Singapore

My brother Ben and his wife Holly visited us in January. We went to the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. The Night Safari is interesting, but it's tough to get good photos there.

Without Ben and Holly here to amuse us, we had to find ways to amuse ourselves. Angela chose rollerblading. I chose to make productive use of her new tripod.

When you're traveling from the US and Europe to Singapore, it's a little too far to come just for the day. So the wedding party was more of a wedding week. But even before the official wedding week started, Sarah and Corentin came early for a little holiday time in Vietnam. We spent a long weekend relaxing in Hanoi.

We visited an array of temples and museums. But we were careful to save time for food and ice cream. We walked and shopped until we got tired (well, I'm not sure if Sarah was tired of shopping yet) and then took cyclos around town.

The wedding week officially kicked off with a champagne brunch on Sentosa Island. Some people arrived the night before while others came straight from the airport.

As anyone who's been to Singapore knows: one of the best things about Singapore is that you can leave it. So we headed over to the Indonesian island of Bintan for the day. Corentin and Matt took the early ferry to get in a full round of golf. The rest took a later ferry and took a tour of the mangroves before we all met up to relax on the beach.

Bukit Timah is one of the spots in Singaore where you can get away from city and into the jungle. It's area of primary rainforest completely surrounded by the city. We hiked around and saw tropical plants, monkeys, and signs warning of immediate execution if you leave the paths.

We caught the bus from Singapore across the border to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. We wandered around the town, tried the local food and visited the Grand Palace Park (Istana Besar).

The wedding week preparations for the girls included dress fittings, make up sessions, and a fair bit of shopping. There was also Angela's grandpa's 80th birthday and lots of site seeing around town.

The big day.

We took a sort of delayed honeymoon in Phuket in November. It was a long weekend of eating good Thai food, visiting some temples, snorkeling, and just lounging by the pool.

The next weekend we took another honeymoon! This time we flew to Perth and drove south to Margaret River. It was just a four day weekend again, but we had a great time site seeing. We drove through the forests in some of the national parks, and we visited the lighthouse on the southwestern corner of Australia. It right at the point where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We stoppped in at Lake Cave, and then spent some time on the beach. The beaches around there are great. But the photo of Angela was very nearly her last picture ever as the undertow started to drag her out.