One Year Anniversary

Isa and I have made it through one year of marriage!! Woohoo!!!!

So we were married on December 28, at 11am-ish. (I was ready at 11, at least – which is funny because ever since then, I’m always the one that takes longer to get ready in the morning. I know, weird, huh? I’m such a girl.) Anyway, we are currently 15 hours ahead of New York, so we the real “28^th” didn’t start for us until 3pm on the 28^th here, and then one year from the actual wedding ceremony didn’t happen until the 29^th here, after 2am. So we celebrated our one-year anniversary on both days. Yeah.

So on Day 1 of our anniversary, at 3pm, we went to see Harry Potter 7. It’s been out for about a month but it was still crazy packed. Isa and I were very lucky to find two seats together:

After the movie, we went back to Surfers to eat at a brand new Italian restaurant called Vapiano. It was delicious and wonderful. We ate out on the balcony in the nice warm December weather. We had Bruschetta, Caesar Salad, and Margharita Pizza. MMmmm. So good.

And this is what we look like a year after our wedding date:

We got back to the apartment and tried to watch a movie, but we were so tired and full that we watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development and went to bed.

Day 2 of our anniversary was mostly spent at work, but we spent most of the day creating our gifts for each other. As you may know, the traditional gift for a First Year Anniversary is Paper. This, I think, makes sense as most first-years are still poor, but we can afford paper. :)

We waited until we were home to exchange our gifts. We showed each other at the same time, but it’s impossible to write about them at the same time, so I’ll do my present to Isa first. I created a crossword puzzle with all the answers coming from things we’ve done together, from plays and musicals we’ve gone to see to our adventures all over the world to books we’ve read together. (That’s right, I’ve read a few books in the past year!) The clues were fun and it was great to relive all our memories as I made the puzzle and as she figured them out.

Isa’s present to me was extremely creative. I’ve never seen anything like it. To be honest, I didn’t really know what it was when she gave it to me, but it was colorful and pretty and I instantly loved it.

She had cut strips of paper and individually folded each one of those stars! Isn’t that amazing?! Then, because I love puzzles and figuring things out, she had written letters on 45 of the stars. I had to pour out the stars, find all the letters, and figure out the message. It was a lot of fun and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Here is the message:

I. Love. Isa. She is so wonderful and I’m so happy to be married to her. Yay!

Merry Christmas from Australia!

Maybe it’s because it’s not cold here. Maybe it’s because Australia has a Christmas song about Santa getting too hot so he takes off his suit and goes for a swim in the billabong (which is Australian for a water hole). Maybe it’s because Australia (or at least Surfers Paradise) doesn’t seem to think Christmas is that special – it seems like it’s just another day. Or maybe it’s because there are no decorations around us, and very few reminders that it’s Christmastime. Whatever it is, Christmas in Australia does not feel at all like Christmas. :(

So Isa’s parents decided to fly out to Australia for a few weeks, and they spent a few days with us to help make it feel like Christmas. One of the first orders of business was that we needed stockings. Isa’s mom went to the store and bought oven mitts, since real stockings were not available. She also bought glitter-glue, and we decorated them to make them our own. I think they turned out pretty great:

If you’re wondering what that blob is next to the Christmas tree on mine, it’s supposed to be Australia. And with the present and the candy cane is a heart and mistletoe. Yeah.

Mike and Melanie (Isa’s parents) had rented a car, so we were able to take off for a couple days and go on some adventures. The first day, we went up to a glow-worm cave. They don’t let you take pictures inside because they’re very sensitive to light – you can’t even open your cell phone in the cave. It was something amazing, though. Click here for a picture from a random website of what it looked like.

On the way back, we stopped for a little hike out by Mount Tamborine. It was only about a 1 km hike to Curtis Falls. The trail was really pretty, as it cut through the tropical rain forest with really lush green foliage. The falls were pretty too. So we took our family Christmas picture there:

We also went down to Currumbin to that Ecovillage we visited on my Golden Birthday. Mel tried to get as close as she could to the Kangaroos:

It turned out to be a really fun Christmas, and we’re really glad Isa’s parents could make it out. They’re still bouncing around Australia, visiting everywhere from Perth to Darwin to Sydney. And we’re still in Surfers – the most Americanized city in all of Australia. Oh well, Isa and I will come back in the future and do the month-long country tour some other time.

