Girls' Trips - Phnom Pehn and Shanghai!

Here are a couple of photos from two recent girl's trips! The first one was our annual fund-raising trip to Cambodia. We had a larger group go this year and we had a blast! Every year this trip gets better and better and I love Cambodia more and more. We had great weather for both the bike ride and the run and we stayed in a fabulous new little hotel, too. The evening we spent in Phnom Pehn was perfect as well - it is such a great city. Good friends, good food, good trip....can't wait to go again next year!

The second girl's trip was a fabulous weekend in Shanghai! Wow - another amazing city. We went with a group of five of us and thankfully my friend Tracy (former Shanghai resident) was a great guide. We stayed at the Portman Ritz-Carlton, which is actually where Tracy and her family lived while in Shanghai - gorgeous! The first day we went to an area called Xintiandi and had a great Thai dinner. The next day was our first visit to the fabric markets - oh boy, I could really get used to having all of my clothes custom made! I had two dresses and a great coat made - all custom and gorgeous. We also spent lots of time in the pearl market - tons of great jewelry. The next few days were spent wandering the city ....we spent some time in the French Concession area with all of its gorgeous restored mansions and wonderful restaurants. Not to mention a swanky karaoke bar.

We also walked all along the Bund which is the most famous street in Shanghai, right along the water with the most amazing architecture ever. So many different styles - just gorgeous. Then we took the tunnel under the water over to Pudong to go up into the Pearl Tower! Loved it and although the windows are so dirty you can barely see through them, it is still an amazing view from way up there.

We finished up our very full trip with an exciting ride on the Mag-Lev train all the way to the airport! Wow! It goes 431 kilometers per hour (268 mph!!) - scary and amazing! Really loved Shanghai, one of the prettiest cities I've been to yet. Again, great times with great friends!

Spring Break in Australia

G'day, mates! Yes, we finally made it Down Under! We headed to Cairns, Australia for Spring Break to swim on the Great Barrier Reef - WOW! Leaving Singapore, we had a quick layover in Darwin and then arrived in beautiful Cairns.

After the 45 minute drive along a gorgeous winding coastal road, we arrived in the tiny town of Port Douglas - so quaint, we absolutely loved it! We took the trip with two other families and we all stayed in one big house near the beach in Port Douglas; with six adults and seven kids, it was a friend-filled house of fun. Once we arrived at the house we set out to explore the beach, only to find that it was low-tide so we sunk into about six inches of mud trying to get to the water. We decided to try the beach again in high tide.

The next day we headed right out to the Great Barrier Reef on an enormous speedboat that took us to a floating platform right on the reef! Since it was close to "jelly-season" we all had to wear protective wetsuits so the jellies would not sting us. I stayed on the platform and did a couple of short swims out with Liam while everyone else went out further to snorkel. The water is crystal clear and we saw quite a few fish and some gorgeous coral. We even got to take a short, semi-submersible boat trip around the reef to get an even closer and deeper look - beautiful. After a day of snorkeling we headed home and relaxed at the house.

The next day we visited Hartley's Crocodile Adventure Farm. We saw so many crocodiles and lots of real-life crocodile hunters! They all dressed and sounded a lot like Steve Irwin and were amazing to watch as they handled the crocodiles. It was very exciting and we learned a lot about Australian crocs, too.

The next day we headed back out to the reef but this time took a boat to Green Island and spent the day relaxing on the beach and snorkeling. I loved the beach and it was great to be able to just walk out into the water and immediately be snorkeling right on the reef - we saw so many fish and the kids even saw a sea turtle up close! And in addition to all the fish, they found lots of sea stars and lots of sea cucumbers. What a great day!
The next few days we stuffed in as much sightseeing as we could and visited a zoo where we got to hold a gorgeous koala bear and got to walk around and feed all the kangaroos and wallabies. Then we took a short drive to a great mountain stream that we discovered with freezing cold water and some nice little rapids that we all swam through. We had so much fun here that we came back another day and spent even more time - it was so refreshing and beautiful!

With all of our many adventures we still found time to relax and spend a day at the beach in Port Douglas body surfing and playing beach soccer, we had some amazing dinners at some great local restaurants and the kids were even able to participate in a local Cane Toad Race - what a great vacation! As always, the trip ended too soon but we packed so much adventure into our week that we all left feeling exhausted but in love with Australia. There are so many parts of the country that we want to visit but it is nice to know that we'd be willing to come back to Port Douglas again anytime!