Alaska

Alaska was beyond beautiful from a boat...but it only sparked my interest for a great Alaskan roadtrip! What do ya think Denis and Emma?

Check out our last minute trip to southern Alaska. Tracy Arm Fjord, Skagway, Juneau and Victoria, Canada :)

Weekend in Portland

Wow it’s hard to believe that it’s been 2 weeks since I left Amsterdam! With catching up with friends, hanging out with my family, my bachelorette party and spending the last weekend in Portland, Oregon, these last 2 weeks have been pretty busy! But more on my sweet Cali bachelorette party later ;).

Last weekend I spent a few days in Portland visiting my best friend’s dad. It was a bittersweet weekend which was spent sharing our favorite photos, talking and laughing about funny moments with Julia and exploring waterfalls decorated with colors of the autumn. I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since she passed away but I knew I wanted to pay her dad a visit as soon as I was back in town.

I never knew just how amazingly beautiful Oregon is! And Portland…oh man…don’t get me started. What a cute city…and everyone is just so damn friendly and happy! I spent several hours sipping on Portland’s famous Stumptown coffee at cozy coffeehouses while I trip-planned, wedding-planned, life-planned and just enjoyed the fact that I had no where in particular to be except in that café sipping on some java. As an extra special treat, I joined my Amsterdam friends, Liz and Carly, for dinner at Oven & Shaker. I’ll be seeing them (very!) soon at our Mexico wedding in just TWO WEEKS! EEEEP!

Up to my crazy ways...Cali-Oregonian Roadtrip!

Here's one thing you don't know about me: I kinda like doing crazy things...ok really like it! Like the time I went bungee-jumping in Costa Rica, or graduated college then decided to go sky-diving the next morning (then moved to Amsterdam a week later), or partied my butt off in Berlin with my best friends last summer. Whatever it is...I'm always up for an adventure! Sometimes I can convince Christian to be crazy with me (he's well aware of my crazy antics).

My most recent crazy idea originated a few weeks ago--I decided to fly out to California for a long weekend only from Amsterdam to surprise my best friends. These friends of mine were off on a roadtrip to Oregon and I just couldn't miss it. So I bought a ticket! Before I knew it, I was in Cali and with my friends and family. The crazy part was I arrived on a Saturday, spent Sunday in Southern California, spent Monday on the road up north (that's a whopping 15 hours, people!), spent Tuesday floating down a beautiful Oregonian river wearing floppy hats, spent Tuesday night out all night in Portland and spent Wednesday on a plane back to Amsterdam in time to make it to work on Thursday morning. Crazy, right? 

Well here's to being crazy...because it's better to regret the things you have done than the things you haven't done. And you sure can't put a price on friendship...even if it IS only for a long weekend :)...even if that long weekend just to happens to be half-way across the world. 

Check out a few pics from our quicky road-trip to Oregon! I snapped these pics with a Go Pro camera...pretty neat, huh?!

And be sure to stop by Jay's blog From Here to There to check out my 'Expatriated' guest post! Thanks for having me, Jay!

Hiking from the Sky to the Sea

After living in Amsterdam for nearly 4 years, visiting my home in California gets more special with every trip. But that also means that every time I go there, I realize how lucky I am to have been from such a beautiful place and it gets harder and harder to say goodbye. This last trip, I flew out sans the Dutch boy at the last minute (I bought a ticket on Friday, flew out on Saturday!), mainly to see my family but ultimately to be with my best friends and to support one of them during a difficult time. After two weeks of laughing, hugging and lounging, I left feeling unbelievably happy and fortunate to have friends like these...as if I didn't need a reminder of their sheer awesome-ness. *End sappy-ness here* ;)

One thing I’ve learned while being away is that California has some of the most amazing sunsets and colorful in the world—setting up to watch a good sunset quickly became one of our favorite pastimes (especially at the beach!) during our 10 years as friends. Phrases like ‘let’s go watch the sunset in Laguna’ are commonplace after ‘wanna go to the beach?’ or ‘where are my Rainbows?’ It's no surprise that, together with advice from these best friends of mine, Christian chose a sunset in Laguna as the place to propose last Christmas.

Naturally, we squeezed in some sunset explorations on this trip too. The first led us up a hill with 360 degree views over Orange County—beautiful. The second hike led us to a place we’ve been plenty of times—the beach! Few things can be better than watching a sunset over the Pacific…watching it with best friends is the icing on top of the cake. Even a seal plopped on the rock next to us to enjoy the sunset too!

And these last two pics courtesy of my best friend Ink ;)

...and then 15 minutes later--colors!