Merry Christmas to everyone back in the states! We love you all and hope you had a great day!

Disney World for Dad's 60th

As I said in the long layover post, my dad turned 60 on November 15, and his one dying wish was to get the whole family together. So he and Mary Anne set everything up and flew us all to Orlando. And when I say all, I mean all of us. Me, Christopher, Jason, Jennie, and Emily, and all the spouses and kids. There were 17 of us all together. Dad rented a huge house just 10 minutes from Disney. The house was "rock-and-roll" themed, with pictures of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and other rock legends throughout every room. Very fun, just to go along with the fun-ness of Orlando and Disney.

The first day (Monday) was dad's birthday, so we all surprised him by wearing matching shirts which featured his face wearing his favorite Goofy hat, and a big "Happy 60th Birthday" over it.

Yes. We were that family. With matching shirts. And it was awesome. But mock it as you may - those shirts made it really easy to find the rest of our group. You know how I have a knack for wandering off and losing groups. I found somebody from the family every time. So that first day, we stuck together in the Magic Kingdom and traveled as a herd. Here's all of us on Small World:

You can see Dad in his Goofy hat there on the right. :)

We were so glad we were able to take a week off from work and make it all the way from Australia to be with the family for this. We had a lot of fun and I know it meant a lot to Dad that we made it (and survived it - a 46-hour journey with a 15-hour time change kinda messes with your sleep pattern).

And it would have been really sad to miss stuff like this:

Because that's just priceless. Oh, speaking of Ty, you need to watch this video. Normally I'd just put a link here, but I know you're lazy and you won't click on it and since I really want you to watch this, click play:

I love the slow motion part. Isa made that and we crack up every time we watch it. By the way, this is what happens when you ask us to babysit (Jason and Christy were on the Tower of Terror).

And here's another pic of Ty with Dad on the race cars. Dad never touched the wheel once. Ty drove the entire time.

So overall, super fun trip. Dad, Mary Anne, thank you for putting this all together and for making it possible for all of us to be there with you.

When you wish upon a star...

Long Layovers (New Zealand and Venice Beach)

My father's 60th birthday was just on November 15, so Isa and I flew back to the states to celebrate it with him (along with the entire family) in Disney World. We spent a week in Orlando. It was fast-paced, hectic at times, but totally worth it and super fun. But that's not what this post is about.

On the way to Orlando, we stopped in Auckland, New Zealand (for those of you that just got REALLY confused, Isa and I are currently living in Australia). It was way fun! We slept in the airport, which has an upstairs skydeck that is really quiet and peaceful and as far as we're concerned, made for sleepovers.

We started out on the floor by our bags there, and then took over the benches when they left for their flights. We had about 18 hours in New Zealand, and this was about 2am. So the next morning, we woke up and took a bus into town. We walked around Queen Street, which is their main street, but it wasn't all that interesting (although possibly because we were there on a Sunday, so maybe it's better on weekdays).

Isa had a great idea to take a ferry over to one of the neighboring suburbs - Devonport. It's such a cute little town with great views of the City.

We explored the fort on the hill and ran through the tunnels. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad Isa saw the deal to get us out there. There are a bunch more pictures up on Facebook, so you should check those out too. After hiking around and lazing in the sun for a while, we headed back to the ferry and back into town.

And then we took the bus back to the airport and embarked on the rest of our 46-hour journey.

Less than one week later, and probably only a day or two after we fully got over our jet-lag, we headed back to Australia. This time, we had a 10 hour layover in Los Angeles. I got a message saying the newest Del Sol store had opened a few hours earlier in Venice Beach. So we found a bus and headed to the beach. Venice Beach is hippie-ghetto. It's a little crazy, to say the least. But the sand was nice and it was a beautiful day.

After a bit of wandering, we found our destination:

The store is in a great location. It's right on the beach, right in front of the skate park and where everybody hangs out. We hung out with them for a little bit, checked out the new fixtures and merchandise (we love new designs and stuff) and then headed to the beach/skate park to watch the sunset.

