V is for Vacations.

Since we've been married before we got married, Matt and I have taken quite a few awesome vacations. Shall we happily remember them?

December of 2004, I left the U.S. for the first time to visit Matt at his University in Beijing. It was a pretty amazing trip, and oh yeah, that was when this happened --->

On our honeymoon to New York City, when after wondering aimlessly down Broadway we stumbled upon The Ed Sullivan Theatre, home to the King of Late Night (always and forever in my heart, at least) and got tickets to see his show LIVE.  Our amazingness was expounded (and my heart nearly stopped beating) when Dave allowed Matt o ask him a question before the show ("Where's the best pizza in Manhattan?" and dear, dear friend Dave bought us the best pizza of our lives.  David Letterman bought us a pizza.  Best. Honeymoon. Story. Everrrrrrrrr.

<--- Us before the show.  Soooo EXCITED!!!

Then, quite sadly, the vacation life stagnated because we were dirt poor.  Oh, well, we had each other and all that jazz.  Two years into our marriage, we got our fancy little three year vacation in the form of orders to Okinawa.

So for our third anniversary/pre-deployment leave, we decided to go big and spent a week at the Amari Coral Resort in Phuket, Thailand.  We spent most of the week walking around window shopping or drinking fruity drinks at the lobby bar.  Pretty amazing, right?

It was really hot and sweaty in Thailand.  And we didn't trust any of the locals to take a picture of us and give our camera back.  That's my excuse for this terrible picture. --->

I didn't really think the Thailand vacation could be topped until  (dun, dun, DUN!) we met up in Buenos Aires.  I fell in love with South America immediately. 

Matt spent a year in Mar del Plata, Argentina his Senior year of high school and so I've been hearing about this country for the last 8 years.  While debating where to meet for Matt's mid-deployment leave, Argentina was a natural choice (even though I wanted to go to France).  We spent two weeks enjoying and exploring the huge city.  We ate more beef than I can really even comprehend.  And more good food than I've had in two years in Okinawa.  We went shopping and saw art.  Rode the subway and pet a pretty disgusting stray dog that just looked sad.  Mini-theme park!  Empanadas!  Eva Perone!!  It was such an amazing vacation and will probably go down in the books as "Best Ever."

Vacation!

Wow. Vacation is awesome. Matt and I just got back got back a week or so ago from a lovely week in Phuket, Thailand.

We left super early Saturday morning and arrive at the Okinawa Airport before it even opened. That's so Okinawa. Seriously, what other international airport doesn't open its doors until 6 am? We flew from our home-island to mainland ("Fantatic Fukuoka") to Bangkok to Phuket. Tiny layovers, just enough time to grab our bags and find our seats (when we knew we needed to grab our bags - they almost stayed in Fukuoka... oops!).

When we got to Phuket, we hired a cab to take us to our hotel... Oh.my.goodness. Driving in Phuket is NOT like driving in Okinawa. Drivers go twice as fast. Every other vehicle was a motorcycle. And pick up trucks! I hadn't realized that there really aren't any in Oki until I saw so many of them in Phuket. We also saw a bevy of 7-11's and quite a few Family Marts. I love you, Family Mart!

We stayed at Amari Coral Beach Resort, just south of the Patong Beach city limits. The view from our room was spectacular and the resort was just a short walk to the shopping and eating available in Patong. The room was small, but had a nice little balcony that we spent a lot of time on. Here is our breath-taking view:


We used a lot of our time to just relax and enjoy our time together. We did a ton of shopping (although a minimal amount of buying). We ate such amazing food I can hardly believe it. One night we took cooking lessons at the hotel - invite me over and I'll make you some Pad Thai or Red Chicken Curry. We even ate at Molly Malone's Irish Pub TWICE. After my amazing pastie the first time, Matt had to go again to have his own pastie. He gets food envy pretty easily.

Thai people are very good at sales. Or at least wearing you down so you eventually buy something. As we walked through Patong, we were be inundated with calls for "Taxi? Taxi?" "Tuk-Tuk?" "DVDs?" Several reached out to shake Matt's hand which is just shady. There were tons and tons of illegal/bootleg/knock-off products. Shoes, clothes, CDs, and a shocking amount of faux-Tiffany's jewelry. I'll admit, I was tempted. But my annoyance at the Thai sales tactics overshadowed my need for some Tiffany's Wannabes. Most places I didn't even want to look.

We visited a store that called itself "The World's Biggest Jewelry Store." The Thai selling technique was in full effect here and I just felt uncomfortable the whole time. I knew we wouldn't be buying anything too expensive and I didn't want to waste the lady's time. I got a small sapphire ring after being forced to try on most of the jewelry in the sterling silver collection. It is quite lovely and I am sure I will get a lot of use out of it.

I did a lot of poolside reading while Matt spent hours swimming to his hearts content. I read Freakonomics and got a start on The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Matt read one of Gladwell's other book, Outliers, between the hotel and Japan Immigration. He really enjoyed it. We actually bought a lot of books and I snagged a copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban - WITH THE BRITISH COVER! Yeah, I rock.

We also spent a lot of time in the hotel lobby, looking out over the ocean drinking fruity drinks. Every morning we ate the continental breakfast that was AMAZING. Great foods from all over the world... We gorged ourselves there daily.

What else, what else? I can't think of anything... I'll answer and questions I can... Maybe I'll post more later... I have been a terrible blogger lately. Anyway, I will leave you with this: