Maui, Hawaii

For our Chinese New year
break, we met my parents in Hawaii. Highlights included black, red and white sand beaches, windy roads, a hilarious comedy show, an amazing luau, whale watching and beautiful sunsets!

Boracay, Phillipines

Fall break 2004 was spent in the Phillipines. We flew to Manila then spent a few hours on a bus then boarded a small boat that took us to the island of Boracay.
The only minor problem was there were no docks so we had to carry our luggage through the water to the waiting boat. It was very beautiful here but it rained a lot! Our hotel "The Pink Patio" provided the flourescent pink umbrellas so that was nice. We spent a lot of time snorkeling, playing on the beach, swimming and drinking yummy milkshakes from Jonah's snack bar.


One night I got a banana chocolate shake and could have sworn there was a bug in it but it just turned out to be a giant banana seed. I still wasn't convinced so the lady took me in the back, peeled a banana and showed me the seeds. Sorry but the bananas I'm used to don't have seeds that big! Jeff gladly finished my shake for me.

Other highlights of this trip include the yummy food (Mexican, Mongolian BBQ, giant Calzones!) and the massages. Some nights we would have someone come to our room and give us an hour long body massage. It was great because we could just fall asleep since we were already in bed.

Beijing, China

The last stop on the TranSi took us to Beijing where we climbed the Great Wall! It was an incredible sight and very tiring might I add!









We also took time to see the Forbidden City (which there is now a Starbucks inside!),

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Our next stop on the TranSi took us to Mongolia to the city of Ulaanbaatar. It was so beautiful here! We all piled into a big 4x4 bus and drove to a national park. First we stopped at this rock pile where we were supposed to throw a rock on and walk around it a few times...can't remember why. There were also camels there giving rides to youngsters.




We spent 2 nights here staying in gers. This was quite fun, except for the beetles!




We had a blast floating down a river and horseback riding.



We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary here at a great Mexican restaurant.










We got one day to explore the city which was very poor. This was one country where we were millionaires when we exchanged money.

Siberia

After Ekaterinburg we traveled to Irkutsk and then to a small village on Lake Baikal where we enjoyed a home-stay. Here is our host mom and our guide. It was amazing how the people in this village lived. There was no running water and they lived mostly on fish out of the lake.
We enjoyed taking Russian baths...a sauna with water heated by wood in which we dipped pots and poured over our bodies (a luxury they only took part in once a week). We went on hikes up the mountain and enjoyed the amazing views of this little village.









And everyone's favorite the outhouse! Yuck!










The wooden houses were very simple. Our host used lots of rugs...on the floor, on the furniture, on the walls....it gets very cold there in the winter! Check out the real bearskin rug!


This is the Russian Orthodox church and everyone stood up for the entire service.

Ekaterinburg

Ekaterinburg was WET! It rained almost the entire time and we got soaked. One day it was pouring so hard we had to stop and buy umbrellas. Our guide took us to the street market and we sent the boys out to get them for us. We all got very pretty ones too, the boys did a great job picking them out.
Ekaterinburg is the 3rd largest city in Russia.
Here is The Dam which is the historical center and a place of leisure (when the weather is nice). Ekaterinburg was founded in 1724 according to the directive of Peter the Great. And this monument is of Genin and Tatischev, founders of Ekaterinburg.


This is the City Council building which was built on the sight of the Cathedral Temple, it looks right in the eyes of a bronze Lenin statue.


The graveyard had huge gravestones and we found out they were the graves of Russian Mafia! All of the men died between 20-30 years old.






This is the Cathedral of All Saints. It was built on the place where Nicholas II family was murdered in 1918. As we were about to enter this church, all the girls had to put on skirts and scarves to cover their heads. And the guys who were wearing shorts had to put on skirts also...then the guards said the men could not go in because they were wearing sandals but our guide argued that Jesus wore sandals so they were allowed in. Then as we were leaving we noticed a sign that said you shall not wear clothing of the opposite sex for this is an abomination to the Lord. We also couldn't take pictures inside so we didn't get any proof of our guys wearing skirts!


Here we are at the Europe/Asia border and monument. We were in 2 continents at the same time!