Category Archives: Surprise Detour

The final day!

So these last couple of days have been amazing, a truly wonderful way to get over jetlag. Basically we have been swimming, snorkelling and playing a LOT of pool. It has been a lovely time to quietly regroup after the HUGE adventure we have been on. Here are some fishies and one very shaky video (it is SO hard to snorkel and film at the same time – so I’m sorry for the Blair Witch Project effect!)

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Aside from the local aquatic life the thing we have enjoyed the most have been the sunsets. We are heading home with hundreds and hundreds of beautiful sunset photos!

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So tomorrow we are up well before dawn to travel two hours by van then 3 hours by plane where we will once again be on home turf! It isn’t the last of our updates though, we still have a few wedding related things to share before we sign off for good.

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See you all  soon!

Chelsea & Theresa
x

Surprise Detour #2!

A couple of years ago, we were sitting in the car one hot sticky summer afternoon, stuck in Auckland traffic, and Chelsea said to me “If I could be anywhere right now, it would be Fiji, sitting on a beach with a book”. For the past two years I have been scrimping and saving from my opera contracts and squirreled my per diems from touring and managed to save some extra money without Chelsea’s knowledge so that I could surprise her with a couple of additions to our honeymoon. And this week I brought her to Nadi in Fiji, finally able to fulfil that wish of being on a tropical island.

So Sunday night, the evening of our six year anniversary, we bid a fond farewell to America and departed Los Angeles for Fiji.

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Our first day had rainy weather but we weren’t going to let that stop us from enjoying the island so we decided to try out some snorkelling as the water was still deliciously warm.

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We saw a couple of fish that are super cute and were very confident around us, I guess because they are so used to snorkelling humans  being around here. We reckon there will be even more fish once the weather clears up a bit.

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Despite the rainy day, our first evening turned into a beautiful sunset. And then jetlag hit us and we slept a full 12 hours! Not a bad place to get over jetlag though!IMG_20141029_213246

Yesterday we spent the morning reviewing all of our incredible wedding vendors. We basically just added to their 5 star reviews with more 5 star reviews because they are all 5 star people! [Below is our wedding planner, Michelle, with us on the day].

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Then with the weather still a little gray, we spent the rest of the day playing pool and ended the afternoon with the locals and other resort folk playing ‘Bula Bula Bingo’ where I won our money back and Chelsea won the jackpot! We treated ourselves to a couple of mocktails from our winnings and saved the rest for the next round of Bingo!

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This morning we woke up to the most beautiful sunrise and the sun shining warm on the sand. So we’re off to snorkel some more with the fish in the clear blue water.

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Not a bad final week of our honeymoon at all. So blessed.

Till next time,

Tx

Surprise trip detour #1

… Pation!!

So when Theresa and I were initially planning our wedding years ago, we went through every different type of wedding (big, small, church, beach, etc etc etc) and would inevitably end up in an argument because T’s family is big and mine is tiny, or the cost was crazy, or we couldn’t agree on some important detail and so on. For a while, talking about the wedding just meant arguing – which is strange because we don’t normally disagree that much. One day we were watching an episode of ‘The Office’, specifically Jim & Pam’s wedding, and in it the couple were having such a hard time that they ran away and eloped before returning to their friends for the party. I turned to Theresa and said “Let’s do that”. She agreed and from that moment on we stopped fighting about the wedding, a big weight was lifted off our shoulders and planning began to get fun.

And how did Jim & Pam get married?

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On a boat in Niagara falls.

So that was our plan for a really long time – elope in Canada, not tell anyone and just run away. But of course plans change, gay marriage went through for New York (where we were going to honeymoon) and we thought it might be a little lonely by ourselves. So that is why we invited our immediate family and best mates. On the night of our perfect Wedding Day, Theresa surprised me with this – for years she had been saving her per diems (daily food allowance) from work tours to secretly pay for a couple of extras on this trip beginning with a quick detour to where our plans all started!

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Wednesday we hopped on a plane to Toronto and Theresa drove us (on the wrong side of the road!) to Niagara and today, after a quick shopping run to find a cheap waterproof camera (thanks Target), we made that trip! “Does that mean there are photos of you both in ridiculous ponchos?” I hear you ask? Yes, yes it does.

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Also, see that little boat at the bottom of the falls?

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That’s where we went. This is what that looked like inside the haze…

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It felt like being caught in a huge heavy downpour. We got drenched. Most people ran undercover, we decided to embrace it and had the best time!

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We also made friends with the Captain and got a free second journey! He was a great guy although I doubt he would have been as awesome as our celebrant Annie!

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Niagara itself isn’t much to write home about, mostly casinos and ridiculous tourist traps but the Falls make the trip so worth it! Today we head into Toronto for 1 night with a short visit with the Kempthorne’s before we are back to our scheduled programming: Boston!

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Cx

PS – Yes, I did mention there were two surprise additions from Theresa (despite her agreeing to have no surprises on this trip). You’ll have to wait for the other one!

PPS – Happy International Stage Managers Day Friends!! Here is a double rainbow in your honour:

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