First Friends Visit

This past weekend, we had our first non-family, friend visitors : ) My best friend, Jean and her boyfriend, Ryan came to visit us, and they got a little taste of what our life in London is like.

We packed a lot in and not only visited the touristy standouts but also the local, hidden gems. This is a lot of what Aaron's and my weekends are like here, and it really is the beauty of London: you can explore the interesting sites and stumble upon something else entirely. There is so much going on all the time that you don't have to look far to find it.

On top of all the fun things we did, it was also so good to see a familiar face. Jean and I have been friends since the 6th grade, so we've been through just about everything together. To show her this piece of my life was exciting and a bit surreal. A few times I had to pinch myself and say, "yes, you actually do live in London now!"

If you're curious what we did this weekend so you can start to plan your own trip, here was all that we packed in:

• Saturday - Fulham river walk, Football game at a pub, Indian food from our favorite delivery place
• Sunday - Breakfast at our local cafe Poppy's, tube ride to a market, walk across the London Bridge, Greenwich brewery festival in the sun, river boat ride on the Thames, bottle of wine in the cave of our favorite wine bar, dinner in Chinatown, cocktail in a British speakeasy, ending the night at a London casino
• Monday - Walk through Piccadilly Circus, visit to Aaron's office, stroll through Covent Garden, walk through the National Portrait Gallery, visit to the Queen's favorite store Fortnum and Mason, pint in a traditional British pub, dinner at an Okonomiyaki restaurant (traditional way of Japanese cooking from Osaka), random Nike preview event with aggressive 5 on 5 football match going on
• Tuesday - Aaron and I worked while they visited the big sites: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace. After, dinner and then The Lion King musical. Hakuna Matata!

Singapore Slings and Everything in Between

It's been a while since I've had a chance to write a post! We have been jet-setting from Hawaii to Seattle to London to Singapore - the past two weeks have been a whirlwind, and I don't think our bodies have really known what time it is for a while.

I had a large conference in Singapore for work this past week, and luckily my favorite travel partner decided to fly out with me a few days earlier and experience some of the sites.

The first night we got in and had dinner on the river that runs through the city. We tried the local favorite chili crab which had a ton of flavor and some spice!

We finished our meal and went to a brewery nearby where we did a beer tasting (classic Aaron and Ashley thing to do). After finishing, we hung out in Clarke Quay. There were so many people that were just outside drinking and hanging around! It was a gorgeous night, about 80 degrees, and so we grabbed beers and walked around the river.

On Sunday it was actually raining so we went to Gardens by the Bay. The best way to describe it is that you feel like you are in an artificially-made, nature/Avatar experience. There are two huge domes surrounded by real and fake trees.

Artificial Trees

The first dome has a cloud forest in it with a waterfall, cave-area. The second dome has flowers and plants from all over the world, so you walk through an Australia section, Brazil area, French garden, etc.

We definitely liked the cloud forest dome better because you could walk all the way up to the top of that dome and then travel down on these crazy walkways that stuck out from the side of the "mountain" (although both domes did have some really beautiful, vibrant flowers). One thing we both noticed was that there were no bugs in either of them - it was very bizarre!

That evening we went on the night safari at the Singapore Zoo. The first thing we stumbled upon was a fire show where two people came on stage and put some type of flammable liquid in their mouth and then shot it out into the fire. It looked like they were breathing fire which was pretty cool. 

In the park you ride in an open air vehicle through the dark. The areas where the animals live are slightly lit up. There is also a walking path where the animals are enclosed, but in the open air vehicle part, the animals are in the open.

We saw lions, a jaguar, hippos, elephants, buffalo and many more! There was even a bat cage that you walk through with bats swarming above your head (but I ran through this portion!)

After the stress of running through a bat cage... we went to the Raffles Hotel to have a classic Singapore sling (this is where the drink was invented). I had never had one before, but the cocktail was refreshing and fruity - I can see why it is popular in the hot and humid weather!

On Monday, I did some work and we also made a trip out to Sentosa Island for lunch. My Uncle Bob has gone to Singapore for work a lot so he sent us all these maps and passes to prepare for our trip! We walked across a small pedestrian rope bridge to what claims to be the "most-southern point in Asia". The bridge was really unstable - it felt like we were walking a plank!

Sentosa beach had tons of things to do. A wavehouse, zip line, children's theme park, beach bars, etc. If we had more time, we would've definitely spent a lot more of it there! It was really hot and humid.

For the remaining couple of days, I was working on the conference, Aaron explored the different neighborhoods, and in the evening we'd go out to dinner with my coworkers. We both agreed that Singapore has been one of the top three places we've gone to. We loved the city and want to make a trip back again!

The view from our hotel room!

Life in Seattle

It's always a little nerve-racking going back to someplace you haven't been in a while. What will be different? What will be the same? These questions are not only for the place that you're going to and the people you will see, but also for the person you've become. I like to think that Aaron and I haven't changed too much since we've been here, but I know at least some part of us has.

When we left Seattle, I wanted to freeze everything: listen everyone, just stay exactly as you are now and in three years, we will be back! But... (insert sigh here) the only constant thing is change so these questions about what it would be like were in the back of our minds during our trip home.

I am happy to report that things were different, but not by that much. And for only having three days in Seattle, we crammed a lot in: dentist appointments, eye doctor, Mariner's game, karaoke, Pitch games, Mexican food, happy hour, Nordstroms shopping, jewelry check up, an apartment tour, tug boat racing, the list goes on! Like I said, we packed a lot in. We basically lived about two weeks of our old lives in fast forward.

We saw our families and a lot of friends; definitely not everyone we would've liked to have seen, but we did have a few surprises! Two friends who were planning to go back to Tacoma for the evening ended up staying in Seattle to hang out with us, multiple family members who drove long ways to hang out with us for short times, and one friend who booked an impromptu flight day of from San Francisco to come see us! We couldn't do it all, but we felt like we came pretty dang close.

When it was all said and done, we boarded our flight and spent our first wedding anniversary jet-setting back to London, which when you think about it, is a perfect representation of what our first year of marriage has been- on to the next adventure together!

Until next time, Seattle.

Aloha!

The flight was long but the trip was worth it! We laid on the beach, got a little sunburnt and watched two of our friends get 'Maui-ed' (aka married).

Only a short year ago, Aaron and I were doing the same thing just in a less tropical location : ) 

Now we've landed in Seattle and it feels so good to be home! It will be another short stop but I have a feeling that this trip will also be well worth it - aloha!!

7 Months Later...

I am finally heading home. It will be a quick trip, only 3 days, but a much needed Seattle fix.

This has been the longest amount of time I've ever been away. We are on such a crazy, fun adventure exploring the world but both Aaron and I agree there's just no place like Seattle.

We cannot wait to see all of our Seattle family and friends in just one week!! ...but first stop, Hawaii!!