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  • Category: beach

    • beautiful british columbia

      Posted at 9:19 am by jasminedesirees, on July 18, 2016

      A few months back, I was lucky enough to make a trip to northern B.C. to visit my best friend. Unfortunately, it was for sad family reasons, but I’m glad I could be there for her, and also see this amazing place for myself, since she has been trying to get me to visit for years.

      british columbia

      british columbia

      DSC_8754

      It’s not an easy place to get to though. I flew from Phoenix to Seattle, Seattle to Bellingham, where I was picked up by her and her husband. We drove across the border into the GWN, and spent the night at her mom’s house in Fort Langley, B.C.

      DSC_8756

      DSC_8755

      The next morning, we were up bright and early to walk around Fort Langley a little bit (it’s such a neat little town, their town hall is used in a lot of movies and TV shows, incuding Once Upon a Time and Supernatural), and eat amazing scones from Blacksmith Bakery.

      british columbia

      british columbia

      Eventually we got ourselves in the car, stopped at Timmy’s for provisions, and then again at the grocery store to get Canadian necessities (read: Cheezies, Hickory Sticks, Ketchup Chips, Sour Soothers, Dill Pickle Dip, Pizza Pops, Dad’s Goodie Rings) to keep us alive through the weekend, and set off.

      british columbia

      british columbia

      DSC_8753

      From Fort Langley, we drove into Vancouver, where we caught the first of two ferries. I was kind of nervous about the ferries because I got motion sickness on a ferry from Cozumel a few years back, but I was quickly distracted by the fact that they served Nanaimo bars at the restaurant. And also they had a White Spot, which is kind of a famous Canadian burger place, my mom has been telling me about it for years, but I had never been.

      british columbia

      british columbia

      british columbia

      british columbia

      After the first ferry, it was about an hour and a half drive to the next ferry stop, another hour long ferry ride, and then about another hour until we finally arrived in Lund.

      I didn’t really mind the long journey though, because being with your best friend and a hydro-flask of craft beer and all the Canadian goodies you could eat against the backdrop of the ocean and the Rocky Mountains is kind of the best way to spend a Friday afternoon.

      british columbia

      british columbia

      british columbia

      Lund is the cutest little town, right on the ocean, and the people there are very friendly. I would seriously move there tomorrow, if I could find a job.

      Actually, I kind of have a job scoped out, the morning before we left we stopped in at Nancy’s Bakery, which is a really cute little restaurant that has amazing food, and even more amazing baking. I had one of their butter tarts, and almost cried, it was that good. It’s right along the beach, and I think baking all day with that view would be kind of unbeatable.

      british columbia

      DSC_8775

      DSC_8772

      DSC_8771

      It was a very quick trip, I flew out Thursday night, and back to PHX Monday morning (but not before making a stop at BP’s for their spicy pierogi pizza), but I was very glad I was able to make the trip.

      DSC_8770

      DSC_8769

      DSC_8768

      It was really nice to travel with her and see a new place, and it kind of got us inspired to take a trip somewhere together, maybe to the East Coast of Canada, since I’ve never been further East than Toronto.

      DSC_8761

      DSC_8759

      DSC_8757

      I would also like to add, after reading through this post again, that I wasn’t just there for the food. I really only get back to Canada once every year or two if I’m lucky, and ALL my favourite foods are there, so I don’t feel bad about eating all the things whenever I have the chance, since it happens so rarely.

      DSC_8752

      DSC_8749

      Posted in B.C., beach, Canada, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged B.C., british columbia, Canada, ferries, Lund, travel, Vancouver
    • counting waves

      Posted at 12:15 pm by jasminedesirees, on June 23, 2016

      I’m back in AZ, and it is ungodly hot. It was 100 degrees in my bedroom last night, way too hot and sticky to sleep.

      So I just sprawled out underneath the fan and watched this video over and over again. I don’t get insomnia very often, but when I do, surfing videos are my favourite thing.

      It was around the twelfth time through when I finally passed out.

      Waimea Bay Surfing Drone Video. from Makai Creative on Vimeo.

      Posted in beach, Hawaii, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Hawaii, honolulu, insomnia, surfing, waimea bay
    • christmas in mazatlan

      Posted at 10:24 am by jasminedesirees, on January 27, 2016

      I’m only a month late, but still wanted to share some snaps from the holidays in Mazatlan. We were actually just going to be in the Bay with D’s family, which I was kind of devastated about since I’ve never not been with my family for Christmas, but we ended up deciding to go last minute (as in Christmas Eve) and flew out on Boxing Day.

      We’ve been going to Mazatlan since I was little, my grandpa has a house there, and it’s still one of my favourite places. Most of my fondest childhood memories happened there, so it’s fun to go back now and see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same, and it’s especially fun being there with my niece and nephew.

      DSC_8529

      DSC_8530

      DSC_8532

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      DSC_8535

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      mazatlan mexico

      Dmazatlan mexico

      Posted in beach, Mexico, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged beach, Christmas, family, mazatlan, mexico
    • thousand steps beach

      Posted at 11:20 am by jasminedesirees, on September 15, 2015

      We were in L.A. last weekend for a birthday party and visiting some of The Boy’s family. On Sunday morning we got up early (we left Long Beach at 5:30 am, nobody knows why) and drove to Laguna to Thousand Steps Beach.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      We were there for sunrise, it was pretty empty except for a few people doing yoga and some surfers and boogie boarders. I think it gets pretty busy there later on so it was nice to chill out and enjoy the quiet.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      Thousand steps is a little misleading, it’s probably not even a quarter of that, so I wore my runners and brought a bottle of water, expecting a treacherous climb, but I wasn’t worried after Pura Lempuyang last year. That actually was 1,700 steps, and that was only once you were at the very top. So this wasn’t quite the workout I was expecting.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      We walked down the beach to the end to watch the surfers and check out the tide pools, they are man made, with cement around them, and they are tucked away in the back corner of the beach. It’s such a great idea, I’m surprised there aren’t more around.

      The whole cove around the beach is filled with the most amazing houses, it would be the best view to wake up to every day.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      Before we left, we walked down to the other end of the beach to check it out, and we saw a viking, Deadpool, and some kind of princess fighting with the cops because they had slept on the beach (it was Long Beach Comic Con last weekend).

      They were yelling, and I’m pretty sure the viking got arrested, but it was pretty hard to take his righteous indignation seriously when he was wearing a horned helmet and fur vest.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      After the beach we grabbed breakfast at a little restaurant with a beach view in Laguna, and then headed for home. We ended up driving down the PCH instead, and added an extra 45 minutes to our drive, but it was worth it for the views, and to be by the ocean for a little bit longer.

      We basically decided then and there that we don’t care where we go after Arizona, but it needs to be near the sea.

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      thousand steps beach

      Posted in beach, California, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 2 Comments | Tagged beaches, California, hiking, pura lempuyang, thousand steps beach, tide pools
    • el nido, palawan

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 14, 2015

      After a few days in Manila, we took a one hour flight across to the island of Palawan. It was a night flight, and we arrived in Puerto Princessa around 9pm.

      We’d been told repeatedly not to take a night bus in the Philippines, because the roads are bad, and we were even told that people had been robbed on them before, but we only had a few days left in the Philippines, and if we wanted to go diving in Coron (which we did) we had to take night buses so we didn’t spend our days traveling, so we decided to go for it.

      DSC_5198

      At the Puerto Princessa airport, we hopped in a “tricycle”, the Philippine equivalent of a Tuk Tuk, and got a ride to the bus station. There was a full sized bus leaving for El Nido an hour later, so we grabbed some snacks and settled in to wait. They also have 12 passenger vans running, but we figured a big bus was probably safer, even though it was a longer ride.

      It was a 6 hour bus ride, but we slept the entire time, even though they were showing Jurassic Park on VHS at the front of the bus, so I desperately wanted to stay awake. We arrived in El Nido around 3 in the morning, and luckily there was a tricycle waiting at the bus stop.

      DSC_5199

      We had a room booked at a hostel in town, but we had no idea where it was, and neither did our driver, so we had to creep around the dark streets until we found somewhere with wi-fi so we could look it up.

      We eventually got checked in, and finally got to bed around 4am. The next morning was a bit of a struggle, because we were up bright and early to do an island tour around El Nido before we left for Coron the next day.

      DSC_5202

      We only spent two nights in El Nido, but it was seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We walked down the street to get to the ocean to leave for our tour that morning, and as we rounded the corner and saw the beach, I actually gasped. It is literally breathtaking.

