dripping with passion

we are at san francsico international airport, waiting to board the first of the twenty seven flights we will be on in the next eighty days. it was a crazy, wild, crazy whirlwind getting everything packed (for the trip and moving out of our place) and saying our goodbyes (we left for the airport directly from a little farewell party in our dear friends' backyard) -- but here we are, hoping we have what we really need, looking up last minute confirmations and itinerary items, and bubbling over with excitement and anticipation (stewed with some real exhaustion of body and mind!). this dream is really happening!! i will be trying to blog as often as possible from our trip - you can also follow along via instagram . here's the final lineup: march 24-april 1 :: new zealand (we decided to go to both the north and south islands!) april 1-april 10 :: china (hong kong, then yangshuo, then xian, then beijing, then shanghai) april 10-april 12 :: train from shanghai to lhasa (...

i’ve spent countless hours the past few weeks on shutterfly ’s website digitally creating a book of photographs from our wedding as a gift for the boy’s parents, and another as a gift for my parents. it has been a ton of fun to reminisce on our incredible wedding day and the magic of all the connected celebrations. i designed the book pretty much from scratch, so it took a lot of time and thought, but shutterfly made the process easy and i loved how customizable everything was. when we got back from our roadtrip, we were soooo excited to see this box on our doorstep!: we opened it up (it’s now on its way to the boy’s parents in texas) and were totally blown away at how awesome it turned out. the quality of materials and construction is seriously amazing and it just looked so good!we were freaking out as we stopped all unpacking and any other activity to flip through it on our couch. we can’t wait for both of our sets of parents to get their book!! i wanted to share a few glimpse...

i love big sur (the stretch of coast basically from hearst castle to carmel). i love it so much. after packing up camp, we stopped at mcway waterfall. it’s just unbelievable. but it’s real! i like the view from the other side of the bluff as well: the color of that water! and there’s just something so magical about a waterfall dumping right onto the beach and into the ocean. our pictures were shadowy as the morning sun hadn’t made its way over the coastal mountains, but our views were truly breathtaking. our next stop making our way up the pacific coast highway was cafe kevah, which is connected to the restaurant nepenthe, perched on a cliff overlooking this: we shared a delicious breakfast burrito and enjoyed the sunshine and the views! (which are so hard to capture!) then, we headed out on a 8.8 mile loop hike along the ridge of the hills up high and the bluffs closer to the water. it was so so scenic and sunny and super. there were so many wildflowers, which i wish i would h...

  on our way back from southern california, we took the (super) scenic route, via hearst castle and big sur. i just can’t and won’t get over that divine california coast. we talked on the drive about how we are so excited to go to many exotic and amazing places on our upcoming around-the-world trip, but one of the most spectacular spots is right here in the area where we live! i went to hearst castle a few years ago , but have been wanting to go back with the boy and to see some other rooms. it was just as dizzingly magnificent and beautiful as last time (even though the neptune pool was drained and there was scaffolding on the facade)! the grand rooms were sure grand. i especially loved all the intricate ceilings and watching home videos of the castle builder william hearst and his distinguished guests in the luxe theater:     and the grounds and gardens – just magnificent!! i especially loved the flowering vines growing up tall palm tree trunks, the tiled staircases...