Bali Weekend

Matt and I went on a quick getaway together to Bali.  The weather was gorgeous on the flight over and we got an amazing view of Mt. Bromo and Semeru behind it. The steam was very visible from Bromo's crater.

As usual, first stop was Don Juan's, whose food still rivals anything we ate in Texas.

It was a really interesting day to sit at the window because we had front row seats to a funeral procession. It was the perfect way to watch without being an obvious gawker.  The men carried the casket around Bemo Square 3 times, then put it in a waiting van.

Afterward, everyone hopped on their motorbikes to follow the procession to either a cemetery or crematorium.

Matt and I stayed at Hotel Tugu this time and it was amazing.  It's part museum and part hotel.  Each room is unique and the one we had for the weekend was its own villa with a fishpond inside and out.

I loved having a fishpond in the bathroom!

Even the welcome drinks were beautiful.

When I saw our outdoor fish pond, my first thought was that I would need some fish food.  They kindly left me a huge jar for the weekend and I fed every bit of it to all my hungry friends over the course of the weekend!

We had eaten at Ji upstairs before so I was already excited just remembering their fantastic sushi.

The lobby was really interesting at night!

We ate most all of our meals at Ji.  It was hard to beat a view like this with my morning coffee.

We even had some showers and a rainbow!

Matt surfed, I relaxed, and we finally wandered down the beach to La Brisa for some lunch.

We made a stop at Spring Spa and made sure we were finished before the sunset.  There is something so magical about a Balinese sunset.

Back up at Ji to enjoy the afterglow and some amazing wine. The lovely staff knew Matt liked and sourced it especially for him!

Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous. Not a soul on the beach except for the surfers. Things were just reopening after the lockdown and it was the quietest we'd ever seen Batu Bolong beach.

Another lovely thing about Bali...you can just call and someone from a clinic will drop by the hotel to do your antigen test a few hours before your flight. It really couldn't be easier!

It was quiet and relaxing and so much fun to do our favorite things in Canggu and just spend some time together. We flew out after lunch and made it home just in time for dinner with the kids, who told us we were welcome to go to Bali any weekend we wanted! 

The Quarantine Life

Departure day is always exciting and sad.  We had a wonderful summer and we were excited to head back to our home and to Matt, but goodbyes are so hard.  We took solace in our traditional last Tex-Mex meal at Mama Juanita's though!

International travel during Covid has never been fun but this particular part is especially annoying.  After we went through the process of checking in, Qatar airlines had to contact someone in Jakarta to verify our visas by email.  Even though we knew to expect this and arrived over 3 hours early for our flight, sitting around in the check in area for an hour was still excruciatingly slow. Thank goodness for our bacon cooler that doubled as a bench!

Goodbye, Houston! Thanks for a wonderful summer!

Hello, Jakarta! Ready to start year 5!

Let's Vaccine!

The process was so different at the airport since we were headed to quarantine instead of home. It was eerily quiet and we had to meet several different representatives to show our vaccines and hotel arrangements. Our driver met us but was only able to take our excess luggage home. But we were still happy to see his big smile as usual and tell him a quick hello! A taxi took us to quarantine.

We arrived at the Shangri-La and were ushered in a back door into a side room where we got our first PCR test and checked into the hotel.  Then we took the designated quarantine elevator to our connecting rooms for the week.  The exercise bike was a very welcome sight!

My room, where I hid out all day while the kids did school.

I had a 1,000 piece puzzle to occupy some time.

I also had a suitcase from home with some workout gear so I could stay active each day.

I also read two books and started my first adult paint by number.  It was surprisingly fun and satisfying!

The living room was such a wonderful area for us to eat and play.

It was also Ben's school area so it was his domain during the day. So nice for the kids to attend school during daylight hours again! And the jet lag was so much easier because of our crazy night schedule.

We found a lot of creative ways to pass the other hours during the day.  Hide and seek was pretty fun, until we'd used up all the hiding spots and they got too easy to find.  Then we started closing the curtains and playing in the dark...it was so much fun!

We also played with rubber darts a LOT.  Big hotel windows are perfect for suction darts!

Alex did his school in the boys' bedroom.  It was great having separate rooms for them to concentrate.

Our meals were delivered in the hallways three times a day.  Scheduling them was quite an issue because there was a 2-hour window for each meal and it took several days to convince everyone that we really needed our breakfast at 7am before school. We were alone on the floor for a few days until someone moved in directly across the hall.

Meals were pretty hit or miss.  Our only choice was Asian or Western, but we would have no idea what was arriving.  I did learn quickly that every meal would be loaded with carbs, though.  Tons of pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread.  Usually two meat options.  Some, like this one, were delicious.

Some meals were a little less appetizing! Thankfully we had PB&J and lots of snacks from Texas.

We did order room service twice just to get exactly what we wanted and enjoy something tasty.

I washed our one set of real silverware and our few plates in the sink every day.

I finished the puzzle on our last full day! Just in time to take it apart and pack it up.

Our view was beautiful at night and it was pretty fun just watching life happen below us all day.

We had PCR tests again on day 7 and got the results early on day 8.  Suddenly we were just regular hotel guests and were able to walk out and check out at the front desk. It felt weird after feeling like prisoners all week! But I have to say that our week was memorable and fun and I loved the time we spent together. 

We got home on Saturday and had a happy reunion with Matt. No better place to kick off another year than at Union, where our family of four still had to sit at two separate tables..ha!  Looking forward to another great year in Indonesia.