I love that picture, and then Isa pointed me over to a lifeguard station to get this picture:

After the sunset, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local cafe and then headed back to the airport. We had no time for another excursion in Auckland on the way back (they actually held the plane for us because our flight was a little late getting in - we were picked up by Air NZ staff and walked VIP style right to the gate and right onto the plane).

So hooray for long layovers!

Golden Birthday in Australia

I've been looking forward to this day for over a decade. I felt sorry for people who had their Golden Birthdays when they were too young to do anything cool. But not me. I'd be 30. Old enough to plan something spectacular and enjoy every minute of it. I never knew exactly what I would do, I just knew it would be awesome, unique, and memorable.

And it was.

First of all, without even doing anything, it's arguably the best birthday ever because I spent the whole day with the woman I love. Isa is amazing. She's beautiful, fun, creative, and a slew of other adjectives that make normal people say "Cheese!" But that's ok. Because I love her. And she loves me. And that's an awesome feeling to have on my birthday.

And then there's the fact that we're in Australia! Again, hard to go wrong there. So we took advantage of it. The father of one of our co-workers picked Isa and I up and took us on a tour of the Gold Coast. He first took us down to the Highlands Ecovillage down in the Currumbin Valley. The village is completely sustainable and really modern and cool. And since everything is so natural and wonderful, wild animals tend to hang out there. Like these guys:

They were really chill with us, as long as we stayed on our sidewalk. Sometimes kangaroos look silly with their skinny little arms. Watch the youtube video I made about my Golden Birthday to see what I mean. We hung out there for maybe 20 minutes and then went over to another town to see our driver's sister. She said koala bears are frequently in her backyard trees, and we may be able to spot one. And we did! They're really hard to pick out. They camouflage really well. But with the help of some binoculars and some patience, we found them. Here's one of them:

Aren't they so cute? They look just like little teddy bears! So we saw wild kangaroos and wild koala bears for my birthday! How cool is that?! Who needs the Australia zoo? And as if that weren't enough, while we were hanging out there, a Kookaburra bird flew over and hung out with us for a while:

Isa had a little staring contest with it for a while, but I told her to smile for the picture, so I guess the bird won. Sorry, Ees.

Then we came back to Surfers Paradise (home for us for the time being) and Isa took me up the Q1 Tower. It's the tallest building in all of Queensland, and I was super excited to see it. We've been to the Top of the Rock in NYC, so we weren't expecting this to be anything amazing, but it was AWESOME! The observation deck itself was really modern and cool, so we really enjoyed just being up there, even without the view. But the view was really awesome too. Looking up the coast was really cool:

Doesn't it look fake? So we played around up here for a while and took LOTS of pictures. We waved in the general direction of our home in NYC:

And we stayed there until sunset and until all the lights in the city below started twinkling like they do.

And then we came back down to ground level and found some fantastic italian food. Did you know they don't tip here? Not at all. Which isn't a huge deal when you realize the waiters are paid $20/hr, but still, it's a little weird to not leave money on the table.

Then we went to the store where Isa had set up a movie (Juno - one of my favorites) with blankets and we hung out some more. I really do love her.

So to sum it all up. Best birthday ever. Thank you Isa for making this all happen and for loving me. Above all else, seeing your smile on my birthday was the best gift of all, and the rest of this was just icing on the cake. I love you.

Longest Flight Ever

Not to spoil the ending, but WE'RE IN AUSTRALIA!!!

Getting here took a lot longer than anticipated though. So here's the full story:

We started off in New York, with a direct flight from JFK to LAX. Not bad, but it's so sad that they don't serve meals on flights any more. And we got on at 5pm, so they definitely should have fed us dinner.

It was at LAX when the flight started getting interesting. First, we thought LAX would have everything JFK does. Like lots of food. We were wrong. In our terminal, there was one option - some sort of bar/cafe thing - and our slice of pizza and lettuce wrap totaled up at $13. How ridiculous is that? We couldn't wait to get on the plane to get some real food.