      Even though El Nido was a bit of a trek to get to, it was so, so worth the trip. And even though we were warned over and over again not to take night buses, we had a great experience, and the extra time we gained allowed us to see as much of the Philippines as we possibly could.

      DSC_5203

      Posted in beach, Philippines, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged el nido, manila, palawan, philippines, travel
    • gili trawangan

      Posted at 9:51 am by jasminedesirees, on December 16, 2014

      From Amed, we took a boat across to Gili Trawangan, the most populated of the Gili Islands. We bought our ticket the day before, they are sold all over in Amed, and just showed up that morning to get on the boat. It was about $5 USD per person.

      The boat ride was about an hour, and would have been lovely except for the wind. The waves were massive, and everyone on board was getting soaked. The woman sitting right in front of me had a brand new baby, he couldn’t have been more than a week old, and they were both getting drenched so we used our towels to make them a fort.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      We didn’t have a place to stay booked on the island because most of the smaller homestays don’t have an online presence, but we found a cheap, clean room within a few minutes just by walking around and checking a few places out.

      The very first thing we did once we dropped off our stuff was make a bee-line for the fruit smoothie carts, it was similar to Sanur in that you could get almost any kind of fruit smoothie for about $1 USD.

      I got mango and dragonfruit, and just laid on the beach pinching myself. These photos have not been edited or filtered, that’s just what colour the water is.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      There are no cars on Gili T, just carts pulled by donkeys, so it’s a lot of walking, but the island is so small that it doesn’t matter. There are bikes for rent all over the place, and you can ride around the whole island in like an hour and a half.

      The night of D’s birthday we took a donkey to the other side of the island to the Ombok Sunset resort to see the sunset, which is where the swing-set in the water is.

      There were a bunch of people lined up to get their picture taken so I kind of didn’t want to do it, but then a cloud came and covered the sun so everyone thought that was the end and started leaving, and right then the sun popped back out, and the sky was gorgeous.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      The donkey carts aren’t made for very big people, D kept hitting his head every time the donkey took a step, so we just ended up walking back.

      The main area in Gili T where the boats drop everyone off is actually pretty crowded, we were there in late October, coming up on the rainy season, and still it was very busy.

      There are lots of good restaurants on that side (try the butterfish!), and if you walk down to the Ombok (there are 2 on the island) on that side they show movies on the beach every night, and it’s pretty much perfect.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      But if you leave the main area, and head either way on the island, it’s a lot more chill, with some awesome beach bars, and a much quieter vibe.

      We had four days on Gili T, and honestly, that was enough for me. It really was so busy, and the diving wasn’t that great. I kept hearing that it was amazing, but then I was told that a lot of the people diving in Gili T are just getting certified, and so they don’t really have anything to compare it to, so of course they think it’s amazing.

      It definitely had nothing on Flores.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      I was talking to someone a few days ago who had been to Gili T 20 years ago, and he was telling me how unpopulated it was, how there was only 3 restaurants on the whole island, and they shared a generator, so only one of them would be open on any given night. I wish I could have visited back then.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      I would love to go back to the Gili’s though, there are two other islands, Gili Air and Gili Meno, which are much less busy, and more laid back, so that will be my next visit.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      One word of caution though, the Gili’s get their power from Lombok, so power outages there are not unusual, and wi-fi is kind of terrible, which is fine because that’s not why you are going to Gili anyway, but just something to be aware of.

      gili trawangan
      gili trawangan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged beach, Gili Islands, Gili T, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, island, scuba
    • nusa lembongan

      Posted at 12:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on December 1, 2014

      The island of Nusa Lembongan is about a 45 minute boat ride from Bali. We only went there for the day, and spent the whole time on the moped looking at all of the amazing beaches, including Dream Beach, and also took a trip over to Nusa Ceningan, a neighbouring island that is accessible by a slightly terrifying bridge.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      We took a boat there from Sanur, and got a magnificent deal because of our amazing haggling skills (or maybe they just wanted to fill up the boat) but we paid 600,000 rupiah total, round trip for both of us, when they were trying to charge us 500,000 rupiah each initially.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Neither of the islands are very big, one day is lots of time to cruise around to all of them, there are some mangroves up in the northern part, and lots of beaches in the south. Nusa Lembongan is by far the more developed of the two islands. Nusa Ceningan was gorgeous, but pretty rustic, and the time driving those roads on a moped is not something I’ll soon forget.

