Moody Views at The Rainforest Inn

These photos were taken during our last day at the Rainforest Inn.  The view on the last day was a stark contrast to our other days there.  We finally saw what kind of down pour the rainforest could bring and it's very serious about it's rain.

Puerto Rico

Oops, I guess I've been gone for awhile.  Sometimes life happens and you need a helmet of massive size to get through it because, you know, life's tough; wear a helmet.  You can also cope by getting away and maybe you'll end up in Puerto Rico like I did.

We walked along the pier in Humacao before kayaking to Monkey Island.

xoxo,

sunburnt b

Still...

Not much to say still, but I have loads-o-photos.  Enjoy, I demand it.

Oneonta Gorge is much smaller in person, but far more dangerous.  I fell in.

Water falls

I think I found the edge of the Earth, but I decided not to make sure.

x's & o's,

b

If you don't have anything nice to say...

...then don't say anything at all.  I'm not very consistent lately, but here's something beautiful to look at.

The world is full of beautiful places; go see them.

xoxo,

b

Motivation and Beauty

Hello lovelies,

Lately I'm in a place where I'm trying to figure out what we're doing (the spouse, the child, the family).  I want to know our next move.  Mr. Husband was in grad' school, but that got interrupted right before our wedding (we even planned around his class schedule).  This derailed our plans and Mr. Husband is still processing the whole thing and I stopped taking classes shortly before we met even though at the time I didn't realize I was "taking a break".  He has been figuring out his next move, but we made an agreement when he started that we would switch off and that he would find a job after school was done, but sometimes plans don't work.  So I'm here trying to help him work through what his next move will be and establish some kind of stability for my own sanity.  It's been a longer process than I expected, but I feel as if I need to let him work it out before I move forward.  He is ready to make good on the agreement though; it's my turn to finish school.  I wonder though if I should try to start now or have everything in line to be in classes 2 years from now (the lady Bean will be on her way to turning 14 and possibly less bothered by my lack of free time).  If that's the way to go though, what happens until then?  Make art?  Develop some skills?  Take some new and different art classes?  Craft the perfect home?  Pay off the car?  Become financial masters?  These are all great ideas, right, but I tend to lack motivation unless I have something solid and defined to work toward.

There is my light bulb moment; currently I have great plans, but no solid motivation.  I need something to work up to and create a time line against.  I always traveled before Miss Bean arrived, but then things changed and i had to take about 10 years away from any serious travel.  We've been working backing into being explorers though as a family and as a couple.  I was super serious in my wedding vowels when I said I wanted to have adventures.  I also explained to Mr.Husband prior to the wedding that if we were to marry we would have adventures in lieu of babies.  I stand by it.

I believe that we are still learning how to be a family.  It's only been 8 months (as of yesterday!).  Perhaps we're still adjusting and figuring out what it is that we're supposed to do.  For now my impulse is to enrich our lives and soak up experiences.  I think I'm on a natural beauty kick because currently, I'm drawn to it (waterfalls!).  I guess for now my answer is to become an adventurer - to get out into the world and see what happens, find where it takes us to.  Maybe the answer is on a mountain?

Oneonta Canyon

Columbia River Gorge

Bridal Veil Falls

For now, Oregon will keep me motivated and in August, I will let you know if the Columbia River Gorge has any answers for me.

xoxo,

a more motivated B

Friday, Friday...

While I pull together some other posts (DIY's and tutorials), let me send you off to the weekend with a few photos of our recent trip to Dunes National Park.  Aaaaahhh...

Beautiful,

xoxo,

b

10.11.12

Mini Miss turned 11 on the 10th so we took a trip. 

xoxo,

B

The mysterious potty of Hotel Endemico.

Earlier this month I went to Hotel Endemico.  It was truly amazing and there has been a definite buzz about this place on the internet and in the design magazines, but something was missing...  There were no pictures of the bathrooms.  I showed my mother pictures of the fabulous place we were going to stay and her first comment was, "Is there a bathroom?"  I was sure the rooms had private bathrooms, but I couldn't find a picture anywhere.  Really, no where.  So my self imposed goal upon getting there was to document the bathroom.  I do important things.

View of the toilet and shower from the sink.

View of the shower looking up from the sink area.

Looking back at the sink are from standing in the shower.

I was impressed.  The towels are over sized and fluffy and they smell like fabric softener.  The bar of soap is cut from a handmade block.  Our soap smelled sort of like cucumber.  Those skylights actually open and the shower head is the size of a dinner plate.  The entire shower area is covered with the nicest little square tile and there's enough room for two.

Yep, that's the tile.

This concludes my Hotel Endemico bathroom exposé .

