An 'All-Things-Beautiful'… Blog
Happy New Year loves! I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season and are ready to conquer the new decade! I closed out 2019 with my first solo trip since having my daughter; so I wanted to get in some quality Mommy-Iya time before I was off on my…
Waldorf Astoria Hotel Chicago was so generous in hosting us, I was dreaming up the most beautiful shoots in their courtyard ahead of time but the weather simply did not allow. I kid you not, the wind was blowing me away while I was getting rained on, SIGH! Insta-dreams aside, pulling into their courtyard really creates such a sense of tranquility and LUXURY. It suddenly gets so peaceful much like a cove.
My girls & I squeezed in a little getaway to Vegas a few weeks ago, after weeks of traveling for Suniya and 24/7 momming for Saira & myself, some pampering is exactly what we needed & man were we spoiled!! Caesar’s Palace hosted us in their newly renovated Palace Tower Premium Suite (+ attached Premium Studio) and not only was it luxurious… it was so huge!! A king bedroom, double queen bedroom, 4 bathrooms, walk in closets, dining room, living room, foyer.. seriously the works! We woke up to awesome views of the pool and Caesar’s Palace is conveniently located right in the middle of the strip making it easy to walk or cab it anywhere. The lazy girl in me especially loved having great nightlife right on the property because I was able to head back to the room so easily when my feet were killing at Omnia hahah grandma life! We actually didn’t leave the property as much as I thought we would at all — between the Forum Shops, restaurants, & nightlife, there was no reason to! I really do need to come back this summer to see Mariah Carey at the Colosseum, so bummed she was on hiatus during my visit!
Maui is one of my husband & my favorite destinations in the world. Our first trip in 2014 was our most enjoyable vacation we’ve ever taken & we’ve been dreaming of visiting again ever since! Since moving to LA almost two years ago, we’ve been looking for any excuse to go since it’s such a short flight from here and we finally pulled the trigger for a quick weekend getaway in October for my 30th birthday. This post is SO long overdue but I got pregnant soon after and life has been a whirlwind ever since! Before our lives get flipped completely upside down in 2017 (in the best way possible!), I’m making it a point to backtrack and get all of my remaining 2016 travels up on the blog! *ahem* Can’t fall behind while I’m brainstorming babymoon destinations! 😉
We stayed in the southwest side of the island during both visits – Kihei during our first trip and Wailea this past October. Kihei is a working/beach town so this time around I wanted a more luxurious experience in the gorgeous resort community of Wailea – just south of Kihei. Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea was so generous to host us for my birthday and it was such a wonderful quick trip! I’ve stayed at Four Seasons Resorts around the world and this is the first hotel I’ve experienced with staff that will remember your name every time!
They were undergoing some renovations during our stay and they let us know beforehand that there might be some noise but we honestly didn’t see or hear a thing. I do believe that their renovations are now complete anyways! The friendly staff welcomed us with tropical drinks and fresh leis before we were quickly transferred to our ocean-view room – where we had even more treats waiting for us! We had a huge fruit and cheese platter that we seriously munched on all weekend lol at one point we were scooping cheese with more cheese it was so good haha!
Since our trip this time was for such a short weekend, we stayed at the resort most of our time (aside from one Road to Hana day of course!). The property is huge and restaurants are so good so if you’re not in the mood to explore the island, there is more than enough to do at the hotel! We had my birthday dinner at Ferraro’s and the food was amazing of course but what I loved most was the atmosphere. It’s located outside and oceanfront so the temperature, sounds, and fresh air are so relaxing! It was already past sunset by the time we made it down for dinner but even without the views, I was loving all the fresh Hawaiian air and the sounds of crashing waves.
The beach and reef are spectacular so even though the Four Seasons has amazing pools, you have to take the couple steps down to the beach. We spent our first afternoon strolling along the shore and playing in the water. The next day we loved our time at the adults-only pool and lounging in our cabana. The friendly service was so quick and the drinks were awesome!
A huge thank you to my husband for such a great birthday while I was moping about turning 30 lol! & to Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea for the lovely stay! Let’s get on with the photos..!
Happy Fri-yay! Exactly two weeks ago I was stepping off of a plane in the northern-most city in the United States, located less than 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle – Fairbanks, Alaska! One of my husband’s dreams has been to see the Aurora Borealis, aka the Northern Lights, and its found its way onto my bucketlist as well. Periodically from time to time I check fares to Iceland and Norway with our Aurora dreams in mind but fares are always a bit pricey or we simply don’t have the time, especially now that we live on the West Coast crossing the pond aint so quick or easy! I randomly saw a great fare to Anchorage, Alaska from LA and I started to get curious and got my Google on. Can you see the Northern Lights in Anchorage? Oh, faintly? Well, where in Alaska can I get good viewings? Fairbanks! <– That was my train of Googling & internal thoughts. Turns out Fairbanks is an amazing place to catch the Aurora Borealis as it lies within the Aurora Oval. Places within the Oval will have viewings directly overhead – from further away you can view them closer to the horizon. Apparently there were gorgeous sightings in the horizon from our connecting flight from Seattle but of course we were sitting on the opposite side of the plane, womp womp. To make a long, bummer of a story short, the entire weekend was too cloudy to see anything and although I was so disappointed over it we seized our time and had an amazing weekend getaway together! Fairbanks is so beautiful and peaceful we had an amazing time just driving around, flying our 3dr Solo drone, and filming. Apparently Alaskans like to shoot drones out of the sky lol.. luckily our bird made it home safe and sound!