Rare Travel Find

I recently took a trip to Honiara, Solomon Islands on embassy business. HIR is an extremely small airport with virtually no amenities, i.e. no air conditioning or bar or restaurant. You just sit and sweat and wait for your flight and sweat some more.

Anyway, I now expect something unexpected each time I fly to Honiara. Last time I had a flight canceled and had to layover in a "questionable" hotel provided by the airline until I could get out the next day. On this last trip the ticketing system was down when I went to depart. The result was I was given a handwritten boarding pass. I have never seen one of these in the wild before. Is this even legal?!?

Photos From Japan

Here are some pictures from our trip to Japan during New Years 2015-16. We had a great time in Tokyo and Nagano. Zach got to celebrate his 10th birthday at Tokyo Tower on New Years Eve.

Not Caused By What...?

Here is an example of some of the cultural challenges you face as a Foreign Service Officer living in different parts of the world. I took this photo of a public service announcement for tuberculosis posted in the embassy kitchen. This is a legitimate and serious PSA intended to educate local staff on the transmission of TB. I post this not to make fun but to illustrate how different the beliefs of some cultures are from our own.

Photos From New Zealand

Finally, as requested by friends and family, here are some pictures from our trip to NewZealand back in April 2016.

Mouse over the photo above and click the arrows to advance the picture.

Enjoy!

Let The Therapy Begin!

"Mommy, what are we having for dinner tonight?"

Found this gem in the frozen foods section here in Port Moresby. The marketing team at "Birds Eye" should probably reconsider their packaging options given the release of the new "Finding Dory" movie. Just saying.

And our next post is...

Paris!

We have our new assignment. We will be headed to Paris at the end of summer 2017. As we know more we will let you know.

New to Us

PNG version of a teacher in-service day? 

The kids have never had an event or class cancelled due to "Civil Unrest". This lifestyle is a new experience for all of us! 

Singapore!

We are in Singapore for the week. It's clean, orderly and everything works. Example - on the 20 minute drive from the airport to the hotel I counted a mere 11 pieces of trash along the roadside - we are definitely not in NYC.

You are probably asking what happened to your last two and a half weeks in New Zealand. I took about  thousand pictures so I am still sorting through them and will post them in a couple of days. We didn't have good/any internet the last week we were there so I couldn't post anything. 

However, if you like shopping Singapore is the place for you. I think every single retailer in the world has at least one store here. 

A mall with gondola-like boat rides

The shear number, size and quality of malls would make any Jersey Girl drool.  

Another mall with a Lamborghini dealership (I'll take two please!) 

I'll be posting more updates on Singapore soon.  

I Love NZ!

I am drinking great oatmeal stout and cooking meat on a hot stone. I have touched the hand of God! 

Greetings from New Zealand!

View from below the Auckland Sky Tower

Hello Everyone! 

We are in New Zealand for the next two and a half weeks. We arrived in Auckland on Easter Sunday and will be exploring the city for the next couple of days.

We spent today at the Royal Easter Show here in Auckland, which is similar to a state fair back in the US. The boys had a great time shearing sheep, riding the rides and ingesting, watching motorcross stunt sows and far too much sugar.

After Auckland we are going to be exploring the North Island. The Internet here works, unlike PNG, so I will posting our adventures and catching up with posting more pics to our Flickr page. 

Happy travels!