Seattle

We are home from Seattle and what a fun fun trip we had! It is always so good to spend time with family (and have a few other faces and hands to help entertain Logan). I do have to say that I am so thankful for technology as we facetime with family often and because of this, Logan immediately recognized everyone and was all smiles. It was extremely fun to see him interacting with his cousins again and they were so excited to see him everyday. They would run over and shout "Logan" every time we walked into the room, rubbing his head and giving him hugs. He is much more expressive now then he was when we traveled to Edmonton and they Loved to make him laugh.

While we were there, we did the usual things we always do... relax, eat a ton of food, go to a Mariners game and try to sleep in as best as we could with the time change and baby. We also went to a few new spots this year which was really fun and I already can't wait to take Logan back next year. :)

Here are a few of the Highlights-
Our first full day in Seattle, we headed to the Mariners game. We enjoyed Garlic Fries, Hotdogs and Nachos. This was Logan's first baseball game and while I think he enjoyed the sights and sounds, the fries were definitely his favorite part.

The next day we went over to Alki Beach for the afternoon. I've been here before on past trips and just LOVE Alki Beach. We had lunch at Marination Station (tacos... yum!) overlooking downtown Seattle. It was a gorgeous day out, so we had a great time walking around and sticking our feet into the water- Logan included.  The beach here isn't the soft sand that I've known down in Florida and the Carolinas but that didn't stop us from enjoying the water.

I had not been to Green Lake Park before so when we had more good weather, we decided to spend the afternoon here. We ate delicious chowder at Dukes located across from the park. After we finished we crossed the street and took the walk around the lake. This place was amazing. It has a beautiful lake with lots of people walking, running and biking. There were people playing instruments, others swimming and paddle boarding in the lake and by the beach area, there is a smaller wading pool and a HUGE playground for kids. We watched the nephews run around while Logan napped and then after he was awake, I hit the swings with everyone. I do not remember the last time I was able to really play on a playground and I got excited for the day I can swing with Logan and see who can go the highest. :) We spent all afternoon here and the kids were sad to leave.
(Let's be honest, I was sad to leave as well!)

Another day, we headed over to Magnolia where my brother and sister in law are moving this fall. We got to check out their new house and then headed over to walk around Discovery Park. This is a huge park (I'm pretty sure it is the biggest park in Seattle...) and we popped Logan in the stroller to walk to see the lighthouse and beach area. Little did we know that our route took us up and down stairs. Oops. I ended up wearing Logan in my Boba carrier for the whole walk back while Geoff and his brother carried the stroller. Good to know for the next time we visit! It was a beautiful walk/hike and I can't wait to come back when Logan is running around.

One afternoon, we headed downtown to Pikes Place Market. I love visiting Markets and this one is so much fun to walk around and take in the flowers, produce and watch the guys tossing fish around. We took a few photos over at the bubble gum wall and then walked over to the waterfront where they have a big Ferris Wheel set up. We saw it last year while we were visiting and decided to check it out this time. For the price, you get three rotations on the wheel with some pretty nice views of Seattle and the water. Logan had a minor melt down for the first round but we were able to get him settled for the second two. I know I enjoyed it but not sure if he did. Oops.

As you can see, we lucked out with some lovely weather. It didn't rain at all until our second week in town and even then, it wasn't too much.
We spent a few afternoons letting Logan nap since we had him out and about for full days. I've mentioned this before but we ate out a LOT. The food in Seattle is just too good not to. We started Logan on 3 meals a day once we got here because he definitely does not like to sit there and watch us eat. He wants in on the action and right now he has a BIG appetite.

Our last day in town, I wanted some family photos of us since I get a lot of Logan but not enough of the three of us. Adel took our engagement photos for us two years ago in Seattle so I was excited to have him take more of us. I can't wait to get those once he is done editing them!

Anyways, that is what we have been up to for the past two weeks! Hope everyone is having a great start to August!

Sanur, Bali & Tanah Lot

Okay... lets finish this trip recap up! We left Pemuteran early in the morning to get started on our drive down to Sanur. It was quite a long drive but made a few sight seeing stops along the way to break it up and stretch our legs. Here are some beautiful views (one of many that we saw from the car) of rice paddy fields.

We had arranged for our driver to make a big stop at Tanah Lot on the way there. We tried to figure out a way to get there for sunset (to get some good photos) but it would pretty much eat up an extra day to do it, so we decided the afternoon was good enough. It worked out well that way because we had overcast skies and light rain, our sunset photos probably would have looked similar to those we took.

 Tanah Lot means "Land in the middle of the sea" and is thought to be the work of Nirartha, a 15th-century priest. It is a beautiful rock temple that holds a place in Balinese mythology and we loved it! (I'm only showing you a small amount of the photos we took!)

