Everyday Delights: January 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Tahitian honeymoon day 2 & 3: Moorea

The evening of day 3, we hopped on a 20 minute ferry ride over to the island of Moorea. This was Nick's favorite island (mine was Bora Bora). Nick said the reason he liked Moorea the best was because it was the most "authentic," which I agree but I still liked Bora Bora better. :)

In the picture you can see Moorea next to the main island of Tahiti.

After the ferry ride we were picked up by our driver and made the car trip from the ferry dock to our hotel on the other side of the island. There is only one main road on the island and its only 37 miles around the whole island.

We stayed at the Intercontinental Resort and Spa Moorea which was lovely and has just finished a multi-million dollar renovation including two new pools. I heard they were renovating and I was worried construction would still be going on, but they did the planning so that everything was ready by high-season (when we were there). I even emailed the hotel to find out about construction progress and the manager emailed me back with pictures to show the status. I thought that was so nice, but I would have been so sad if I went all the way there and had no pool!

Here are a couple of pictures from the evening.

The next morning, open air dining for breakfast:

Then walked around the hotel and checked out the new pool!

More of day 3 in Moorea to come tomorrow!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Tahitian honeymoon day 2: Tahiti

Good morning Tahiti!

view overlooking one of the pools and ocean with the island of Moorea in the background

For our night in Tahiti, we stayed at the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort, it was beautiful! After a delicious breakfast (all the food was wonderful!) Nick and I ventured out into the capitol of Tahiti, Papetee. We walked around and checked out some of the sites and walked around the giant market. All the fishermen bring their fresh catches there too.

breakfast by the pool

Walking around Papetee

City hall

After we spent some time in the "city" we headed back to the hotel to really start vacation mode - at the pool!

pool #1

The hotel had two pools and the first one was an infinity pool that had a white sand bottom so it felt like you were in the ocean - so cool!

infinity pool

We spent the whole afternoon relaxing by the pools and then at night look a quick ferry ride over to our next destination: Moorea!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tahitian honeymoon day 1: Tahiti

Considering I got married almost six months ago (wow, time flies!), I figured it was time to start the process of blogging about the honeymoon! Wedding is to come, but with literally hundreds of pictures, that will take a while!

When we were thinking about where to go, we kept going back and forth between lots of warm destinations. A trip to French Polynesia has always been #1 on my list - especially when looking at all the beautiful picture of the huts in Bora Bora!

After a lot of discussion and planning, we decided to just go for it and do the ultimate vacation: Tahiti, Moorea and the ultimate beach vacation - Bora Bora! And I am so happy we did it!

We got married on Saturday and left Wednesday morning, which worked out really well. We had time to relax post-wedding, pack and spend time with family that was in town.

On Wednesday we flew from Seattle to Los Angeles which was about 3 hours, then Los Angeles to Papetee, the capitol of Tahiti which was about an 8 hour flight. Even though Tahiti is a long ways away, its only a 3 hour time difference from Seattle (same time zone as Hawaii) so it was a practically jet-lag free trip in the southern hemisphere!

After an easy and enjoyable flight on Air Tahiti Nui thanks to lots of movie choices, we landed in the evening in Papetee. We were greeted at the airport by our shuttle and were given leis - fun!

We then checked in at our hotel: The Intercontinental Resort Tahiti. Since it was the evening, we just stuck close to the hotel, walked around a little bit and checked out the ground and soaking in the beginning of an amazing trip!

Since it was night, I only have a few pictures.

looking over at one of the pools

an infiniti pool with a white sand floor (so it felt like you were in the ocean) - very cool!

another view of the white sand infiniti pool

the beginning of a great vacation!

Lots more posts to come!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Weekend update

Nick and I had a lovely weekend complete with a few celebrations!

Our friend's Issac and Eric hosted a post-holiday party for friends and family. Such a great idea considering how busy holidays can be, just bump the party back a month! And they even had a bartender - awesome!

We also celebrated our friend's Michelle and Bobby's engagement at a bar called Bottlehouse, it was like a cute little house!

ADPi ladies with out lovely bride-to-be in green

I am also so excited to start my new book - William and Kate: A Royal Love Story

image: Barnes & Nobel

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lazy Sunday

I feel like I am normally running around all weekend, but today is a nice easy Sunday and I'm loving it. I was doing some online browsing and came across an awesome website called CNS stores, they seriously have everything! CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from modern dining room furniture to cute cookware to chic lighting pieces.

What did we do before online shopping?!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

2011 Goals

Long time, no blog! Oops! Well its time for yearly goals!

1. Travel someplace new

No location in mind yet, but I think this is a yearly goal

2. Learn something new

I think this also needs to be a yearly goal.

3. Read more

Thanks to my book club, I am on my way to this goal!

4. Learn more about my SLR camera

I didn't get a fancy camera just to keep it on auto mode, so I am really dedicated to learning more about photography and getting all that I can out of my camera.

And now time for a recap of last year:

1. Cook more fish (specifically salmon) - Yes/no. I can't give myself a passing grade, but I am slowly getting there.

2. Travel somewhere new - Yes! Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora for our honeymoon!

3. Continue eating locally, sustainably and seasonably - Yes! Passing grade on this for sure!

4. Take up a new hobby - Yes! I learned to knit and also took a baking class!

5. Stretch more - Not exactly a passing grade either...I'll keep at it!

Here's to a wonderful year ahead!

image: WeHeartIt