tapas & gyros

Once we decided to move back to Hawaii, we also decided to do one last big trip to Europe since it's pretty hard to get to Europe from Hawaii.  It was also another excuse to have a long vacation before we get married which is why I started calling this our "pre-wedding moon" hehe.  Dan wanted to go to Spain and I wanted to go to Greece, so we decided to do both. 

In just five days, we leave for Madrid and start our three-week Europe vacation. I'm very excited to eat tapas in Spain and gyros in Greece. Yummers!  Starting on Monday, Sept. 26th this is our plan....

Fly from Seattle to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Madrid.  With all the flying and the time change we will arrive in Madrid on Tuesday evening and we'll stay for four nights. 

From Madrid, we'll catch a train to Valencia and stay two nights.  Dan hopes that we can get tickets to the soccer game.

Then we'll catch a bus (for six hours...ugh) to San Sebastian. We'll stay for three nights and hopefully eat at one of their Michelin star restaurants. ;)

Of course, our last stop in Spain is Barcelona and we'll stay for four nights.  You can't visit Spain without going to Barcelona. One of the things we're going to do there is a cooking class.  We're going to learn how to cook a traditional four course Spanish meal.  Exciting!!!





After two weeks in Spain, we're off to Greece for the final week of our trip.  We'll fly from Barcelona to Athens and stay two nights before going to the islands.

Our next stop is Santorini for four nights.  We decided to fly between the islands and Athens since we're going in October and it's considered to be off-season for tourists.  I'm really thankful we decided to fly since there was no 'fast' ferry between Athens/Santorini during that week and it would have taken us seven hours to get there. 

From Santorini, we'll catch a ferry to Mykonos.  We're only staying here one night since there weren't any ferries the day before. 

After Mykonos, we fly back to Athens for a night.  We have to wake up super early that morning to catch a 5am flight to Amsterdam.  Then it's a 10 hour flight back to Seattle.

Once we get back to Seattle, we ship my car the very next day.  We'll be in Seattle for 12 days before we officially move to Hawaii on the 31st.  I can't believe it's coming up sooo fast!

*Note: All photos were from wikipedia.com under each city's page*



♥ engagement photos ♥

In August, we finally took our engagement photos.   We wanted to take our pictures in Seattle (pikes/gas works park) since this is where we met.  Our photographer Letty Hingtgen was referred to us by my friend at work and she was amazing.  We got our photos last week and we LOVE them.  I can't wait to use them on our save the dates and other wedding stuff.  Here are a few of them..

Gum wall ;)

DIY wedding banner...it was a little windy though :(

Fun jumping picture

I'll post more later on facebook. Thank you Letty for all the great photos! 

The biggest wedding update is while I was back at home I found my dress! *insert happy dance here* hehe. I love it!  Here is a picture of my mom and I right after I bought my dress.

As for right now, we booked majority of our wedding vendors.  We'll probably start doing more wedding stuff once we move back and get settled in Hawaii. :)  In the meantime, we're busy packing up our apartment and planning our 3-week trip to Europe which starts in less than a week.





5 years in Seattle!

As of this month (Sept. 17th to be exact), I've been living in Seattle for 5 years. I can't believe its been 5 years and in less than 6 weeks I'll be moving back to Hawaii. Despite the rain, the cold, and sometimes snow, I have to say I had a great experience living here and don't regret any of it.

I originally moved here to work for the PwC Seattle office after the Hawaii office announced it's closure. Call me dorky, but I really wanted to work for PwC even if it meant moving to Seattle. After 5 years, here are the things that Seattle allowed me to experience that I am deeply thankful for...

- Becoming a grown-up: Moving here forced me to live on my own, pay my own bills, and become financially independent. I learned how to take care of myself and stand on my own two feet.

- PwC Seattle: I could not have asked for a better place to start my career. Despite the long hours and working on weekends, I loved the people I worked for and with. The T-mobile was like my second family and some of my best memories in Seattle was with the T-mobile team, from our Chelan trips, the food-fight in the Mariners suite, dressing up on golf day, to our famous Nick nights and happy hours. I will miss all of you.

- Traveling: In the past 5 years, I've been to more cities, states, and countries then I have in my life time.  Whether it was for work or for vacation, I was able to travel to over 20 cities, in 7 states, and 5 countries.  I can't wait to add 2 more countries and 7 more cities to that list since we leave in 6 days for Spain and Greece.

- Friends: My group of friends here are the best and thank you for making the winters here tolerable.  I know we will all stay in touch and I love that. 

Last but not least, I am truly grateful for meeting my best friend and love of my life here.  Not to get all mushy, but Seattle will always hold a special place in my heart since this is where we met and fell in love.   I am excited to move to Hawaii with him and start our life as a married couple there.

♥

Thank you Seattle for being such a great city! 

Next post...engagement photos and wedding updates!

Our Seattle Bucket List - Updated

I can't believe its already September and that we move to Hawaii in just TWO MONTHS! Ack!  In the next two months, we are going to California for a week to visit Dan's parents and then going to Spain/Greece for three weeks which means we only have about a month in Seattle (five weekends to be exact).  That's why I wanted to update our bucket list which I blogged about in April (Our Seattle Bucket List.) to see what we have left to do and note the items that are sadly not going to happen...

Bucket List - Updated 9/1/11
1. Blazers Game
2. Visit the San Juan Islands (not happening...boo)
3. Weekend in Chelan (not happening...boo)
4. Wake Boarding
5. Eat on the patio at Rays Cafe *we didn't eat on the patio but we did eat there, good enough*
6. Eat at Paesos
7. Brunch at Pesos
8. Hiking at Mt. Rainer (not happening...boo)
9. Visit the UW Cherry Blossoms
10. Hiking -Olympic peninsula
11. Brunch at Portage Bay
12. Picnic on the Kirkland waterfront *we didn't have a picnic but we did have shave ice*
13. Wine tasting
14. Brewery tour at Red Hook
15. EMP Museum
16. Kayaking *Updating this to SUPing
18. Pool party at our place (not happening...boo)
19. Weekend getaway at Suncadia
20. Romantic dinner Canlis

Also since I've been a stay.at.home.fiance for a few weeks now, I was able to cross off a few items from my handy-dandy to-do list:
1. Apply for my Hawaii CPA license
2. Make and order our France/Italy photo book
3. Finish at least another 400 cranes
4. Take my tory burch flats & wedges to get fixed
5. Figure out what we are wearing for our engagement photos on the 30th
6. Cook at least ten new dishes, including oxtail soup (2 down...8 more to go)
7. Plan our Spain and Greece trip (hotels are all booked, now just need to figure out activities)
8. Book our California tickets for Sept.
9. Take care of the car shipping details
10. PACK, PACK, PACK

Looks like we have some work to do to get everything done and crossed off! 

Anyway, a couple of weekends ago we crossed off #10 on our bucket list and went hiking in the Olympic National Park.  We did a four mile hike to the top of Mt. Zion  We decided to make it a weekend vacation and stayed overnight in Port Townsend.  Here are a few pics from our hike and weekend stay:

At the top...I used a cool camera feature to take this pic...

The super cute cottage we stayed in.

 After the hike, we deserved a beer! @ the Port Townsend Brewery

 View from our Sunday walk near the beach.