      I even took a 20 minute GoPro video of the experience because was pretty sure we were going to end up driving into the ocean, and I wanted there to be evidence to help find our bodies.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      There are a lot of seaweed farmers on both islands, so you see large tarps with piles of seaweed drying in the sun on the side of the road. On the far side of Nusa Ceningan there is a little cove with a beautiful hotel called Secret Beach. We stopped in there for a swim in their pool and an iced coffee, and had the whole place to ourselves.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Nusa Lembongan had lots of hotels and dive shops. We didn’t end up diving there the first time we went, but we went back about a month later in search of the Mola Mola. We didn’t see one, but we did a dive at Manta Bay, which was a bit murky and we didn’t see much, and also at a spot called the Mangroves, which was fantastic.

      The diving itself wasn’t that great because the current was pushing you so fast that you could barely see anything, but it was so much fun, like a 35 minute underwater rollercoaster ride, that I pestered our dive guide to see if we could do it again.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      I’m glad we got to go back and spend a few days there, because I was devastated when it was time to leave after our first visit. If you have time when you’re in Bali, definitely make the trip over to Nusa Lembongan.

      There are a ton of hotels and little homestays, we just showed up and found somewhere to stay there, since lots of the smaller, cheaper places don’t have an online presence.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan7
      nusa lembongan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, nusa ceningan, nusa lembongan, scuba diving
    • dream beach

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 26, 2014

      Nusa Lembongan will have its own post with more pictures from the whole island, but Dream Beach has a special place in my heart, and deserves its own post.

      This place is absolutely breathtaking, and more than makes up for the bumpy, treacherous moped ride to get out there.

      You can hang out at the hotel pool for the whole day for $5.00, or relax on the beach. I would avoid eating at the hotel restaurant, the food was not very good, but if you just want somewhere to hang out, enjoy the view and a few drinks, it’s kind of unbeatable.

      dream beach nusa lembongan

      dream beach nusa lembongan

      dream beach nusa lembongan

      Dream beach nusa lembongan

      dream beach nusa lembongan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged beach, dream beach, Indonesia, nusa lembongan, travel
    • most eastern point in australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 13, 2014

      At the very end of the trail past Watego’s Beach, Clarke’s Beach, and the Lighthouse in Byron Bay, is the most Eastern point of the Australian mainland.

      Just a few pictures, because the view is gorgeous, and it seemed like a fitting end to my posts about our amazing time in Australia.

      Also, a few intrepid souls had trekked all the way up there to put love locks on the fence, so that seemed to deserve some recognition.

      Who are these people constantly carrying locks around with them in case the opportunity to declare their unbreakable bond to the world via landmark vandalism presents itself? And why can’t one of them be in love with me?

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      most eastern point of australia

      Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged Australia, beach, eastern point, love locks, travel
    • wategos beach: australia

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on November 11, 2014

      During our weeks in Byron Bay we would walk the 2+ kilometers up the lighthouse path almost every day. We had sold our car by then, and we were eating $5 Domino’s pizzas for supper most nights, so it seemed like kind of a smart move to get as much exercise as possible.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      The views are amazing, there are benches along the viewpoints so you can sit and watch the surfers, and we were there during whale season so we hung out up there for hours trying to spot whales and dolphins.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      The first time we made the trip, I was so enchanted by the view of Watego’s beach that I didn’t see the stair in front of me, and I stubbed my toe so hard that I thought it was broken.

      After several long minutes of fuming and general hatred toward the entire universe, I was able to keep walking, but about 5 steps later I was looking out at the beach again and I almost stepped on a big lizard.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      I can’t remember what they are called, but I was told by the guy at the Billabong Sanctuary that they have one of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom and that one bite could easily take off a good chunk of finger or toe.

      I saw it just in the nick of time, and almost flung myself over the cliff trying to avoid stepping on it. I managed to keep my gaze firmly on my feet after that.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, to Watego’s, I was hot, sweaty, injured and grumpy. But the beach was so beautiful that it didn’t take me long to get over it.

      On our last trip to Watego’s before we left, we happened to have front row seats to a wedding with the cutest flowergirl, and the most epic balloon in the history of the world, so I had to throw in a picture of her just to share the joy.

      watego's beach

      watego's beach

      Posted in Australia, beach, travel | 1 Comment | Tagged Australia, beach, byron bay, travel, wategos
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