Christmas Around the World

(The Bellagio, Las Vegas)

It is pretty much a family tradition to travel during Christmas time. Many of our Christmas nights are spent on a plane because the flights are always super empty wherever we choose to go. A large portion of my family lived in Hawaii, so that was our go-to destination. This year, however, I have tons of aunties and uncles AND my grandparents living in Texas to celebrate now. I am very excited to spend Christmas with them and celebrate my favorite holiday with my big, loud family. To fill the traveling itch, (even though I probably am flying somewhere by myself after Christmas) I listed a few super cool places to fly to during the joyful season.

Frankfurt, Germany

It seems like Germany is known for their Christmas markets. Just Pinterest “Germany Christmas Markets” and you will go nuts. Speaking of nuts…. the Frankfurt Market has tons of food to purchase while you are practically slapped in the face with Christmas cheer. Nothing screams “I love Christmas” than a Christmas Markets. Even urban districts of Houston have cheery Christmas Markets. Just imagine Germany!

Somerset House, London

I had once had dreams of being an Olympic ice skater, haha. Somerset House, which is known for showcasing many talented artists, holds Skate at Somerset House – a huge ice rink for the public to skate. The museum hosts food vendors, little events and clubs for the kiddos, and Club Nights with live DJ’s a night. What a cool way to spend your holiday season.

Kuwana City, Japan

The Winter Light Festival in Kuwana City uses over 7 million LED lights to create this fabulous tourist attraction. In most large cities in the US,  there are often light festivals happening at the zoo or in town somewhere. Think of your local Zoo Lights times a million and that is what the Winter Light Festival looks like. Imagine what beautiful pictures you could take at this place.

Sao Paolo, Brazil

Let’s turn the lights down a little bit. Sao Paolo has this huge Christmas tree during Christmas time that has 600,000 lights on it. There is also a lighting ceremony that travelers and locals can attend. The lights are animated and can be flashed in tons of different variations. You can celebrate Christmas while diving into the rich Brazilian culture.

Does this give you any ideas? Comment your cool winter destination!

Virginia Weekend Travel Diary

I can’t believe this summer trip has come to an end. I am so fortunate to spend as much time as I do with my boyfriend. I swear I cherish every minute of it! He lives miles and miles away, and has an underway schedule that is terribly hard to work around some times. The flights are always full or almost full as well! Sometimes, we feel like all forces are against us being together but weekends like this one make those thoughts disappear instantly. We had a great time this weekend and actually had a lot of firsts:

• First time hiking
• First double-date
• First full meal cooked together

We had a very laid-back six days and tried to focus on spending as much time as we could together! A lot of Lost marathons I can tell you that. We also tried a new place to eat called Alkaline, which as you can see from the pictures has Ramen and other Asian fusion meals. Definitely a must try if you’re ever in the area! Like the true water babies, we spent most of the time at Virginia beach and the beach inside of First Landing State Park. You can’t see this anywhere in my photo diary, BUT we also spent a lot of time working out together and playing Pokémon. As always, I am able to get closer and closer to my love when I visit Virginia. Our relationship strengthens as we get to know more about each other. And for that, I am always so grateful to spend time with him in the place he… and I… call home. For sure ready for our next adventure together, which will be roughly in September so make sure to check-in! What do you guys like to do with your boyfriend or girlfriend? Leave it in the comments!

Salty Soft-Serve

A few weekends ago, my love and I visited Virginia Beach. This time to swim! Finally, the weather in VB was hot enough to spend some time in the water. So, after the Atlantic Ocean sucked all of our energy out of our bodies, we ended the day with local soft serve on the boardwalk. I had the banana soft serve with of course… rainbow sprinkles because what is ice cream without sprinkles?

This afternoon snack ended up checking off one more task off of “The List”

☑ Eat an ice cream cone on a beach 

To see more things that are on my bucket list… check out “The List” tab on my top dropdown bar or click the link. I’ve surprisingly been getting A LOT crossed off so yay for completing my goal!

What a hottie right? Overall, this weekend was by far the best weekend we’ve spent together! Even though we were pretty pressed for time, we made up for it with well-needed, quality time. Thank you my love for all that you do for us, and our relationship. I love you!

Be prepared for more blog posts! I have a bunch planned for y’all!

Adventure Park | Virginia Beach, VA

Had a fun-filled early birthday weekend in Virginia with my love! Kekoa went above and beyond to try to plan mini-dates for each day I was there. For example, one day was a dinner and a movie, another day was a day at the beach, etc. This day specifically was devoted to Adventure Park in Virginia Beach! For a while Kekoa and I have talked about going to a place like this or at least finding something outdoors and active to do together (since a lot of our time is spent eating and sleeping when we’re with each other lol).

In a nutshell, Adventure Park is a harness and line obstacle course that varies in difficulty by paths. Kekoa and I attempted the three hardest courses of the park! I successfully completed, the first two and half of the absolute hardest course and of course, Kekoa successfully completed all three. Next time, I hope to finish the hardest course there is at the park!

The park allowed us to climb, propel, bungee, and other aerial activities – one of the which being zip lining! So, one more thing off of my list:

☑ Try zip lining

It was amazing! One thing that I really didn’t expect was being self harnessed and then zip lining on my own work. Added just a little bit of recklessness in the act! The view was great when I zip lined across the forest and over the water. It was even greater that I was right behind my love when experiencing it.

Overall, there was a lot of focus on physical strength, balance, and strategy in the activities. When my physical strength lacked, I learned to slow down and use things like my balance and mind to help me. Remember…

“Your speed doesn’t matter, foward is foward.”

I feel like it was great to use my brain for things like that rather than school work. It was a well needed break and a good workout for the day! Also, Kekoa and I exercised a lot of trust and things like that that day; so, of course it benefited us and allowed us to try something new together. I was definitely pushed to my limits on these courses, so thank you my love for taking me there this weekend!  Just another thing out of millions to love about you!

After our three hour pass was up, we finished with a beach side dinner with dessert. Such a great day, and the little obstacles to overcome just made it better. I love little opportunities to learn, and the day did just that.

Virginia Beach

Beach day with my love! Hopefully next time, it will be warm enough to swim in it.