Celebrating Christmas in Singapore

So this year will be the first year I stay in Singapore for Christmas. I put up the tree in my apartment to get in the festive spirit. But don't worry I will be spending dinner with friends and traveling to Hawaii to ring in 2014 Hawaiian style! Can't wait to see the crew on the Hawaiian beach.

Merry Christmas! 

A weekend in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Got to spend another weekend in the lovely town of Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is home to Angkor Wat- the 8th wonder of the world. Largest temple in the world as well. We got up at 4am to see the sunrise over the temple and then visited several of the temples around the city. Fun day and lots of culture. Cambodia is a lovely country with nice people, beautiful temples, and cheap food and drinks. They use the US dollar as their currency and beer is only $.50 a beer! 

Here are some pictures from the beautiful  weekend! 

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Brian, Mary, and I

My favorite - smiley face temple

My new friend

Angkor Wat 

Love elephants 

Tomb raider temple

Tomb raider

Jumping in the temple

Just lovely

Resting at the pool

Pitchers of beer for $3! 

A weekend in Yogyakarta...

I had no idea what or where we were doing this past weekend but knew it would be fun. And it was a blast! We went to Yogyakarta for a weekend visit. Mary, Brian, and I traveled to this small town in Indonesia to visit Hindi temples and visit a volcano. We had a blast! The temples were beautiful - especially at sunrise. We got up at 4am to see the sun rise over the mountains - amazing. Then we enjoyed a day visiting more temples and my favorite - volanco safari. We rode in a jeep and traveled through a volcano! Crazy. And it had just erupted a couple days prior. Here are some pictures from the fun weekend.

More places to see in Asia and so little time! 

Volcano safari! 

Indonesian dancers

Temple at sunrise 

Beautiful 

Mary, Brian, and I 

Traveling in the jeep through the volanco 

Volcano

Rice patty at lunch

Had to wear a hard hat cause the earthquake damage

Beautiful 

Temple

Hotel pool

Of course enjoying UNO and beer! 

A weekend in New Zealand...

New Zealand is a favorite of mine - just beautiful! Mary and I decided to go for a long weekend to run the Auckland Marathon. But really it was just an excuse to visit the North Island of NZ. A friend of Bridget's, Tammy, let us stay her apartment in downtown Auckland - such a great place and location - so nice of her. We were able to see some sights before the race including visiting Wiheke island for a wonderful wine tour and the caves for a fun tubing trip. We took black tubes through the caves - really awesome! Then we enjoyed the beautiful waterfront city of Auckland with some shopping and food. Here are some pictures from the trip. Just love New Zealand and hope I get a chance to go back before moving back to America...

My famous jump shot

Mary and I having lunch on arrival 

The city from the ferry

On the ferry to the wine country

Beautiful Auckland skyline

The island 

Wine tour

Tasting some wonderful NZ wine

Mary and I enjoying the wine

Another winery

Just beautiful view from the top of the vineyard

Mary and I in the vines

The final winery

Wait one more...

John Deere sighting on the road...

Getting ready for the race

Beautiful start line as the sun came up... Perfect running weather

Here we go!

Finish line

Auckland waterfront

Post race beer on the Waterfront