The American Riviera

Mountains running alongside the ocean. Spanish architecture with a cool ocean breeze. Wine and Mexican food. No you’re not in heaven but close. It's Santa Barbara, California. 

Santa Barbara is known as the American Riviera for its expansive views of the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It’s 90 miles north of Los Angeles which means you escape the insanity that is L.A. (no offense L.A.). It's the type of place that feels comfortable and peaceful. 

When we visit we take advantage of the great wine in Santa Ynez Valley at over 120+ wineries (mostly family owned) or down to the Funk Zone off of State Street in the heart of the city. And can we talk about the Mexican food? If you're looking for a bite to eat, I know we live in Singapore where good Mexican food is non-existent but Los Arroyos was our favorite and La Super-Rica is a fan favorite (but we’ve never been there so can’t give you our reviews.) 

If you’re looking for a place to take a siesta after all of that food and wine, we loved the style and views from the Canary Hotel and the customer service of the best bellmen/valets at the Fess Parker.

Oh yes we forgot to mention, our trip to Santa Barbara was for more than a holiday. It was to get married. Thank you to our friends and family for traveling from 6 different countries and 16 different states to celebrate with us at some of Santa Barbara’s gems including Roblar Winery, the Wine Cask Restaurant, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church and The Natural History Museum of Santa Barbara Sea Center. The amazing team at Magnolia Event Design made a perfect weekend a reality. 

We always sign off with ‘Happy Trails’ or ‘Until Then’ but this time we have to say…

The Best Is Yet To Come, 

Amy & Raegen 

PS - Thanks to Joe Pro SB and Daniel Chae for this fantastic highlight reel. 

Throwing a Line to the Coral Reefs

Amy and I recently took part in a wonderful research project to facilitate coral growth in the Maldives.  

While much has been said in the press about the global impact of this year’s El Nino weather, little is said on its impact on the coral reefs.  In the El Nino year of 1998 nearly 90% of the coral in the Maldives was either damaged or killed due to the sustained increased in the local water temperature.  

Gili Lankanfushi is the first place in Maldives that has implement a reef rehabilitation project utilizing living coral fragments implanted into a rope. This project is rightly called The Coral Lines Project. Once implanted with coral the ropes are put into an underwater “nursery” for up to 3 years and then are transplanted back to the reef on bare areas that once contained coral. Being that I am an avid water lover and spent my fare share of time over a reef, we thought this would be a great opportunity to give back.

A short video of our Coral Lines Project experience 

While this sounds like a really complex science experience Josie, the on-site marine biologist, walked us rookies through the entire process.  We started with snorkeling over the nursery. Despite the cloudy water and rain clouds, this gave us a better understanding of the entire process.  From there Josie took a piece of coral that had broken from the main reef to use as our fragments to implant.  

We then cut the coral into 56 small pieces and then proceeded to insert these in the rope.  Once the fragments were in the rope we had to measure all the pieces. These pieces will be measured every 3 months to track their growth.  These quarterly observations can be found on the project's website where you can watch the coral grow.  The final step in the process is to “plant” these in the nursery and hope for the best.

We look forward to watching our coral grow and hope that we can visit the reef that we helped grow. Click here to join us in watching our coral grow in the nursery.  If you would like to donate a coral line (or 5) you can visit the Coral Lines Project's website.

Until then,

Rhs & Amy

Leaving Our Mark on the Little Red Dot

It has been said that you should leave something better than you found it. We couldn’t agree more as it relates to our temporary homeland of Singapore.

The American Association of Singapore arranged a campaign to plant 50 trees (named in honor of the 50 states and to tie in with Singapore’s 50^th birthday) plus one tree (for Singapore.) We jumped at the chance to leave a little piece of legacy and sponsor three trees on behalf of our families. One for Nevada for Amy’s family, one in Oklahoma for Raegen’s family and one for Arizona where Amy and Raegen met and consider home (for now).

On a grossly hazy Saturday morning, our friend Ms. J. Patton* (whose blog can be found here) and I headed out to the Woodlands Park Connector where we put the final touches on our trees which are planted along a running path providing years of shade and some much needed clean air to Singapore.

Thanks to the American Association for allowing us to leave the little red dot better than we found it.

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen 


*Sneaky....not really her most recent name 

Booze Free in Brunei

When we learned that our time in Singapore was limited, we came up with a list of the places we hadn’t visited yet on this side of the world that we wouldn’t likely travel all the way back for. Sydney, Melbourne – we would venture back for that. Myanmar (Burma), Brunei, Bali, the beaches of the Philippines were a few on a very long list of places that we were much more likely to visit with Singapore as a home base.

After doing some research, the most logical choice for one of our last few weekends left in Singapore was Brunei. It’s a short flight on a Friday night after work and we were able to be back in Singapore by noon on Sunday.

Brunei is a small country with a population of 413,000 which shares the island of Borneo, with Malaysia and Indonesia. According to the BBC, Brunei, which gained independence in 1984, has one of the world's highest standards of living thanks to its bountiful oil and gas reserves. Although you can certainly see the discrepancy between the working class and the upper echelon.

The water village in the shadows of one of the palaces

The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, is one of the world's longest-reigning and few remaining absolute monarchs. He was crowned in August 1968, is one of the world's richest individuals. (And oddly enough has a giant property around the corner from Brother B in Las Vegas. Small world!)

Not a bad "starter" house for a 34 year old prince!

In 2014,  Brunei became the first East Asian country to adopt Islamic sharia law despite widespread international condemnation. In all fairness, I had girlfriends travel to the country alone and the Bruneians are quite welcoming to tourists. These were some of the friendliest people we’ve met in our travels. American and UK passport holders do not need a visa to enter the country.  Just behave yourselves and do not expect to find any beer, ANYWHERE!

The water village

Because the country is under sharia law, smoking is illegal and alcohol is not available/served anywhere. A perfect spot for a post-wedding detox!

Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

We had a great tour guide Razie and driver Helmi from Borneo Trekker. They were students studying hospitality and tourism at a local trade school. They showed us some of the magnificent mosques, one of the Sultan’s Palaces (from the outside of course), as well as a cruise down the river through the mangroves to see the wildlife such as the proboscis and leaf monkeys and crocodiles. We didn’t have time to venture out to the rainforest which is 3/5th of the country and is supposed to be a great place to explore and stay overnight.  We spent some time in a water village with Razie’s aunt and cousin (everyone called him superman) who was a professional body builder, boat fleet owner/driver, gym owner and all around entrepreneur.

Superman's boat business (he's the guy driving) in the mangroves

One of our favorite parts of every holiday is the food. We went to the big night market where we had kebabs (anyone who knows Raegen is not surprised by this), fried bananas, Sambal Nasi Katok, fresh coconut juice and honey BBQ chicken. Earlier in the day we tried Ambuyat, which is the national dish of Brunei. It’s a starchy dish with a sticky but bland taste. We gave it a try as we were told it was good for our insides. (All in the name of detoxing right?)

We asked Helmi where they were going out to for the evening with their friends. That’s right you guessed it, Starbucks. (Starbucks - bridges all cultures.) 

Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque at night

We were glad to check a new place off our list although the passport stamp isn't quite as cool as it used to be.

Happy trails,

Amy & Raegen