{New Zealand}

While Spain was beautiful and charming, nothing compares to Zealand. It is our ultimate destination. It has everything we want in a vacation: tropical beaches with crystal clear water, rolling green hills filled with sheep, huge alpine mountains and volcanoes, waterfalls and fjords. Plenty of thrill-seeking adventures which we took advantage of: bungee jumping, rock climbing, sledding the luge and kayaking. And the people are ridiculously friendly and nice. To top it off the food was FANTASTIC...a total surprise...and we know food. Their egg's benedict is to-die-for.

We will be back...we are already saving money for a visit to the south island next year...can't wait.

[Spain]

We traveled to Cantabria and Asturias and found it to be completely green and lush everywhere. We were surprised. This is not how we imagined Spain. Beautiful coastline and mountains filled with charming old villages from the thirteenth century. The highlight of the trip was an unforgettable trek to a mountain town called Bulnes where we were blown away by the natural beauty. We ate the best flan of our lives made by scratch with farm fresh eggs from the restaurant owner's chickens. We also spent our share of time in San Sebastian and a small portion of France and took advantage of the bakeries and sidewalk cafes and absolutely fell in love!

{Oregon}

Our trip to Oregon was AMAZING...we want to move there...end of story.

Rustic Alley Giveaway!

Update: I dared to dream and I won!!  Yes, I won.  We will be getting photos taken by Kamee June as soon as I get my braces off.  I'm totally excited and I can't wait!  

I can't believe my last post was February!  I have so much to catch up on...hopefully soon.   But for now, I am announcing a super fun giveaway at The Rustic Alley blog.  Check it out.  I entered and hope to win a photo shoot with Kamee June!  A girl can dream...

Anacapa & Santa Cruz Islands

We found the perfect day trip in Southern California. Two separate Saturdays in January we took boat rides with Island Packers to the Channel Islands. Our first trip was to Anacapa and the second was Santa Cruz. What a way to spend the day--exploring the islands and spotting gray whales - 45 in all. Anacapa is full of sea lions and pelicans and breathtaking views from the top of shear cliffs. If you ever find you have a free day a Channel Island trip is definitely worth your while.

New England

What an amazing trip...autumn in New England.

From the world's best lobster roll and fried clams to seventeenth century villages to Ivy league colleges, we pretty much saw the best the area had to offer.

Some of the highlights were Yale University with striking gothic architecture and character, Watch Hill, Rhode Island with it's spectacular ocean setting and breath-taking mansions, Boston's perfect dichotomy of old and new, Portsmouth's quintessential New England style downtown located in a beautiful harbor and Woodstock, Vermont possibly the most charming town in that region.

We took advantage of New England's outstanding seafood: our favorites were fried clams at the Clam Box and homemade hot apple cider at Russell Farms in Ipswich, Massachusetts and lobster rolls at Red's in Wiscasset, Maine, and scallop chowder at the Ice Box in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. And we bought a bag of the freshest and yummiest Honey Crisp apples the first day and devoured all but four during our nine day trip.