A week in USA...

Got to spend a week in USA for work. First stop was Des Moines where I got to spend a couple days with my favorite peeps. This time we didn't hike a mountain but got to spend some time together. We enjoyed some American food and baseball! Thanks for Cindy, Mitch, Mike, and Lena for driving over and hanging out. And John and Sara for hosting. Some pictures below of course include UNO playing...
Then got to head to Chicago to see my family Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Abby, Ben and great friend Stef and her adorable kids. Dad and I enjoyed some bike riding through the city even though hot weather was all around. And the kids enjoyed the pool and Lego store. Brian and Lisa traveled down with Natalie and Timothy to join us for the Lincoln Park Zoo. What a great weekend in Chicago! Here are some pictures of my visit:


Sara, John, Cindy, Mitch, and Mike



Playing UNO at the baseball game



Touring Des Moines



Great friends!



Visiting Des Moines Works- OF team



Dad and I on the bike tour



Beautiful Chicago lake front



Enjoying the bike tour



Ben and Abby in the pool - getting so big!



Ben and I



With the Petersen's so cute!



At Lego Store!






Abby and I



The kids on Michigan Avenue - so cute and love how they get along so well!



At the zoo with Timothy and Natalie



Natalie and I



Timothy and Natalie enjoying the zoo




The Johnson's in Chicago



Natalie and I
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Singapore back to normal...

So the haze has left us. Hopefully for good! Here are some pictures from my first run outside in a while. Air quality is now back to safe levels! And Singapore has returned to its beautiful self! 

View of my apartment! 

Singapore Flyer

Boat Quay

The river walk 

A weekend in Phuket

Always lovely to spend a weekend in Phuket Thailand! Just a quick trip to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful weather over the weekend with friends. We stayed at the Westin which was really nice!

Here are some pictures! 

View from the room

The pool! 

Singapore Smog...

What happened? Singapore has changed over night thanks to the Indonesian fires. The farmers including sugar cane farmers burn their fields. The smoke turns to haze/smog and heads to Singapore. The PSI is the air quality rating. Typically in America we are at 50 PSI. Anything over 100 is dangerous. Well today we hit 400!!! Only place ever been higher is Beijing - which unfortunately I have also experienced this year in Jan during a business meeting. 

Hopefully we can get some relief soon. They need to start using our sugar cane harvesters. 

Here is a picture from my apartment on a normal day. Take. 2 weeks ago

Here is the same picture today 

Staying indoors and wearing a mask when have to go out.

At work..

On the bus...now I really look like someone who lives in Asia.

Amazing weekend in Maldives...

Wow! The Maldives are amazing! Lena and I had a great time on the Conrad resort island in the Maldives. The resort was really nice. The resort had two islands and connected by a long bridge to enjoy the walk over. We arrived to Male and took a seaplane to the resort. Then we were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived. Enjoyed the beach from the room. The outdoor bathroom. The pool over the ocean. And the restaurants over the water. We also got to enjoy the paddle boats and swimming breaks. But the highlight was for me was the snorkeling excursion! I love to snorkel and we got to see turtles swim around us and sharks pass by. Amazing! 

Here are some pictures!

Lena and I enjoying some beach time 

Sunset 

View of our resort island from the sea plane

Lena and I at dinner

Happy Hour beach side

Ferry in Male

Enjoying the ride back to other island