You'd never see this in the U.S.

Celebration of the first full moon of lunar New Year!

So the man lighting the fire was totally drunk on soju and some random man stopped us to watch the "show." The fire truck was completely blocked in and not connected to a water source! Oh yeah, a fire started below the man lighting the ball of flame and about a square meter burned before someone showed up with a fire extinguisher...Korean style baby!

City Snow and Frozen Lakes

Tapgol Park in Seoul

Entrance to Insadong gil a famous shopping street in Seoul

Gyeonbukgung Palace

Gyeongbukgong Palace and the surrounding mountains

The winter is ending here and the buds are appearing on the trees (we are even getting temperatures in the 60s some days!)...we hate to see the snow go, but we have to say we are looking forward to lovely spring!

China Cruising on the Yangtzee

The Lessor Gorges (not so lessor, eh?)



Face Rock



Our river guide.



The Victoria Anna (our cruising vessel)



Mom and us freezing on the Yangtzee!

Happy Lunar New Year

Yes, this is coming a little late for those of you in the know...but we still would like to share these unbelievable pictures from Chongqing and Shanghai...China is truly the most foreign place we have been so far!

These lights are only on during the New Year celebration because of the energy crisis in China even the biggest cities (Chongqing is the most populated 33 million) do not have building lights on at night...it is really spooky coming into a large city where there are no lights on the buildings...the streets are still lit though, so the lack of structural light doesn't slow the party goers in Shanghai!

Here we are in Shanghai on a popular shopping street Nanjing Dong Lu.

Winos and Beach Hoppers

Auckland Bay from One Tree Hill (not the show, an actual place!)


Kumeu River Winery


West coast black sand beaches


Wine Country

While in Auckland, we went on a wine tour (yes, we drank a bit too much). As you can see from the east to west coast, Auckland is gorgeous. Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve, eh? (We have been hanging out with too many Canadians!)

Kaituna Rafting in NZ

On our holiday travels to New Zealand, Aaron and I went rafting on a class 5 river, and the highlight was a 7 meter waterfall!

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas wishes to all of our friends and family…
This year our wishes for the season come from across many seas and many lands, but perhaps from a little closer to home than before. One thing being far from the known does is make you aware of the things in life that are blessings. This season we are truly grateful for all our family and friends that continue to support us and wish us well through our journeys abroad. There are many reasons that brought us so far from home, but we are sure that we could not have done it without the support of all of you. So this Christmas, we celebrate you…the people in our lives that matter most, the ones that share their homes and hearts with us.