kiawah!

we just got back from a perfect family trip to kiawah island, south carolina. the pictures don't do the place or the experience justice, but i thought i'd share them anyway. having all of our most loved ones there was a real treat. and given the big time we all had, i'm certain this will become an annual tradition. until then, i'll just try my best to get over the vacation blues.

kiawah pics: radhi's set & david's set

a canadian anniversary trip.

 

though i think costa rica was the right destination for us, a train trip was our first choice for our honeymoon last year. so we decided to celebrate our first anniversary on the rocky mountaineer traveling from vancouver, british columbia to banff, alberta. this was the perfect trip to complete the trio of travels during our first married year {our previous posts about costa rica & india adventures}. we decided to add a day in vancouver and a day in banff & lake louise to bookend our train trip. we documented this trip with video diaries {thanks to m.a.t.s for the flip!} and of course tons of pictures. the goal was for the video diaries to provide some context for the photos, but i'm pretty sure we failed at that. guess we need to take another trip to hone this craft! hope you enjoy! side note, i don't like my face or voice

video diary {click on icon at bottom right to expand to full screen}



photos {to view descriptions & bigger pictures, click play and then click on icon at bottom right of this slideshow to expand to full screen. if descriptions don't pop up automatically, click "show info" at top right corner of slideshow.}


a few additional things.... 
vancouver- i think i felt so comfortable walking around because it reminded me so much of seattle {gastown=belltown, granville island=pike place, harbour center tower=space needle, cloudy=cloudy}. on our next trip, we're making stops at stanley park, queen elizabeth park, & conquering the grouse grind!
rocky mountaineer- the 360 views alone make the gold leaf accommodations well worth the splurge {thanks mom & dad p!}. the first-class service, fantastic food and delicious beverages are the frosting on top.
banff- this ski town is a really cute little place that you could walk in its entirety in 30 minutes. if you're not skiing, it's the perfect place to stay while you visit lake louise or any of the nearby hiking trails.
lake louise- is gorgeous. hands down one of the most beautiful sights you'll ever see.
moraine lake- 15 minutes from lake louise and rivals her beauty. it's situated in the valley of the ten peaks and has a much better lookout point. it's overwhelming.
the weather- we didn't always have clear conditions. but aside from not deciding to ride the banff gondola and enjoying visibility at lake minnewanka on the last day, it didn't affect our trip too much. the mountains seemed more majestic with a little fog woven into the valleys and the train ride seemed more romantic with raindrops on the windows. even the overcast, drizzly drive from banff to calgary seemed a fitting signal to the way we felt about the end of the trip.

february in india.

we just got back from a brilliant trip to india. though i've been to some breathtaking places(ajanta & ellora caves, taj mahal, nagarjuna sagar), guntur and hyderabad have always been homebase when i've been india. so, it was a completely different experience to travel from city to city and stay in nice hotels. i was so happy to be experiencing india in a new light with david. while i think he enjoyed every part of the trip, the food was a highlight for him. the indian chinese meals were my favorite (dear gobi manchurian, i love you). aside from the food, seeing family, masala tea, the kerala houseboat, the luxurious udaivilas, the amber fort, and the intoxicating taj mahal were all highlights. i'd highly recommend our itinerary! if you'd like to see our pictures, please visit david's flickr set. thanks to him, our trip was incredibly well documented!

click on the day number for related pictures
day 1 & 2: hyderabad to visit family {fun family times & salar jung museum}
day 3: trivandrum & kovalam beach, kerala
day 4: kanyakumari {the tip of india}
day 5: alleppey, kerala {houseboat through the backwaters}
day 6 & 7: munnar, kerala {tea museum buried in the tea plant-carpeted hillsides}
day 8: cochin, kerala {old cochin markets & fort cochin}
day 9: udaipur {udaivillas, city palace & jagdish temple}
day 10 & 11: jaipur {amber fort, jantar mantar, city palace, blue pottery}
day 12: fatehpur sikri
day 12 & 13: agra {Taj Mahal & agra fort}
day 13: delhi {president's gate}
day 14 & 15: dubai {desert safari, bus tour of popular sites, walked around meena baazar {little india}, walked around dubai mall {world's biggest mall}}

best vacation ever.

{click to enlarge!}

we fell in love with costa rica the minute we landed. well, not the minute we landed, since we were stranded at the airport waiting for a ride to the resort, but i'd say after an hour or so. yep, then we were in love. we had four whole days there and decided to take all-day guided tours for two of the days and stay within the resort for the other two. it was the perfect mix of sightseeing and relaxing. on one of the tour days, we took a very bumpy 4-hour drive to the breathtaking monteverde cloud forest for zip lining and walked on the hanging bridges through the rainforest. on the other tour day, we took a much less bumpy 2-hour drive to palo verde, a national park with amazing wildlife which we saw on our own private boat tour. because we're V I P!! then, another 2-hour drive to the towering inferno that is the arenal volcano. instead of hiking around its rainforest, we chose to bathe in its hot springs. after walking around la fortuna, the local town, we headed back to the resort for the night. and on our off days, we toured the resort, enjoyed the spa, dined and wined, and just caught our breath and reminisced of the prior months, weeks and days.

along the way we had some amazing meals, including some of the freshest fruit we have ever tasted in our lives. we also had plenty of the favorite local cocktail, guaro sour, made with alcohol fermented from the local sugar cane that grows all over the country. yum. we saw hillsides full of costa rican coffee plants, picked the beans right off the plants and sampled them right there. not only were the local delicacies a real treat, the local people are some of the nicest and most welcoming people we'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. they are proud of their country and enjoy sharing it with the many tourists who flock there to see such a wonderous place. we would recommend a trip to costa rica to anyone who is curious. hopefully we will make it back one day. for now, it's back to reality, but we brought back some wonderful memories and it was the perfect way to wrap up such a whirlwind marriage and celebration with all of our friends and family. and now we're off to live life happily ever after.

to see d's complete set of pictures, visit his flickr set. we documented our trip with tons of pictures!!! enjoy!

oh, but you're not done with us yet. we'll be back regularly to say hello and post updates to what's happening in our lives. hope that's ok with y'all!