Bermuda, September 2019

Fiji, June 2019 GoPro Travel Video

In the 1998 Jim Carrey tearjerker The Truman Show, the titular character yearns ambitiously for an exotic destination as far away as one can possibly travel. In planning our honeymoon, my wife and I decided we should be equally ambitious. The day after our fairytale ceremony in Seattle, we skipped down to LA where we caught our 11-hour flight to Nadi, Fiji. On the day we arrived, it rained nearly all day. This was ideal as 1) we planned to be resting most of the day 2) it was our only day staying inland and thus we lost no beach time, 3) we were able to visit the Garden of the Sleeping Giant on the edge of Koroyanitu National Park, which blossoms into a rich rainforest when there’s moisture in the air. The next day, we embarked via 5-hour ferry bound for the Blue Lagoon Resort on the island of Nacula among the distant chain of Fijian islands known as the Yasawa. Along the way we passed the ominous Skull Island (seen in the video) as well as some several dozen others. Of the 330-odd islands that make up modern Fiji, I think we picked the best with Nacula. With no roads, no stores, and only two tastefully integrated resorts, it was the ideal representation of a remote tropical getaway. At Blue Lagoon, we filled active days snorkeling among the lush coral reef, hiking Neisau Peak, kayaking, paddleboarding, swimming, and yoga on the beach. Several days later we concluded our trip back near Nadi at the Denarau Sheraton, arriving by seaplane operated Turtle Airways. There, we played volleyball, relaxed on the beach, and got unexpectedly ushered into an impromptu kava ceremony that we can check off the bucket list and never have to sit through again.

New Orleans/Gulf Coast, December 2018 GoPro Travel Video

I’ve always said, you don’t need more than 24 hours in New Orleans to know whether you’ll like it or not. The Gulf Coast cultural hub rose to notoriety as the home base of America’s first pirate Jean Lafitte of the 1700s, and the debauchery and bacchanal that accompanies piracy is in no short supply in NOLA. Aside from housing Lafitte’s blacksmith bar (touted as the oldest in the U.S.) the rest of Bourbon Street is like an 18th Century version of the Las Vegas strip. Our time in the Big Easy took us from catching beads on the French Quarter to riding the rails of the streetcar out to City Park and an Airbnb with heated pool in the Bywater neighborhood. We took a tour through the bayou encountering no alligators but did meet the Cajun Encounters swamp hog Oreo, baited with beef franks in an ethically questionable arrangement. After a couple days in NOLA, we rented a car and drove east, past Biloxi to Ocean Springs, Mississippi. I was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of ethnic restaurants, friendly people, and not a confederate flag in sight. My first and perhaps only experience with Mississippi gets two thumbs up thanks to Ocean Springs.