SEALED WITH Adventure

I turned 35 in April. The night of my birthday, we flew out on a red-eye to explore the Philippines for 10 days. We were off to a rough start with little sleep and a grumpy toddler, but we survived the short flights and arrived pretty early in the morning to our hotel, Princesa Garden Island Resort & Spa on the island of Palawan. You can read my full review on TripAdvisor if you're considering a visit to Puerto Princesa. The primary transportation in the small town was by "tr

Metro Cash & Carry was described to me as the Costco of Vietnam. Um, no. That's about all I can say. It's maybe my least favorite place to shop mostly because of the strong seafood-meets-durian-and-jackfruit aroma wafting throughout the store, but also because rules don't apply. Despite obvious checkout lines, as per SE Asian norm many local people ignore the queue and quite literally put their stuff in front of yours on the belt. There is also zero personal space...so watch

A long holiday weekend in April took us on our first road trip approximately 170 kilometers from HCMC to the Phan Thiết coastal region in southeast Vietnam. We enjoyed a few relaxing days in the warm sunshine at the secluded Princess D'An Nam Resort & Spa. Set on the beautiful Kê Gà bay and a short walk from our resort was a lighthouse. The brightly colored fishing boats and low tides made for a perfect sunset stroll along the Hàm Thuận Nam beach! Before heading home, we stop

Our good college friends came to visit and we decided to brave new adventures with XO Tours "The Foodie". We sampled some of the most amazing street food Vietnam has to offer! While touring Saigon at night on the back of a motorbike, we feasted on bún bò Huế (a popular Vietnamese soup containing thin rice noodles and beef), BBQ goat, fresh grilled prawns, jumping chicken {also known as frog}, plenty of amazing seafood, balut {boiled duck embryo}, and coconut jelly. We survive

We made it! 20-ish hours, a few tears, and too many pieces of luggage to handle later, we arrived at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport just after midnight [Friday?]...it had been a challenge all week to gauge time passing, and this trip [plus a jump 14 hours ahead] has only exacerbated this. All in all, it was pretty uneventful, and we were grateful for that. Elijah blessed us with a few long naps along the journey, and while I was excited to spend that time catching up on m

We recently returned from a trip to Hawaii to visit family, vacation with good friends, and watch the Oregon State Beavers in a victory at Aloha Stadium. I snapped this photo on our descent into Portland thinking that this would be the last time we'd be coming back "home" for a while. Not too long ago, I gave notice in my role as an Operations Manager with a premier staffing provider to take on a new adventure as an expat wife and stay-at-home mom in SE Asia. The past month h