Something to Declare

Something NEW to declare

Abby — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:28:42 +0000

Hello, friends. After over a year of neglect, we are resurrecting this blog and giving it a new focus. Instead of travel stories, we will be sharing news of our baby-to-be and stories about him once he joins us this summer. That’s right. We are expecting a baby boy the first week of July. We are very excited — and now that we have little onesies, a carseat, swaddle blankets, and a bouncy chair in our apartment, it is all feeling very real. All of that, plus my very real and growing belly (as shown below):

The above photo was taken this afternoon in the park across the street from our apartment in Pacific Heights. We’re approaching our one-year mark in this apartment, and recently passed our one-year mark in San Francisco in late February. The time has flown by and we are having a blast living here. It’s a great city with tons of great food to sample, interesting neighborhoods to explore, and beautiful nature to discover. We will also try to update this blog with some of our California adventures and experiences from the past year.

For now, I’ll just say hello to anyone who is still reading this blog and please look forward to more regular updates about life in California and life as parents-to-be. Soon enough, you can look forward to photos of our little dude.

The first six weeks in SF

Abby — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:49:33 +0000

Somehow we have already been in San Francisco for six weeks! It’s hard for us to believe that we arrived here that long ago – but in other ways we feel like we’ve been here forever. Even though I (Abby) have all the time in the world right now, I have not been good about firing up this blog again, so I am going to start with some observations from the past six weeks and we’ll take it from there.

Ohmygod it’s sunny! This was our first thought on our first day here after leaving a grey-skyed Seattle and driving through a couple of snowstorms on our way down. It was cold, but sunny, which was a welcome change for a couple of Seattleites who had just escaped winter. (Since then, we’ve had our fair share of days of rain, but no matter.)
We must remember how to jaywalk – or at least cross the street when there’s a red hand but no cars coming. I find myself standing at intersections all the time while people flow past me.
There are a lot of dogs in this city – and many people walk their dogs without a leash. The owner is always close by, but this is something you don’t see a lot of in Seattle.
The food is amazing! We have been eating a TON and enjoying almost all of it. Very fresh produce and a culture that takes its food very seriously.
People are quite nice here. We feel very fortunate to have been welcomed warmly by a group of people who are connected to an old friend of Dan’s. They have brought us rock-climbing, wine tasting, and more! I’ve also loved reconnecting with old high-school friends Shannon and Wendy.
Wine country is so close! We’ve been out to Sonoma twice already (once with my aunt Meg and once with Casey) and it’s so easy to get there. Another bonus is that it’s supposed to be warm and sunny there during the summer, when we hear it will likely be cold and foggy in SF.
There are many places to get good coffee. Blue Bottle is probably my favorite so far, but we also discovered this North Beach café that roasts its own beans.

In other news, we have found a place to live (still in temporary housing now) and will move in with all of our stuff on April 13. Woohoo! Dan has been working a lot, but the commute itself is not as bad as we feared it might be. He has a comfortable bus to ride that takes pretty reliably one hour each way.

Beach w/ graffiti:

Top of DeYoung Museum:

Cupcakes:

North Beach coffeeshop:

Casey & Abby on bus:

First day of wandering the city:

Ao Thong Nai Pan Noi – Our beachfront paradise

Dan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:50:23 +0000

OK, we’ve got to be honest with you. Our plans to permanently move to Santhiya Resort didn’t work out. Maybe it was for cultural reasons, maybe the lack of a long-term Thai visa, or perhaps it was the hotel’s unwillingness to give us room and board for free. In any case, after two wonderful nights, we decided to move on to a new hotel on the other side of a rock outcrop in the bay. Our new home was Rasanandra, a new boutique luxury hotel in the center of a larger beach: Ao Thong Nai Pan Noi. Santhiya is technically part of this beach as well, but the rock outcrop separates it from the strip of accomodation on the other side, which included our new place.

The modern pool at Rasanandra. The benches on the side had buttons that turned on jets.

Upon arrival, we received the typical coconut-milk welcome drinks (western culture really needs to adopt this custom), and were led to our room. The room was amazing — modern in design, clean, it included a small private pool (as all rooms at this hotel do), and oddly — free alcohol. We had a selection of gin, rum, and whiskey, which we were informed would be refilled daily. Strangely, the mixers (tonic, cola, etc.) were in the mini-bar for a charge. Still a pretty good deal. As the cheapskates we are, we bought tonic from the local store down the street and mixed some drinks.

Free booze

The hotel was amazing. From the pool, to the excellent restaurant, to the complimentary beach snacks (courtesy of the chef), this place was top-notch. Over the course of four days, we were continually asked by the hotel and restaurant managers if there was anything they could do better. There wasn’t.

