Birthday in Warsaw

This past weekend, Patricia (friend of mine and Rochelle's from OC) was in Warsaw for work so she invited us to come crash in her hotel for the weekend. We had never been to Poland so thought it would be a fun weekend trip - and it happened to fall on my 29th birthday!

We arrived early Saturday morning - starting the trip off right with our 2nd Starbucks

Walking down the main drag toward Old Town - notice the soccer balls hanging in the background! Euro2012 is currently being hosted in Warsaw so everything was decked out!

Sights on the way to Old Town - some embassy or something behind us

More views of the city on our walk to Old Town

Posing like an Asian for Patricia, in front of cool architecture :)

There were violinists everywhere!

Old Town square!!!! Beautiful.

View of the Euro2012 stadium from the town square!

Cute! We had lunch in the outdoor restaurants you see here... so relaxing!

Ice cream after lunch - the city wall is behind us

We came across a practice session for a fashion show - loved critiquing all the models walking down the runway.

We stopped by the fanzone - there wasn't a game going on when we were there so it was kind of dead, but still fun to have been there!

We were exhausted so came back to rest before dinner. I looked over and saw this after 2 minutes...

Birthday dinner at an authentic Polish restaurant - Dyspensa. It was DELISH! I had weiner schnitzel... yummm.

More ice cream after dinner. My third of the day - hence my hand and face :/

Day 2 we hit up a Polish museum. It was all about Polish history and totally boring - I just don't think the word Poland was uttered during my entire education so I had no appreciation for what I was looking at! We stayed 10 minutes. Literally.

Chels and I in front of an exhibit - no idea what it was for (and yes I realise how ignorant I sound).

We hit up a park after the museum. Yes, more ice cream!

Chels and I mauling the statue (we wanted to sit in his lap!)

Yay! Found Ronald Reagan on the walk back to the hotel.

Relaxing, catching up on OC gossip, and people watching at a Starbucks along the main road

Last scenic shot!

Even though there wasn't much to do or see, we had an absolutely lovely weekend aimlessly roaming the surprisingly beautiful city in absolutely perfect weather! So great to catch up with Patricia AND see a new part of the world!

week in paradise. for work?!

This past week, the two main partners I work for and I went to Cayman for some Board meetings. You have to go through Florida to get there, so I spent the weekend before in Miami with my grandma, aunt and mom.

Upon arriving! Had been 6 months - longest I've ever gone in my life without seeing my mom!

Mom made us Sunday Lunch - my favorite childhood meal. Made. my. life.

The task of the weekend was getting my aunt a new puppy, and we were successful. Meet Maripoo. SO PRECIOUS!

And the obvious pit stop before heading to the airport to leave...

From Miami I headed to Grand Cayman on Monday... the view from my room.

On Tuesday, Allee and I were working away and I got a phone call from the client. "Meet me downstairs in 5 minutes." Got in the car and we ended up at the airport for an impromptu helicopter ride around the island. Seriously?!

I got the front seat!

View from above of "stingray city" - more to come on that later.

More views!

That's a sunken battleship!

One night before dinner, the client took us to a car museum that holds a bunch of vintage cars, from Ferrari to Rolls Royce. This is the original Batmobile!

Allee, Stuart and I looking around

I liked this one - super old Rolls Royce.

From the museum, we headed to an outside bar to watch the sunset. Philip and I listening to a story...

Allee enjoying the view

Gorgeous!

The next day we headed out for a sailing adventure - first stop was stingray city! Stuart and I right after we got in the water...

Not feeling so sure about being so close!

Starting to think this is pretty cool...

Yeah, loving these little guys!!

Umm, a little too close for comfort.

The Deloitte crew! Just another great day in the office...

Until Allee got attacked!

Russell trying to rub squid all over me to make the sting rays attack me!

Soon a rain storm came - Nick went and showered in the rain. Funniest guy I've ever met (and not just because of this).

Group shot (in the pouring down rain)!

Allee - cutest pregnant girl!

Stuart Allee Russell and I - happy the storm passed (look at it in the background!)

Last parting shot from the front of the boat. Best work trip. Ever.