Once we made it to Sanur, we checked into our hotel, which was right by the water and went walking along the main road for dinner. Our hotel was just a walk away from quite a few restaurants, cafes and bars. I had a huge craving for queso and chips (which we did not get) and McDonald's chicken nuggets (which we did get). Besides eating, we relaxed at the pool, laid by the beach and I sipped on many fresh squeezed juice combos. Yum! 

I had wanted to do a few things here, especially swimming with the dolphins but they cautioned against it, being pregnant... maybe next time!

 We had an amazing time in Bali! I hope some day we will get to come back and show Logan around!

Pemuteran, Bali

We had hired a driver to take us from Ubud to Pemuteran and left after breakfast in the late morning. It looked simple enough on the map but little did we know that Bali doesn't really have highways like here in the States. We traveled winding roads, up into the hills and back down again taking us around 4+ hours. We stopped for lunch and had some amazing views of the rice fields and scenery along the way!

After a long afternoon of driving, we arrived at our hotel. We checked in and were taken on a long walk through the grounds to our little villa. We stayed at Adi Assri Beach Resort and Spa and since we told them it was our honeymoon, they put us very close to the water. I loved how we had the water in front of us and the mountains behind- it was very beautiful!

When I was doing all my research, I picked Pemuteran because I thought it would be a good contrast to Ubud and Sanur which are larger towns and more touristy. I figured that we could have some real R&R with little distractions and boy, was I right. There wasn't a lot to do besides relax, lay by the pool and walk along the beach. I'm going to post a few photos but the sunsets were out of this world- seriously some of the prettiest I have ever seen!

The hotel was right on the beach and had 2 swimming pools, a restaurant, bar and massage tent. The beach was nice with soft black sand! They had a few computers up front with slow slow internet... enough to take a few minutes to email home but we didn't need anything more than that.

A walk along the main road took us to a few shops, restaurants and cafes. Our hotel restaurant was decent but a ten minute walk down the road led to very good food at a fraction of the price. :) We ate at this particular Warung everyday for lunch and once for dinner. So good! We loved that they had coconuts to drink... yum!

Our time here consisted of a lot of reading books by the pool, walks on the beach, eating, napping, a massage and watching the sunset. It was amazingly relaxing with little distractions. I had scheduled the least amount of time here, hoping we wouldn't get bored. I was so relaxed after our stay that I was sad to leave.

next update... onto to Sanur!

Paon Bali Cooking Class

This deserves it's own post because this was hands down my favorite thing we did during our trip to Bali! If you are traveling anywhere and can book a cooking class making local dishes, I highly recommend it.
Not only did we have a great time cooking, we got to eat everything we made and left with the recipes so we could re-make them at home. Win!

The class started off with a trip to the Ubud Market which is located near the center of town. We were picked up in the morning from our hotels and met the rest of our "classmates" for the day (which were basically a bunch of Europeans and Australians). We got a tour through the market, showing us all the vegetables, fruits and spices most used in Indonesian cooking. 





A lovely offering.


Once we had bought the spices and vegetables that we would use, we headed back to the village where our cooking instructors lived. They explained to us how the village is set up, orientation of the homes, the rice fields and how everyone plays a part in harvesting the rice. There are quite a few kinds of rice grown in the village and they harvest enough for everyone to eat. It was amazing how different life is than back at home. I wish I would have written it all down to remember all he told us.

Next, they invited us into their home, served us delicious ginger tea and we watched as they collected the herbs from their large garden. We then got down to business and started cooking...




The Basic Yellow Sauce is very important in Indonesian cooking, so we got started on that first. Here we combined all the ingredients and each took a turn mashing them up in a huge mortar.

A look at all our ingredients waiting to be chopped, sauted and cooked!




I had tons of photos of us cooking but I decided to spare you the majority of them. Here Geoff is working on the Deep Fried Tempe

Cooking the Chicken on Bamboo...


In the end, our spread included-

Clear Mushroom and Vegetable Soup

Basic Yellow Sauce
Chicken in Coconut Sauce

Minced Chicken grilled on Bamboo Sticks















Vegetables in peanut sauce
Coconut and Snake Bean Salad

Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves
Deep Fried Tempe in Sweet Soy Sauce

Boiled Banana in Palm Sugar Syrup


Here is my plate full of yummy food!

First one to serve the desert!

To say it was a feast was putting it mildly. It was amazing! I would do this again in a heartbeat if we ever make it back. The instructors were so nice, they asked us all if there was anything that could be improved upon before we left. One guy yelled out "more beer" and as we got back into the vans to leave, they brought out a few extra beers. :)

Ever done a cooking class in another country?