Havana good time

Getting to Cuba was no easy feat. We had to lie on our visas (to fly from the US you have to fall  into one of 12 categories, tourism is not one of them) and then almost missed our plane as they boarded 15 minutes early!

Our driver took us straight to our hotel where we met Uni our tour guide. He took us on a tour of the city in a 1949 Chevvy. The cars are either 40s/50s US or 70s Russian... we then had a quick lunch and stopped by the famous Hotel Nactional (Obama stayed there) for a Mojito. We went home for a quick nap then headed to Rio Mar a restaurant on the water recommended by our tour guide before our night out at an underground jazz club! Our cab home was hilarious, a 70s Russian car that had been pimped out with lights and a TV and just had Celebration in repeat!

Doug and I had a big walking tour around Old Havana the next morning before lunch and a tour of the cigar factory. All the cigars made there are hand made so we got to learn about the process and walk around and see it in action. They only get paid around $2 a day so we saw quite a few of the workers hold up signs and try to sell us cigars for cheaper than in the shops. We then went back to our hotel room for a swim before our night of salsa. We had a 1.5 hour Salsa lesson in old Havana, unfortunately Doug has 2 left feet! We then headed to another restaurant recommendation before going to a salsa club nearby. We were by far the worst in the room but still managed to have a great time.

On our final day in Cuba we spent the morning walking the Callejon de Hammel which is a community street art project. It was founded by a group of Santa Marias, a religion that combines African Voodoo and Roman Catholic beliefs adopted by the Nigerian slaves that were brought here to farm sugar cane. Speaking of sugar we went to the   Havana Club Rum factory next where we learnt how they make rum.  We then had lunch nearby and visited the Revolution Museum where we leant about all the changes to Cuba in the last 100 years.  We had back to the pool for a swim before our rooftop cocktail making class in the evening. We learnt the proper way to make Mojitos, Daiquiris and Caipirinha's enjoyed this far too much as we forgot to have dinner! We had back to our hotel for a glass of rum and a cigar to celebrate our last night in Cuba.

We are looking forward to the 36hr journey home (not) and are very sad to leave this beautiful city.

Until next holiday!

- K x

Another Day... Another Delay

Fort Lauderdale had been shut down due to massive storms so we spent about 4hrs at the very glamorous bar across the road from our tiny airport. We knew we'd miss our next flight so were all a bit stressed. It worked our for the best though and after going through many contingency plans and sprinting through airports we arrived in Orlando at around 2am.

We woke up early the next morning and very sleepily headed to Universal Studios. We went on all the rides and ran all day, it was fantastic. Alice and Richard then had to go home so after a few tears we said goodbye and Doug and I headed to the outlet mall for late night shopping before our early flight the next morning!

- K x

Bahama, come on pretty mama..

Unfortunately for us our layover in the glamorous Fort Lauderdale was about 6hrs. Also unfortunately none of us slept so the mood was tense to say the least. We decided to venture into town to see the beach and have some breakfast. Both the beach and breakfast were beyond average but it was nice to get some fresh air. 6hrs and an airport nap (oh and a 15 min flight delay as the pilot was hungry) later we jumped on a very small plane headed to a very small town Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas.

Looking down at that clear blue water all our grumpy-ness faded away. Our first hotel, Sandals, was only 15 mins at from the airport. We checked in and discovered that Doug and I had scored an upgrade to a beach front villa. We were all starving so had a quick lunch and sat poolside for the rest of the afternoon. After a late dinner we all played some croquet and shuffle board (the girls dominated) and had a great nights sleep.

We met for breakfast before the boys headed off for golf. Alice and I read by the pool until we had room service for lunch and headed back to the pool. It had started to rain so once the boys were back we all played cards in our room. Once the rain had cleared we attempted to play tennis before heading to the fancy Japanese restaurant for dinner. After dinner we decided to try our hand at darts... once again the girls destroyed the boys before we all went our separate ways. Doug and I ordered dessert (Cheesecake yum) and ate it in bed while watching a movie.

On our 3rd day Doug wasn't feeling great so we slept in and met Richard and Alice on the beach. It stared raining so we had lunch then hopped in the spa. Doug still wasn't feeling good (unsurprisingly the spa didn't help) he went and napped while we waited out the rain. The rain stopped but Doug was still asleep so I met Richard and Alice for a few games of tennis. We then had dinner on the beach together and played more darts and for the third time Alice and I won.

