Travel Illustration

If you follow me on instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve been doing a lot of paintings lately with acryla gouache. Here are some of my favorites, they are all based on photos I took while we were in New Zealand in 2013.

Allerton Garden, Kauai

By far my favorite part of our trip to Kauai was going to the Allerton Garden. Not everyone is a botanical garden type of person, but I sure am. Designed and built by art collector and patron Robert Allerton and his partner John Gregg, the garden is organized into a series of “rooms” that each have a theme, like the bamboo room and the mermaid room, and it became a sort of living museum for the plants and statuary that Allerton and Gregg collected during their world travels.
My favorite part was seeing the giant fig trees that were featured in the movie Jurassic Park. Inspired, we picked up a cutting from a plumeria plant in the gift shop before we left, the beginnings of our own international plant collection.
On a side note, we saw a lot of these spiders in the garden which on the one hand remind me of something out of a Super Mario Brothers video game but on the other hand give me horrible, horrible nightmares.

Kauai Waterfalls and Canyons

Kauai has some really spectacular waterfalls. A couple of days into our trip, we took off toward the inner part of the island in search of a few of them. We saw Wailua falls up close from a scenic turn out on the road and it was gorgeous, I wish we’d had the time (and the shoes) to hike to it.
We also stopped and saw Opaeka’a Falls, a lovely, lacy waterfall that sadly can only be viewed from a distant vantage point (though the zoom lens on our DSLR certainly helped).
Then we took a trip out to Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It had stunning views, just really gorgeous.

We were able to catch a glimpse of the Napali Coast along the north western shore of the island, which is inaccessible by road. You can only hike or helicopter to that part of the island because of the mountainous terrain. It looks like totally unspoiled land, like something that has survived under the radar of human interference for thousands of years, it was really incredible.

If I had done any research at all before our trip, I would have known that there is some amazing hiking to be had in Kauai, unfortunately I was not prepared for this at all and only brought the most flimsy of footwear, flips flops and converse sneakers. If we ever go there again, I’d bring hiking shoes and hike along the Kalalau trail. Also, I’d take a helicopter tour because I’ve heard they’re amazing.

Kauai Beaches

I always get bummed out about New Years every single year. Every time! I always have such high hopes, expecting it to be awesome and it always falls so spectacularly short of the mark. So two years ago, Brian and I decided to make New Years the best part of the year and spend it on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. It was such a great trip!

We spent a lot of time snorkeling and playing around with Brian’s new (at the time) digital camera that can take pictures and video underwater.
One of the best snorkeling spots we found on the whole island is called Tunnels Beach on the northern tip of Kauai. It was gorgeous when we went there and I saw some really amazing fish and the sunset was nothing short of amazing (unfortunately, the photos just don’t do it justice).
We also spent a lot of time at Poipu Beach Park on the south side of the island, closer to where our vacation rental condo was. This beach was pretty crowded when we went there, but the geography of it is really nice. If you look at an areal photograph of it, you’ll notice that there’s a rather large sticky-outy piece of land that juts out from the middle of the beach that gets revealed when the tide goes down. Also, they have seals there.
One of the first places we went when we got to Kauai was Spouting Horn, which was just a few blocks down the road from where we were staying. It’s basically this little hole in the rock surface on the beach that focuses a stream of water through it when a wave comes in. It’s pretty dramatic and also a little mesmerizing.
During our trip The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed was a huge help in figuring out what to do every day.

Mexico Part 2

(Check out Mexico Part 1 here)

On Tuesday, we visited with the concierge and went over all of the activities we could do while we were in Cancun. My list of things I wanted to do in Cancun went 1) Snorkeling 2) Couples massage 3) Look at Mayan ruins. We decided on a day trip out to Tulum followed by snorkeling at a place called Xel-Ha and set up reservations for that excursion for Wednesday. After planning Wednesday’s activities we decided to spend the rest of the day out on the beach. We scored a straw-roofed cabana and spent the day reading, people watching, occasionally sun bathing and ordering pina coladas. An employee from the hotel spa came around and gave out free five minute sample massages. It felt so luxurious to be out on this beautiful beach, being served alcoholic beverages and getting a massage. What more could a girl ask for?



Brian was obsessed with getting a good photo of this giant bird.

After hours of relaxing at the beach we went to the hotel spa and got a couples massage. I’ve gotten massages before, but never a couples massage. I thought it would be nice to be able to talk to each other during the session, but when I talked to Brian my massage therapist thought I was talking to her and asked if the pressure was okay. Each time we tried to have a conversation, the therapists would stop what they were doing and ask if we were okay, so we eventually just kept quiet and enjoyed the rest of the experience.




