North America

Photo of the Week: Floating Tree

/ lifeafter9to5 / Leave a comment

IMG_6897Coco Plum, Belize

This serene setting brings back many happy memories of our stay on Coco Plum – a small island off the coast of Belize.  On one of our walks around the island, we took a picture of this small tree thriving over the calm water, juxtaposed against the vibrant sunset. 

Every Monday of each week, I’ll share a photo with you from my adventures around the world and at home.  Most of my photos have little or no post processing.  If you would like to see more, please click the ‘Follow’ button.

Photo of the Week: Halo

/ lifeafter9to5 / Leave a comment

IMG_0834Brooklyn, New York

This photo of Fausto juxtaposed against bright lights was taken a few years ago at a New York public art festival, Bring to Light. Similar to Nuit Blanche, artists from around the world joined together to create light, sound, and performance installations transforming the industrial Brooklyn streets into an immersive experience for thousands of visitors. Held on the waterfront of Greenpoint, this event felt more intimate than the spectacles of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche.

Every Monday of each week, I’ll share a photo with you from my adventures around the world and at home.  Most of my photos have little or no post processing.  If you would like to see more, please click the ‘Follow’ button.

Photo of the Week: Grand Canyon

/ lifeafter9to5 / 1 Comment

IMG_3629Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

The Grand Canyon is awe-inspiring in its vastness and has long been considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.  On a clear day you can see sweeping views that stretch out for hundreds of miles in all directions.

The Grand Canyon has always been on my bucket list, so when we were in Vegas for a week in February, we decided to rent a car and drive to Arizona.  What I didn’t know was that Arizona can get quite cold in the middle of winter.  For some reason, I thought it would always be hot there. Shows how much I know.  

Along the road, snow accumulated as we drove further up in elevation.  We were not prepared and were not dressed properly for the colder temperatures.  So in the end, we drove for 4 hours, ran out of the car for a quick look at the canyon and hurried back inside, away from the biting wind at the rim.  We will have to return another time for a hike down to the bottom of the canyon.  

Every Monday of each week, I’ll share a photo with you from my adventures around the world and at home.  Most of my photos have little or no post processing.  If you would like to see more, please click the ‘Follow’ button.

Photo of the Week: Blooming

/ lifeafter9to5 / Leave a comment

IMG_0018Kauai, Hawaii, USA

I took this picture of a plumeria flower on my trip to Hawaii a few years ago.  This is one of the most common flowers on the island, they bloom everywhere and are typically used to make leis.  For me, this flower brings back a lot of memories.  Growing up in tropical Viet Nam, I was quite familiar with the fragrant smell of the plumeria, and they say smells strongly associate with memories.  When I get a whiff of this sweet smelling flower, it brings back memories of my childhood at my grandmother’s house and makes me feel quite nostalgic.

Every Monday of each week, I’ll share a photo with you from my adventures around the world and at home.  Most of my photos have little or no post processing.  If you would like to see more, please click the ‘Follow’ button.

Year in Review – 2014

/ fpalazzetti / Leave a comment

2014 Map

It’s that time of year again. The end of December is when everyone looks back over their year and makes lists. So far be it for us to not follow the trend.

2014 was one hell of a year for us. In addition to starting this blog, we still found some time to travel around the world while working full time. We were on the road almost once a month in 11 separate trips. We finally got to cross off Australia and Peru from our bucket list, which were over 2 years in planning. We’ve even literally flown around the world – flying only eastward to Australia through Abu Dhabi and then eastward home through Los Angeles. We also visited our 6th continent – only one more to go! The more we see on our travels, the more we wanted to see.

Some of the more impressive stats include: over 91,000 miles flown, on 42 individual flight segments. 7 countries, 5 continents. We spent over 26 hours flying in first class, 70 hours in business, and countless hours in coach.  12 of those flights were over 8 hours long, and 5 of those 12 were more than 12 hours – thats a lot of long-haul flying.  Even with all that however, we fell short of of the re-qualification threshold for American Airlines Executive Platinum status – 100k miles. It looks like next year we’ll have to settle for being just Platinum. This means no more unlimited domestic upgrades, and no 8 SWUs for international flights, but we still get lounge access and priority seating/boarding, etc. We also have a stash of points built up this year we’ll work on using up in 2015.