The beach was great too. Many Thai beach areas are over-developed:

Parts of Chewang Beach are not so relaxing. Careful with those power lines!

Or underdeveloped (no services). This strip was perfect. There was a selection of good local restaurants and bars at the other guesthouses along the beach, along with a couple convenience stores, an ATM, and laundry services. The sand was white and pure, and extended far out into the water (no rocks). We were in heaven.

Looking north from our hotel

The beach in front of our hotel

The palm tree that we sat beneath in front of our hotel one afternoon

The one last thing worth mentioning during a trip to Ko Phangan are the infamous “full moon parties”. Our little beach was way too chill for serious ravers, and the moon wasn’t full while we were there, but we still got a taste of the action. The “Beach Club” bar down the beach had a fire dancing show (free for anyone to watch) one of the nights we were there. Abby and I had no idea what to expect, but were mesmerized when it started and stayed for a full hour. We will always associate this scene with the Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face”. Definitely worth seeing, even if, like us, you’re not into the rave scene.

Fire dancing

Our new life on Ko Phangan

Abby — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:37:47 +0000

Dear Family & Friends,

This is not an easy blog post for us to write, but we wanted to share our news with all of you right away. It is with mixed emotions that we are writing to let you know that we will not be returning home to Seattle from Koh Phangan. The resort that we have called home for the past two nights is simply too wonderful for us to ever leave, so we have decided not to. This is not a decision we made with haste. We treasure our family and friends and the time that we get to spend with all of you. That is why we hope you will all come visit us in our Sea-View Villa at the Santhiya Resort. It has a separate sitting room with a daybed (where we are sitting right now) that would make very comfortable guest quarters. Although we hear it is currently 100 degrees in Seattle, we all know how gray the winter months can be — and that would be the perfect time for you to come visit us on Koh Phangan.

These wooden buggies transport visitors from their villas to the main lodge/pool area.

The daybed in our villa, with walkway connecting to bedroom area.

Interior of our villa, with outdoor bathroom visible through windows behind Abby.

Upon arrival at our new home, you will be treated to a welcome massage and can arrange for a 1.5 hour Thai massage that will cost you a mere US $45. We indulged in such a massage yesterday and cannot remember a time when we felt more relaxed. The lovely ladies who stretched, kneaded, and pulled our muscles chuckled at us at the end of our massage as we lay on our beds underneath the open windows, arms outstretched and unable to move right away after such a luxurious experience. We know you will enjoy this as well when you come to visit us.

Although best known for its epic Full Moon Parties, which involve all sorts of hallucinogenic drugs and “fire dancing,” Koh Phagnan also boasts a beautiful and secluded set of beaches called Ao Thong Nai Pan Yai & Noi. This is where our new home is located on the island. After an almost one-hour journey from the public ferry pier that took us over mountainous dirt roads, with portions so steep that our driver had to turn off the A/C before powering up the craggy rocks, you will arrive at our most lovely resort home with villas tucked away into the jungle. You may also choose to take the resort’s power speedboat directly from the pier, but we recommend the van ride because it really makes you feel like you have embarked upon a daring journey and earned your welcome drink upon arrival at this remote destination.

Upper eating area at main lodge building.

After dropping off your bags in our villa, we will take you down to the lovely beach for a Beer Chang on one of their tables in the sand. You may remark, like Dan did, that you feel like you are in a James Bond movie. We predict that you will sit for a few moments without even speaking and share the feeling we had of being so extremely lucky in life to be in such a beautiful place with someone you love.

Beach bar & restaurant area.

And finally, we will reserve a table on the beach for the dinner we will all share during your visit. This is truly an experience you won’t forget. How many times have you sat at a table IN the sand with your shoes off and a torch by your side?

Dinner on the beach on our second and final night at Santhiya.

Although we will miss Seattle and everyday contact with all of you, we know that our visits together will be even more special in the future because we can share the experience of our new home with you. We have not yet figured out the financial logistics of our decision, but we are hoping that the hotel will let us trade gardening time for permanent residency. If not, we will be collecting donations from our loyal readers. We can’t wait to welcome you to our new home in Koh Phangan!

Love, Abby & Dan

Sawasdee Khrab, Koh Samui!

Dan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:13:01 +0000

After nearly 24 hours of travel, we made it all the way from Seattle to Koh Samui, Thailand. The flight was easier than expected, especially since we were able to get a pretty good night of sleep on our red-eye from Seattle to Taipei.