We boarded the plane and found our seats in front of some rather rowdy kids. I hoped they would fall asleep soon, as it was nearing 11pm, otherwise this would surely be the longest flight ever. But instead the pilot told us something fell off a luggage cart, and they're checking the damage or something, and we need to just stay put for a bit. Thirty minutes later, they told us to get off the plane and wait in the terminal for further information. Still no food. Still starving. While waiting, we discovered a window so we could see what happened:

Somebody drove the luggage cart into the engine of the plane and they PUT A HOLE IN IT! So they cancelled the flight (after another half hour of waiting). They told us they'd provide hotel vouchers and to come back in the morning. We waited a few minutes because we knew there'd be a line at the counter, but we were not prepared for what we saw when we came around the corner. I didn't realize how many people could fit on a 747 until I saw them all in line in front of us. Isa and I, still starving, decided to play cards (BullS***) to pass the time. Two hours later, completely delirious (because we hadn't slept in about 24 hours) and weak (because we hadn't eaten in 14 hours) we got in the now dwindling line to get our vouchers. Happy to be on the way to a bed, we stepped outside the terminal into another mob of people - waiting for the shuttle bus from the hotel.

We decided to sit on a ledge to wait it out, and we managed to work our way to the front of the mob to get on the second bus (no doubt thanks to the skills we've picked up getting on the bus at 161st Street - people in the Bronx do not believe in lining up for the buses). This dropped us off at La Hacienda, into another line (but this time of only about 150 people or so) waiting to get rooms. Another 45 minutes or so passed until we finally got a room around 3am. Around 3:15 came a knock on our door - the hotel given our room to another family - but we invoked the "first come, first served" rule and sent them back to the front desk.

Four hours later, I woke up for breakfast - the best part of my journey so far (we never did get to eat anything else the night before) - and it was wonderful. Eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, jams, orange juice, everything. I ate. And then ate again. And then I made a plate and brought it back to Isa so she could have breakfast in bed.

We went back to sleep for a few more hours and then woke for lunch (the airline had called the hotel and told us to be back by 2pm for a 4pm departure). Still groggy, a little stinky (they kept our luggage - and even though we had planned to carry everything on, they wouldn't let us take on anything over 6 kilos - that's about 13 lbs - so we couldn't brush our teeth or change our clothes) and completely out of it, we went back to the airport, through security, and found our flight was delayed again.

By this time, we're starting to recognize other people on our flight so we pass the time learning other people's stories - some on honeymoons, some going home, others on ridiculously cool vacations - and playing cards until we finally board again around 5pm.

I thought the flight went pretty fast. I watched three movies and Isa read the Hunger Games (I've since read it too. IT'S AWESOME!!) and before long, we were crossing into a part of the world I've never been:

The Southern Hemisphere!!

That's right, on all my travels, I've never been over the Equator. So I was pretty dang excited about that. And then just a few hours later, we crossed the international date line, and Sunday night turned into Monday night, just like that. We arrived in Fiji around 11pm, but all connecting flights had already left by then, so the airline had to put us up in another hotel (as much as we were excited to stay the night in Fiji, we were not excited about another line for another hotel voucher and then another line through customs). At least we got our bags so we could shower and change and brush our teeth. We woke up in the morning to find this our our balcony:

Not bad, Fiji. Not bad. Isa and I woke up early and went for a walk to see the beautiful countryside. The airline told us to be back at the airport by 7am for an 8am flight, so we couldn't go too far. But we saw enough to know that we definitely want to go back. :)

So 7am came around and the lady at the ticket counter told us that our flight to Brisbane was way overbooked and she asked if we would like to stay in Fiji another night (or maybe even two nights) all expenses paid until we could get on a flight. Oh decisions, decisions. Ultimately we decided that we were already a day late for work in Australia and we shouldn't make them wait any longer. So they put us on a different flight through Sydney, and then continuing on to Brisbane via Qantas Airlines.

But they didn't tell Qantas. So when we got to Sydney, Qantas said they had no record of us, and they wouldn't allow us to fly until they had signed paperwork from Air Pacific. Which we didn't have. They put up enough of a fuss that we missed our flight to Brisbane. Eventually they found us and put us on a later flight.

We finally made it to Brisbane around 5pm and ran onto the train to the Gold Coast. We had no phone, and we hadn't had internet since La Hacienda, so nobody in Australia knew where we were or when we would arrive. So when we finally got to our train stop over an hour later, not only was nobody there to get us, but nobody was even in Surfers Paradise. They were all in Brisbane, and could have easily picked us up from the airport, but we had no way to contact them. :(

So we got on a bus which promised to take us to Surfers. In deed it did, but we didn't know where to get off, so we went straight through Surfers and continued on to the next town down the coast. Our bus driver laughed at us when we told him where we were headed, "You should have gotten off 20 miles ago" but he let us stay on the bus until it made its return trip.

