Costa Maya, Mexico. First stop on the cruise.

We took ATVs around the island.

All of Costa Maya has this broken tree brush everywhere and all of the island is super flat.

Taking a little break on the beach from the ATV.

When I saw this I was like oil spill?? But no, apparently, they grow mangos and the mango farms turn the water this gross brown.

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On the Cruise, one of our stops was an island in Honduras. We stopped at a monkey farm and it was pretty much the highlight of the entire trip. I LOVE monkeys, and being able to play with monkeys was a life goal. Unfortunately, on this day of the trip we left our fancy camera (Nikon D700 with 24-70mm 2.8) back on the boat. So these are all pictures from either the point and shoot we purchased for our trip and our iPhone. We actually ended up liking the quality of the iPhone pics instead of the point and shoot.

Point and shoot pic:

iPhone:

iPhone:

The second we walked into the 2nd cage, this little monkey was in my purse before I even knew what was happening. He grabbed my sunscreen and took off and started to open it all in an instant. We got it back from him and it still worked.

iPhone:

Here are some pics from that camera that we didn’t really like, even though the quality isn’t grand, the progression of events is still good.

This is a video Mike took on the iPhone:

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Row 1:
1. My feet on a cobblestone road in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
2. Red, white, and blue street lines in Connecticut.
3. One of my favorite photos: the trees in the fog by Thomas Jefferson’s house.

Row 2:
1. The prettiest purple berries in Virginia.
2. Mike and I looking like dorky tourists at Thomas Jefferson’s house, with matching sweaters and all.
3. The brick bridge to Thomas Jefferson’s house.

Row 3:
1. The cutest little bengal tiger EVER. About 2.5 months old. I would have given anything to pet this little guy.
2. Tourist area of Thomas Jefferson’s house.
3. In Mexico, while we were on the cruise you could see the rain pouring under these clouds in the distance and I thought it was so cool.

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This was about 30 minutes before is started pouring.

The following picture on the left is the view from the ocean side balcony, and the view on the right is of the main part of the hotel from the other balcony.

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We are leaving tonight and we will probably have limited connectivity over the course of the next 3 weeks. We’ll try to answer emails and blog while we’re gone, but we’ll see!! Bye for now.

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So at this time in two weeks I will be sitting in the Long Beach airport awaiting a flight to…THE BAHAMAS!!! Now, mind you, as of this time last week I did not know that this was in my immediate future. JetBlue announced an All You Can Jet pass to fly unlimited for one month anywhere JetBlue flies. It took me all of 5 seconds to know that I FOR SURE wanted to buy the pass…but I knew convincing Mike would be a whole different story. Surprisingly, it only took him a few hours to think it over and we were doing it!! Believe me, no one was as surprised as I was! So, after we bought the pass we had to sit and figure out a plan for where we were going. We spent many many hours figuring out the best plan for maximizing our travel.

So the final plan is to head to the Bahamas, New York, train to Connecticut, Virginia, hopefully a car ride to DC, Florida, Costa Rica, Florida, Home. Phew. We are doing all of that in 3 weeks. It’s going to be a whirlwind, but I think it’s going to be one of the funnest vacations we’ve ever gone on. I think I’m most excited about Costa Rica. I’ve been wanting to go there for years, and checking out all the images on Google Earth have gotten me so excited! If any of you have any advice or recommendations for what we should do in any of these places I would REALLY appreciate it. Normally, when we go on a trip we’re heading to ONE place and I can fully research that one place, but it’s a little hard doing that with all these places!

Now, heading on a spontaneous 3 week vacation isn’t all fun and games. We have sooooo much to take care of before we can leave…including Mike still needing a passport(!!!!!!!!!). But we’re doing all we can to be super prepared and ready to go.

Trust me there are going to be a TON of pictures coming your way…speaking of pictures, if you live or are planning in being in one of the places we are visiting and would like to schedule a photo session, please email me at amanda@amandarae.com for information about pricing. We’d LOVE to shoot in new places.

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Last night, we both had the day off and I impulsively bought us tickets to see Rent at the Hollywood Bowl. I had seen the movie Rent and saw Rent on Broadway in New York a few years ago. Mike had never seen it. I had a feeling he wouldn’t like it very much, but the night was about the experience. We both had never been to the Hollywood Bowl which is just an incredible venue. Pretty much anyone that was there would agree that Nicole Scherzinger was absolutely incredible. That girl can sing and perform like none other. If she chooses to continue a career in Broadway I will see anything she is in, and pay whatever it takes to get there to see it! For real.

So, considering that we don’t get out much and don’t dress up much, we took a few minutes before we had to leave to take some pictures of each other since we were looking so lovely. And can I just say that I am now convinced that hiring and training Mike to be my second shooter was by far the best decision I have ever made. I’m going to go ahead and say these are my favorite pictures of me. And not that it was a contest or anything….he soooo kicked my butt that I’m not even going to show the pics I took of him!! Also, we found my new favorite place to take pictures. It’s not an easy to get to place, we had to climb under a fence to get to it, but I’ve had my eye on it for a long time and I’m so glad we finally went there!

Here is an iPhone pic from the Hollywood Bowl. Love the subtle mountain view in the back!

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