Our trips in 2014 included:

This past year we specifically planned more travel than normal in order to maximize the benefits of our status. This resulted in a lot of busy weekends and running around packing, unpacking, and repacking. In fact, it felt like we spent most of 2014 living out of our suitcase. All this travel definitely took its toll on our bodies.  Between the long-haul flights, meals in airport lounges, time changes, jet lag, busy weekends, and packed schedules to fit as much in as possible on our trips we both feel a bit worn down.  Even though we loved every minute of of our whirlwind year, we’re also looking forward to some R&R time at home this winter. For 2015, we have a lot of ideas of where we want to go, but nothing concrete planned. We are excited to start planning our next adventure around the world (any suggestions?).  It’ll be hard to top 2014, but we can’t wait to see what 2015 brings. We wish everyone a safe and happy new year!

Autumn in New York

/ lifeafter9to5 / 1 Comment

IMG_0910

Growing up, I did not like Fall.  It signaled the end of summer and the start of a new school year.  It also signaled the end of warm weather and the start of snow and frost.  Even as an adult, I was not fond of this transitional season.  With daylight savings time in effect, the days get shorter and shorter, and before you know it, it’s dark out most of the time.  It’s not until I moved to New York that I learned to embrace Fall.  If you’ve ever visited the city in the summer, you know it’s a sweltering hot mess.  The humidity and the heat make most of New England almost unbearable, but in the city, it’s an incubator for all the horrible smells that just cling to you.  In August, when the smell of urine and garbage get to their most unpleasant point, you become happy to embrace the cold brisk air that ushers in the Fall season.

Continue reading →

Toronto: Nuit Blanche

/ lifeafter9to5 / 1 Comment

Every year Toronto closes down streets in the downtown core area and artists from all over the world set up installations. Nuit Blanche is a contemporary public art project that happens one night a year in different cities around the world. From sunset to sunrise, the dark Toronto streets get lit up and transformed into a weird and whimsical world. The theatrical carnival of light, sound, and kept the population entertained. This year, even though the weather was chilly, people still came out in droves and the streets were flooded with pedestrians.

IMG_7102 Continue reading →

Toronto: Graffiti

/ lifeafter9to5 / 4 Comments
IMG_6942

Graffiti Alley in Toronto

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile (thanks for following!), you’ll see me periodically post pictures of graffiti art.  I’ve always liked art, but my love affair with street art didn’t start until I moved to New York.  To me, urban art is unexpected and sometimes quite beautiful.  On my short trip to Toronto, I made it a point to visit the widely known Graffiti Alley in the hip Queens Street West neighborhood.   In Toronto, programs such as Street ART Toronto encourage and promote street arts as a way to add character and pizzazz to the neighborhood. Continue reading →

Eating in Toronto

/ lifeafter9to5 / 3 Comments

As you all know, I am from Canada and a few times a year I come home for a few weeks to visit friends and family. Usually my visit to Canada consists of me being whisked off to Brantford straight from the airport, where I spent a blissful week in my childhood home stuffing my face with my mom’s homemade noodle soup.  My recent visit up North a few weeks ago was a little different because this time we came back for our good friends Ahmed and Jihan’s wedding (Yay, SUPER happy for them!) and we stayed in Toronto for 3 days.  The longer stay in the city was the perfect opportunity to try all the food Toronto has to offer.  Here are highlights of the food we ate:

IMG_7036

Continue reading →

Hiking Delaware Water Gap

/ lifeafter9to5 / 3 Comments

IMG_7187

This past weekend when my aunt in New Jersey asked if we wanted to go hiking, we jumped at the opportunity.  Even though it’s Fall, in the city the leaves are still green from the warmer weather, so I couldn’t wait to see the changing foliage in the mountains.  Since we don’t have a car, this is also a chance for us to explore other hiking trails further away from the city.  We are definitely making the most out of our hiking shoes! Continue reading →