We hopped off and wandered the streets of Surfers Paradise for a little bit until we found our store. One of the employees showed us the way to our apartment. And we made it. 62 hours after getting on the subway to the airport in New York, we arrived at our little apartment in Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Here's a pic of Isa on the beach the next morning:

If you want to see more of that trip (as if reading that ginormous account wasn't enough), feel free to watch it on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9LCxYHUIE

The High Line

I've wanted to go to the High Line ever since I saw the plans for it in a special exhibition at the MoMA years ago. Finally, Isa and I made it down to the Meat Packing District to check it out. Basically, the elevated tracks were used for freight trains in the 1930's, but they soon fell out of use, and nature had its way with the structure.

A few decades later, New York Parks came out and tamed the wilderness and put paths, benches, and railings in so that we could enjoy it.

And it's got a sweet view of the Hudson.

So if you're in New York, you should definitely make the trek out to the High Line. It's one of the most unique parks I've ever been to. A perfect combination of two of my favorite things to photograph: nature and architecture.

Disney or Bust (and Baby Turtles)

Just thought we'd let you know about what's going on in our lives right now. :)

We rented out our apartment in New York for the Fall semester and we moved to Florida. Yup. No job, no place to stay, no contacts to speak of, and no car. Fun, huh?

It's always been one of Isa's dreams to work at Disney World. So we saved up a little, she took a semester off of school, and we booked a one-way trip to Orlando. We rented a car for a week, got an extended stay hotel, and hoped everything would just work out.

Isa had her character/parade performer audition on Thursday, Aug 19. She did phenomenally well. Of the starting 150+ applicants, she made it all the way to the end (while I waited oh-so-patiently in the hallway for over 3 hours). She had a lot of fun and we're really confident they'll call soon with a position for her.

As for me, I tried to walk right into the casting center and get a job on the spot, but they require all employees go through the online application process. So I'm in their system awaiting an open sales position.

Pray for us, cross your fingers, and send positive thoughts our way that Disney calls back soon. We've returned our rental car to save some money, so now we're stuck in our "resort-esque" apartment complex, killing time by swimming in the pool, walking to Publix for groceries, and watching the Disney Channel.

But before we were stuck without transportation, we took a day-trip over to Cocoa Beach for some fun in the sand. We ran into a nest of some baby turtles hatching. Check it out (you may want to pause the music player first):

New York City for a Week

After a month in Canada and a week-long road trip through the West, we finally made it back home to the Bronx. It's nice to be home. :) After a few days to relax, we headed down to New Jersey for my Nana's birthday party.


The whole family gathered down at Aunt Jeanmarie's house for the party, which also doubled as a birthday party for Uncle Peter, and a 25th anniversary party for Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Patty. But as much as we love all them, it was an excuse for us to be stupid on a diving board.


After failing miserably at no handed cartwheels, barrel-roll dives, and 1 1/2 flip/dives and hitting the water at various painful angles (watch the video I put together of all our craziness), we played some wiffle ball and ate A LOT of food.

Sunday we went to church and to Chris's Spartan Race. If you don't know what a Spartan Race is, watch this video. This is how Chris looked at the end of the race.


Monday was our only day to play in the City, so we took our Key to the City (remember that?) and went over to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and opened a side chapel there. This was our second time there. We went with Esther and Marie a few months ago and climbed to the top. It claims to be the largest cathedral in the world.


After that, we went to Bryant Park for our favorite use of the Key. We turned on and off one of the lights. This light:


Super fun. :) I'll post a video of that soon.

Then we went home, packed, and took off on a plane for our next adventure: Florida. Stay tuned for that fun story soon.

Temple Square to Las Vegas ROAD TRIP!!

After Spokane, Isa and I flew down to Salt Lake City to see friends and stuff. Isa had never been to Utah (or Vegas) so we wanted to do and see as much as possible. So we started out at Temple Square. If you haven't been there, you should go. It's really pretty and not just for mormons. We were there on a Friday so we played "spot the bride" most of the time. There were plenty of newlyweds around and it's always fun to see (and judge) the wedding gowns they chose.