Taiwanese airport food

Once we landed on the island, we took a taxi from the tiny airport (complete with an open-air luggage carousel) to our hotel just north of Chaweng beach. Here, we were upgraded to an ocean-facing villa, specially decked out for our honeymoon.

What a way to start the trip! The hotel (Nora Beach Resort) is wonderful, and despite some overcast skies up in Bangkok, there’s no sign of any monsoon down here, but I won’t go on about that since I don’t want to jinx us. We did a little exploring on foot that first night, walking down to Chaweng beach for dinner. Jet-lag quickly set in though, making it an early night for us.

Jet-lag does have its upside, as we woke up first thing Monday morning in time to enjoy a beautiful sunrise on the beach with a cup of coffee.

What is it?? Honeymoon edition

Dan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:03:30 +0000

Abby and I just completed the first segment of our flight to Thailand and are now sitting in the Taipei airport waiting for the food court to open (it’s 6:00am here). The flight was pretty uneventful, though we had a classic “what is it??” moment after I ordered porridge for breakfast on the plane. My food came with “Flavored Tuna Floss”. Sounds delicious, but What is it??

Seattle to Chicago in 4 Minutes

Abby — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:37:40 +0000

About a month ago, Dan and I decided to go visit his parents and some friends in Chicago. Seeing as we are all about time these days — and had several other family members and friends that we wanted to see between here and the Midwest — we decided to make it a road trip. So we packed up the Civic and set out on Friday, February 13. Although we weren’t sure about the logic of taking a 5,000-mile road-trip in the middle of winter, we got very lucky with the road conditions and passed through only two mild snowstorms.

We were equipped with a Magellan Roadmate that was Dan’s birthday gift from his parents this year, as well as Dan’s iPhone. Between these two gadgets, we were able to keep an eye on the weather, find non-fast-food restaurants in random towns, and entertain ourselves with a range of podcasts (a few favorites: Stuff You Should Know and the New Yorker’s Fiction Podcast).

Between Seattle and Chicago, we visited one of my dear college friends, several members of the Beller clan, and also stopped by Dan’s alma mater, the University of Illinois. It was a great trip and we documented much of it in the video below. Stay tuned for another short video of our return trip.

(Hint: The video quality is better if you hit the red “HQ” button.)

Introducing the Something to Declare photo gallery

Dan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:44:10 +0000

After spending countless hours in Adobe Lightroom narrowing down and editing the photos from our trip around the world, I’ve finally put together an online gallery with about 800 of our favorites, sorted by location and various other attributes. Many of these photos are geotagged and visible on maps (like this), since we carried a GPS which recorded where we went, and thus where our photos were taken.

Here’s the link:: The Something to Declare Photo Gallery

I’ve also written an article about the photo equipment we took along:: Photography guide

Enjoy!!

Salt Lake City in pictures

Dan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:56:13 +0000

We thought we’d share a few pictures from our overnight stop in Salt Lake City:

The view from our hotel room. We got a great deal on Hotwire.

The Salt Lake Tabernacle

A reflection pool near the church. Note the man proposing to his girlfriend on the left.

Downtown

A storm in the distance

A view point on I-80 near Park City on our drive out of town

On the road again…

Abby — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:24:55 +0000

After a couple of months back in Seattle, Dan and I are once again on the road. We set out this morning in the Civic on a road trip to Chicago, where we will spend a few days with Dan’s family. On the way, we are making a few brief stops to visit friends and some members of the Beller clan. Instead of four months, this trip will be limited to about two weeks and will not require the use of passports. We have also left the backpacks at home and are traveling with our roller suitcases instead. It was a funny feeling to check into our hotel this evening in Boise. This marks our first night in a hotel since the big trip and it’s hard not to fall back into the immediate room assessment of noise level, cleanliness, and safety. I’m happy to report that Boise’s lovely Shilo Inn meets our requirements on all fronts.

Our trip commenced at about 8:00a.m. and after stops in Yakima, Wash., and Pendleton, Ore., we pulled into Boise around 5:30p.m. It was a very scenic drive and showcased the differences between mountainous/green Western Washington and low-lying/dry Eastern Washington. The weather posed no problems for us and we’re hoping it continues to cooperate for the rest of our drive. To top off our evening, Dan had secretly researched Boise restaurants prior to our departure, so we easily located and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Le Cafe de Paris in downtown Boise.

Abby taking photos at a viewpoint on I-82 north of Yakima

Another shot from the viewpoint on I-82 north of Yakima

Abby posing in front of the diner where we ate lunch in Pendleton, Oregon

I-84, East of Pendleton

I-84, driving out of a mountain range

I-84 rest stop