The next day was our last day at Sandals all inclusive so we made the most of it. We had a big brekky ave checked out but left our bags at the front desk and spent the whole day being cheeky, eating and drinking for free by the pool. We then headed to our 2 bedroom villa at Grand Isle. We had some drinks leftover so spent the night singing and dancing.

The next morning Richard and Alice walked to the supermarket to buy all of our supplies. We cooked up a big BBQ lunch and spent the rest of the day by the beach before the boys cooked up a big batch of spag bol for us. They then taught us how to play 500 so we were learning and playing all night.

Our final full day in the Bahamas was PIGGIE DAY! We got up early and were picked up and driven to the other side of the island where jetskis were waiting for us. We rode past a few small beaches and finally arrived at the pigs home. They swam straight up to us before we even had a chance to get off! We spent about 45 minutes feeding and playing with them before heading to a giant sand bank in the middle of the ocean. Afterwards we headed to the pool to cool down before a night of washing clothes and making pineapple daiquiris (great combination).

On our official last day the flight was at 3 so we didn't have to check out until 1 although unfortunately it was raining so we were housebound. We headed to the airport all excited but it had other plans for us...very long delays.

- K x

Viva Las Vegas!

A very early very quiet flight into Vegas definitely did not set the tone for our trip.

We arrived at Las Vegas airport and played the first slot machines we could find! We jumped into our Uber and arrived at our home for the night- Encore at the Wynn. We had amazing rooms overlooking the strip. Alice and I were starving so headed across the road for lunch only to get VERY lost trying to find our way back through a maze of casinos. We met the boys at rhe pool for a swim and sunbake for a few hours. After we were sun and watered out Alice and I decided to get a head start on the nights entertainment. David Guetta (famous DJ) was playing at the hottest club in town, XS, which happened to be at our hotel. We looked online and saw that tickets were $80 each. We decided to go down and see if it was worth it. Luckily for us a promoter was at the door and offered us free tickets, a free drink and fast entry on his list because we were guests of the hotel. We of course accepted and were very impressed with ourselves. We had tickets to Michael Jackson One a Cirque du Soleil show set to MJ music at 7 so had to quickly get changed and head off. The show was amazing with people moonwalking up the walls and doing amazing stunts. Just as we were ready to make our way to the nightclub Richard fell ill with sunstroke so we had to leave him behind in the hotel. The club was HUGE it even had a pool, we spent the night dancing away and didn't get home till past 3am!

The next day none of us were feeling great so we all extended our checkout until 1pm and slept. Alice found a cool restraunt to have breakfast/lunch in so we all ventured there before heading to the pool. We had a 10pm flight so an early dinner booking at STK which was incredible. I had the Steak Tartare (of course) and Crab Ravioli. We over budgeted for time so had about half an hour to try and "win" back our dinner... unsurprisingly we failed to do so.

We then headed to the airport ready for our next adventure...

- K x

Golden Gate-time

Another Easter,  another adventure...

After 14 long hours on a plane we had finally arrived at LAX. A quick hop, skip and 2hr flight delay later and we were in our friends apartment and falling in love their Havanese-Poodle, Yankee Poodle. We had a quick nap and then went exploring in their neighborhood, Nobb Hill.

At 5.30 we met Richard at work and headed to a bar nearby where Alice was waiting. We all had a few drinks the went to the baseball where we saw SFO Giants get defeated. A very loud ABBA Uber later Alice and I decided to get some sleep and cuddles with Yankee while the boys went out for one last drink.

We awoke early the next morning and headed off to Alcatraz. We both loved it and even got to hear about the most successful escape from one of the guards. We then headed to Fisherman's Wharf for a lobster roll and binget (my new obsession - fried pastry with icing sugar!). I then directed Doug to his favorite place in every city... China Town. Hegot his Sweet and Sour so was a happy boy. Union Square was next on the list as I wanted some Bikinis  (no luck) and Doug wanted some games to take away with us (Taboo and Yatzee were both hits). After all that walking (24km to be exact) we went home for a quick nap then met Richard at a bar near his work. I was the most dressed up girl there - no one in San Fran wears heels! We met a few of his mates and Alice came by for 1 before we headed to dinner (fried chicken burger and cocktails - yum) in the trendy part of town. We were all a bit over being out so cracked open a bottle of champagne and played the worst game of taboon in history while packing for our next destination.

Alarms were set with only 4.5hrs of sleep before we were off...

- K x