think he truly earned that title!
Way up in the tree tops.
Unfortunately, we ran out of daylight so we weren’t able to drive all the roads in Sequoia. We were also starving and couldn’t find anywhere to eat. There was one nice restaurant at one the hotels but reservations were required for dinner. Seeing that we were in the middle of no where, it was our only hope. At this point, I hadn’t had a real meal in 8 hours, and that just doesn’t sit well with my stomach these days! We went to the restaurant hoping maybe they could squeeze us in. There was a guy in front of us and the hostess told him to come back in an hour and 1/2. Once that guy was out of earshot, I kindly asked if they had any cancellations and was there anyway they could work us in? She said that there wasn’t but what time did we want to eat? To which I responded, “As soon as possible! I’m pregnant and starving!” And guess what? The pregnancy card worked and we were seated immediately! We had a delicious dinner and I could have kissed that hostess for saving the day!
We truly enjoyed our time in California and wish we had more days in the week to travel!
On Labor Day Weekend, Normer and I hopped on a plane and headed for San Francisco. We rented a car and then headed east across California to Yosemite! It was quite the drive through winding roads but totally worth it when we had our first view of Yosemite Valley. The Half Dome is just barely visible in this picture….still pretty far away.
After going to the visitor’s center, we headed up to Glacier Point to find the best view of the valley. 20 points to every person who can tell me what logo is based on the Half Dome.
We picked a perfect time for this drive with the evening sunlight streaming in. You can see one of Yosemite’s waterfalls over on the right side of the pic.
On our drive back down, we turned a corner and this come in to our view. It was all I could do to whip out the camera as fast as possible to catch it.
Sunset over the valley
Our plan was to drive to our hotel and then come back the next morning for some hiking in Yosemite. We thought the hotel was only an hour away, but it turned out to be almost 2 hours away. At that point, we decided to head to two other National Parks that were a little closer. I was a little bummed about not getting to explore more of Yosemite but it was also cool to explore more of beautiful California!
2 more National Parks coming up next!
Normer and I traveled to beautiful Arizona last week. This was the first time either of us had been and we had a lot of fun exploring the state! We arrived Thursday around lunch, rented a car and headed north from Phoenix. Of course we had to find the nearest In N Out before we did anything else!
Our first stop was Sedona. On the way there, I marveled at the HUGE cactus all along the sides of the interstate. Amazing!
Here’s a view from outside Sedona.
Enjoying the dry air with NO humidity!
I had no idea that the Grand Canyon is in the middle of no where. Literally! I think it’s at least 2 hours from any major city. The road out there looked like this. Nothing. Not even cell phone service!
We finally made it to the East Entrance on the South Rim. It is so hard to judge distances in the canyon. I saw a sign that said visibility was 100 miles the day we were there. That’s a long way!
Here’s a view of the Colorado river winding through the canyon.
I wanted to get down to see the river so bad! There were signs all over the place saying to not hike to the bottom and back in one day or you will die. I would die just hiking to the bottom in general. I would never have the chance to make it back!
Here’s rain moving across the canyon. It was so peaceful watching the rain fall in the distance.
We went for a hike on the South Kaibab trail down to the Cedar Ridge point. It took us about an hour to get down almost 2 hours to get back up. We took a break at the Oh Ah Point.
Enjoying the view!
We were only able to spend one day in the Canyon, but it was worth all the driving we did.
For Memorial Day, Normer and I headed to Rio De Janiero with our friends Corey and Jeff. Rio is pretty much the LA of South America with mild temperatures and gorgeous beaches!
One of the main things I wanted to see was the Christ the Redeemer Statue. We paid $50 a couple to take a taxi and then a bus up the mountain. When we arrived, here’s what we saw:
Nothing but clouds!
This was the clearest picture we got. And he was in scaffolding? Why did no one tell us BEFORE we paid $50?
The next day we took a tram up to Sugarloaf Mountain. Here’s a view overlooking the city with the Christ the Redeemer Statue on the tallest peak.
There! See it?
Beautiful Rio
And here’s Sugarloaf:
Our condo was on the Copacabana side of the city, on the left side of this picture and the top of the curve.
Me with Corey and Jeff. I bought some funky sunglasses on the beach and I don’t care if I look dorky!
Our last day in Rio, we rented bicycles and rode around the Lagoon. Such gorgeous views!!
For our second day in China, we started out by meeting Justin and Jun for breakfast. Then, the ladies went shopping while the guys got an hour massage for about $6.
And of course we had to take another picture with Haibao.
For lunch we went to a restaurant owned by a friend of David’s. It was called 1902 and was decked out with antiques from the 1900′s. It is probably one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to in China. I ordered a Hawaiian Pizza that came with corn and peas on it. A little unusual but I guess that is typical of China!
After taking a nap that afternoon, we got all gussied up for our friends wedding.
Here we are at the wedding reception. Isn’t Jun gorgeous in her red dress?
It’s amazing how huge Shanghai is, everywhere you looked from this window you could see skyscrapers for miles.
Jun and Justin make their grand entrance into the reception with Justin carrying a sword (?) and Jun with a scarf over her head (?).
There was a host to the event but he spoke in Chinese the entire time so we had no idea what was going on.
Here Justin is checking to make sure he is marrying the right person. Haha.
Justin and Jun drinking tea together.
Justin carried Jun to her seat.
And then dinner began!
Check out that fish, he still had all his teeth!
Lynn, Normer and David with some unidentifiable food. We think it might have been muscles…
Congrats Justin and Jun on a successful Chinese reception. Now we get to attend your wedding in Toronto and Atlanta!
She was pretty timid at first and never went really far into the water, but she still had a blast! Baby Adams and I had a blast too!
Here is Lulu with her new BFF, Toby. Toby is a golden doodle which is what people always think Lulu is.
Enjoying the sun!
We attempted to get a picture with both dogs and this was the best we could do!
Oh how I wish this was in my backyard!
We visited with the General Sherman- the world’s largest tree! I think he truly earned that title!
