a veg life

(posted by Emily) Traveling to a new part of the world is always a fascinating experience. Rick and I typically come home with new foods we love to eat (and crave), new experiences to share, and new items of clothing to wear. For some reason, visiting SE Asia was particularly impactful for both of us. There are some many things we learned or came away with, and I thought they would be worth sharing with you. Top Ten: Lessons we learned in Asia 1) Share the road. Driving in Thailand can be heart pounding, but driving in Cambodia is even more enlightening. On the 10+ miles of road we explored while there (to and from the airport, to and from downtown), I can only remember 1 stoplight. While most roads are paved, there are no lane markings. Drivers truly share the road, taking turns at intersections, using as much of the roadway as they need to, and showing courtesy to one another at all times. Neither of us remember hearing a horn honk. It has been fascinating to come back to a ...

(posted by Emily) As I sat down to think about what to blog today, I realized we are so. close. to our summer adventure in the UK and Europe!  We've made our "To Do before June 25th" list, which includes lots of cleaning and loose ends around the house, and we've started organizing the things we want to be sure to have with us. A few quick tips as we plan ahead for the next big adventure:  1) Make sure you have the exact address and phone number of where you are staying, both written down and stored electronically. When we came back from Paris to London in 2012, I didn't have the address of the apartment we were renting and listed the US Embassy as our residence. The customs guy was not too thrilled with that solution, but let us through after making sure I knew that couldn't happen in the future. I'm planning on making an index card with the address of the boat, to keep in my passport cover, in addition to having it in my contacts on my p...

(posted by Emily) With all of our upcoming travel, we've had the opportunity to check out some new choices for housing at our destinations. We love staying in hotels, but it can definitely be an expensive endeavor in some of the places we are planning to visit. Luckily, we've had success using two sites that allow us to "stay with strangers"-- VRBO and airbnb . VRBO My mom has been using VRBO for years when she goes on trips with her girlfriends. She has always had great things to say about her experience, so Rick and I decided to check things out in Maui.  We spent some time looking at where on the island we wanted to stay. VRBO lets you search by neighborhood/locale, which helped us narrow things down.  via Once you refine your search by area, it is easy to add other filters like number of bedrooms and price, using the tabs at the top of the page.  it's a little tough to see in this screen shot, sorry! via Here is a close up of the filter t...