30 Weddings

When Mr. Husband and I were planning our wedding, everyone would caution me to be sure that I had the wedding I wanted because (in theory or maybe hopefully) "you only do it once".  I told him that I had a solution though to rid myself of any worries or regrets and to somewhat stifle that urge to have every kind of wedding I had ever heard of.  I told him that we could simply keep getting married.  At first he looked concerned and then I explained that I meant to each other.  He still looked confused, but I explained that if we ever think of something and wish that we had done it or see something really nice, we can always just do it ourselves.  I was thinking that the weddings following the real one would be smaller in scale, but it wasn't very big to start with.  Anyway, this was something that I hadn't heard many people talk about doing, but today I discovered that someone is.

English Wedding

Alex and Lisa are traveling around the world for 2 years and marrying over and over in all the beautiful and unusual spots they see.  You can read about the adventure on their blog.

I think it's super neat and now I really want a few more weddings.

xoxo,

B

I need to get paid for this...

I need to find a job where I get paid to travel and stay in design/concept/theme hotels.  I would give it my very best every time.  We arrived home late Sunday night and I'm already plotting my next destination.  We stayed at the beautiful and expectation surpassing Hotel Endemico.  It's more beautiful than the photos and the juice is fresh squeezed daily.  Yum.

My next spot will (hopefully) be Hotel the Exchange in Amsterdam.  From the looks of it, it would be a great birthday destination because January is the cheapest month for travel to Amsterdam and the month of the best rates.  Woot!  Woot!  Maybe I'll be there for my 35th birthday.

Hotel Endemico en Instagram

For now though we've been home less than a week and we'll be going away over night, but sadly, I'll only be seeing a room in a northern Indiana Best Western.  We'll also be taking in the Red Barn  Experience for the Saturday nuptials of Mr. Husband's long time friend.  It should be a good party.

Okay so, real camera photos soon.

xo,

B

Mini-Moons - Pre-Honeymoons

First, why is it called a honeymoon?...  Found it!  I won't be taking one of those.  I'll just vacation.  

So, I'm putting the weirdness behind me, but the word "wedding" still feels dirty right now.  Also, during my time of newly wed contemplation, it occurred to me that brides don't do housework, wives do.  I'm serious though.  If you are doing the wedding (or whatever you call it) yourself and you work, have a child, go to school, anything, there's simply not enough time to do everything and that seems to be the easiest thing to let go.

Anyway, we don't leave for our actual vacation until August 7th.  We were planning around another schedule.  It turns out we didn't need to wait, but now everything set and not switchable.  Oh well, mini trips until then!  We took our first mini-moon last weekend.

We went to Clifty Falls State Park.  There are around 10 trails and 4 different waterfalls.  We only went to one, but it was hot and took a while to get to.  Given Indiana's current drought, I'm surprised that there were waterfalls at all, so woo hoo!  Not only was it my first trip to that park and first waterfall experience, but it was also our first bed and breakfast encounter.  It was good.  We stayed at the Iron Gate Inn with Steve.  Steve lives there.  Also, I love my Aura Que bag more every day.

Good times,

Beeeeeeeeeeeee

Vacation Brain

(Severely lacking photoshop skillz: I haz them.)

It's that magical time, 50 days before my wedding.  It's that time when event related nightmares return, works slows to a creeping pace, and I start to question whether this can be pulled off.  Did I find enough people to set up? (--No, not quite)  Did I reserve enough time? (--Maybe, but it will be very close and would be more likely to get done if there were a few more people) Is anyone going to show up? (I will guarantee a room of 20 people, but what I'm shooting for is about 150) I don't know, but other than my concerns, my brain keeps shifting to vacation land and all the things I might need to make it perfect.  Yes, I know about perfection and how it doesn't exist.  I also know about how the best is the enemy of the good.  I've researched and realized, but I also have my own version of imperfect perfection and it works just as well.

Vacation (honeymoon) will be 25 days after the wedding.  It was delayed because someone, Future Husband, signed up for summer school and our wedding is right in the middle of second session.  Anyway, after a hard reality check we decided that our trip and his grade would both fare better if we waited.

I'm  still fixated on having a travel/ summer/ post-wedding/ Mexican wine country wardrobe.  I also still have no reason other I can and it's fun.  It might make for better pictures?  Added sophistication placed upon me me by others simply by glimpsing my outfit?  The feeling of going on an urban safari?

Anyway, above is a collage of my current vacation needs.  I think I'm coming to the end of my list, but I still have 75 days to go.

Towel

Blanket

Fedora

Sunglasses

Bag

There are a lot of great bags, glasses, and towels, but I just couldn't get comfortable with the prices of the a lot of the beach towels.  Fell free to take a look see at the others here.

xoxo,

vacation-brained-b