On Wednesday, we woke up early to catch the bus to Tulum and after an uneventful two hour bus ride, we were deposited at Tulum, tour guide in tow. The site of the ruins was very crowded, but the ruins themselves were stunning. We took at least 200 photos while we were there. The entire place is inhabited by these huge iguanas that I just couldn’t get enough of and the view from the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean was breathtaking.






My best lizard shot.

Brian’s best lizard shot.

After wandering the ruins for an hour or two, we went back to the bus that would take us to Xel-Ha, but not before snapping a few pictures with a group of guys dressed up in full Mayan garb.


Xel-Ha is a theme park that is based around this natural lagoon that mixes salt water from the ocean and fresh water from natural underground springs. The main thing to do is snorkel, but they also have scuba diving, river tubing and swimming with dolphins or manatees and other activities that you can do. It seemed a little commercial to us, but we still had a lot of fun tubing down the river and snorkeling. I saw a live conch for the first time and there was a beautiful array of tropical fish to be seen.




After a long day of snorkeling and eating (three different buffets and an open bar were included in the price), we got back on the bus to take us back to our hotel. We ordered room service and stayed up late watching movies on TV.
On Thursday we slept in and hung out around the hotel all morning before going out to do some shopping at the major shopping area across the street. Most of the stores were chains that you could find in the states, but we still enjoyed walking around outside in the nice weather and looking around the tacky souvenir shops. I bought Louis a little sombrero and Brian bought some Mayan-esque tchotchkes. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant called La Madonna that looked like something right out of Las Vegas. It had these giant two-story roman looking statues as you enter the restaurant and two more inside. There was also a massive copy of the Mona Lisa in psychedelic colors on the back wall. The place specialized in martinis and boasted a drink menu with over 100 varieties of martini. I went with the blood orange martini and ordered the shrimp risotto. This was seriously some of the best food we had while in Cancun.



On Friday we bid Cancun goodbye. I was sorry to go, but Brian was ready to get back home and back to our normal routine. I had to admit, I did miss Louis a lot while we were gone. The flight back to Miami wasn’t too bad, but getting out of the Miami airport was a nightmare. It took us well over an hour to get from the plane, through customs and out to our car. And then we had a two and half hour drive to get back home. We had such a great time in Cancun, I can’t wait to go back!

Mexico Part 1

After ruling out a European vacation for our honeymoon (too expensive) we were looking for other, more affordable options when we were offered a 5 night stay at the Westin Lagunamar in Cancun (a $1750 value) for the price of a one night stay. It was too good to pass up. Neither of us had ever been to Mexico and we both had a hankering to see it, so we jumped at the chance to visit a new country and get a cheap hotel stay for our honeymoon.

I’ll admit, Brian and I were both a little bit scared since we did not know what to expect in Mexico, so we decided that we wanted to enjoy the resort experience instead of looking for the local hangouts and trying to get an authentic cultural experience. I also made the promise to Brian that we would do a lot of relaxing on the beach and do less of the running around and sight-seeing that I usually like to do on vacations.



We flew from Dallas (where we got married) directly to Cancun and arrived at about 2 pm. We had no difficulty navigating through customs and getting to our hotel provided van. The drive to the hotel was short, only about 20 minutes, and I was surprised at how foreign Mexico felt. I naively hadn’t expected every sign to be in Spanish or the scenery to look so different from Texas. Once we got closer to the hotel, the town started to take on a more Las Vegas-like appearance, it was one giant hotel after another. What I liked about the place we were staying is that every room faces the ocean, so every room has a great view. When we got to the Westin Lagunamar, the first thing we did was look out of our balcony and just stare at how gorgeous the ocean was.


The view from our room

After dropping off our bags at the room, we went for a walk on the beach taking in the cool blue, postcard-esque scenery. The reflection of the ocean is so bright it makes the birds flying over it look blue too. I knew this was a place where we could really unwind and relax without getting bored. All this beach gazing put me in the mood for a margarita, so we explored the grounds of the resort until we found the bar. It was happy hour, so I got two margaritas for the price of one! We sat out on the patio of the bar and enjoyed our tropical drinks before heading to the hotel restaurant for dinner.



The restaurant at the Westin had a Mexican buffet on Monday nights serving authentic local Mexican food and featuring lots of dishes from the Yucatan. My favorite thing on the buffet was the delicious chicken with mole sauce. After stuffing ourselves at the buffet and finishing up my margaritas we spent the rest of the night in our hotel room enjoying the Jacuzzi tub.


(Check out Mexico Part 2 here)