I had never been up to the top of the church office building, so we did that. It's really cool and offers fantastic views of the capital building, the temple, the grounds, and the conference center.


The guides up top are also full of cool little insights too, so I highly recommend you talk to them. For example, did you know the capital building is built on a foundation of rubber pillars, allowing it to sway up to 2 feet in any direction in case of an earthquake (which is apparently long overdue).

After a day in SLC, we took off down toward Vegas. We made a stop in St. George to go on a little hike. We went up to Snow Canyon and hiked the sand dunes (which are super cool and really fun to see the wind whipping across them - and then pelting you which is not as fun) and then we went over to Jenny's Canyon. It's a really small canyon, but it gives you a good example (albeit on a MUCH smaller scale) of what Zion's canyons look like.


After our hike, we went on to Vegas, which is always farther than I think. If you've ever driven to Vegas, you know what I mean. I always think, "This is it... Just up and around this bend and you'll see Vegas." And then it's still not there for another 50 miles. Boo. But we finally made it and visited with my little brother Jason and his family (wife Christy, 3-year-old Ty, and baby Madison Jayne). We went to dinner and to see their new house (a ridiculous 5-bedroom house that they can actually afford because of the housing crisis in Vegas) and then we headed in to play on the strip.


We saw the volcano explode at the Mirage, we walked through the Venetian through the Grand Canal, and of course we saw the water show at the Bellagio.


Vegas has also changed a lot since I was last there. The whole new Aria and City Center right in the middle of the Strip was new to me. And I don't remember the Encore next to the Wynn either. But of all the new things that I noticed, probably the most surprising was a wonderful little restaurant out front of Caesar's Palace. (Go ahead and click on the picture to enlarge it.)


Yeah! Serendipity 3 is there now, complete with $10 Frrrozen Hot Chocolates. MMMmmm. Vegas baby, YEAH!!

Spokane! (with the Grandparents)

After our month-long stint in Canada (which started out as a 12-day job, but they kept asking us to extend and wow! that turned into a long month) we flew down to Spokane, WA to visit with Isa's grandparents. They weren't able to make the trip out to New York for our wedding in December, so we wanted to see them (well, I just wanted to meet them).


They were great! We really enjoyed staying with them. We ate on the patio each night. (Apparently, Spokane doesn't have any bugs. Seriously.) And we went around town and did fun things like going to the local swimming pool, playing around in the fancy, shmancy Davenport Hotel (which was a lot of fun - we went into the ballroom and danced, jumped, and goofed off. I'm sure those pictures will end up on Isa's facebook eventually) and we took Grandpa to an antique Hudson car show:


It was fun to see Grandpa in his element. :) He pointed out the "Jet" model that he used to drive years ago. It was really interesting and amazing to see pictures of the restoration jobs that these people did on their cars. They look like new now, but they had pictures of the broken, rusted hunk of metal they found them as, and then slowly but surely they turned it back into a brand new (looking) car. Crazy.

We also played a lot with McGuinness - their scottish terrier. We learned a lot about Scotties. They come in three colors - Black, Brindle, and the most rare: Wheaton (the color of a Guinness beer).


Overall, it was a great little trip. It was really nice to get out of a hotel and into a real bed and a real home. But mostly, I was happy to make some new memories with Isa and her grandpa. :)

Edmonton!

After our little stint in Calgary, we were asked to go up to Edmonton to set up and help out at a booth at their Capital EX. The booth ended up looking really cool.


Working with Del Sol is always fun, but this booth was particularly great because we got a lot of press. I did 4 different TV interviews and Isa and I both did a radio interview talking about Del Sol products.



The other nice thing is that Isa and I were able to go to church both Sundays we were in Edmonton. Here's a pic of the student ward we went to:


Other than work and church, we went to the West Edmonton Mall. Isa had never been, so we had to make a trip out there. We walked around for a while and ended up seeing Inception. It was AWESOME.

We also went to Heritage Days, which is a huge festival (bigger than the Capital EX we were at) filled with nothing but international food, dances, and traditional stuff. Very cool.


If you're hungry and you have a ton of time (the lines are really long) you should definitely go!