kimmie nguyen:

Cinema Paradiso au Grand Palais

So I want to go to this. It sold out within minutes of going on sale. Tickets might be available on eBay according to friends in Paris. It's an American 50s themed drive-in, cinema, rollerskating rink and CHAMPAGNE BAR at the Grand Palais.

J'adore.

Photo via pretavoyager

 

Zen on the Big Island

My very first trip to Hawaii was paid for by a nice bonus from work.  I splurged for a stay at the Mandarin Oriental and squealed in delight over the his and her sinks.  Until then I had only booked mediocre hotels where the amenities included the likes of coffee makers, extra pillows and free soaps. Subsequent trips back to Hawaii weren't quite as fancy but definitely not cheap nor affordable considering how much I made back then.

Fast forward to today, I love Airbnb. It's opened up awesome vacation choices around the world for any budget range. So while I can afford the nice hotels now, I like having the option to not do that. Especially when traveling abroad, renting an apartment tucked away in a quaint neighborhood is much more enticing than getting daily newspapers and room service.

In December, we headed to the Big Island for a short getaway. I thought about going the resort route but decided an Airbnb place would be better for relaxion without the hordes of tourists and families. I found this lovely place in Hilo, the North side of the island, generally known to be rainy but we lucked out with the amazing weather. We didn't take a ton of photos, there wasn't much to do except to read, hike and sleep. It was exactly what we needed.

Wrapping Up 2011

At current moment, I'm somewhere in Singapore eating yummy hawker street food with my friends, Stef and Ada. Luckily I had the forsight to create this post ahead of time. Something that's been a bit lacking on the blogs this year. Looked around for 2010's wrap-up list but apparently I was too busy vacationing in Mexico at the time :) Last New Year's post was written in 2009, in which I sound way too happy. Must have been the post-accident-i-love-life-high coming through.

This list is by no means an exhaustive summary of the year. Just the moments that are sitting in my head as December winds down.

• For the first time since graduation, I actually have an itch to move to SF again. And give up my ridicuous rent? Right, well it's only an itch...
• There was a lot of stress with the new job. I really should have shutdown and gotten offline more often. Making this current trip much needed and long overdue.
• Naive I am not but on an occasion or two, I may been too trusting. It's a shame that you sometimes can't take people at face value.  But it was such an incident that helped reset the values that I deem important in others.
• Saw my bestie, Ada, move to NY. Never in a millon years would I have expected it. But proud of her for doing it.
• I have a beau. Shhhh, don't tell mom. He's the Aussie and he's awesome. Quite clever too.
• As you know, the holidays and my family don't go hand in hand. But this year, mom bought me a real gift. Diamond earrings. Plus three Buddhism books to save my soul (her words not mine).
• I discovered that I'm allergic to Acai berry seeds. Not the juice, but the seeds. An unfortunate finding after I engulfed half a bag of chocolate covered berries and broke out in hives for a week. 
• Still traveling. Wish there was more time in a year for this but I can't complain about Mexico, Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, Leavenworth (a cute Bavarian town 3 hours outside of Seattle, WA) and Singapore.
• The Reina Sofia museum in Madrid is one of the most beautiful museums that I've ever been to. I'd return just for that and the Jardin Botanico.
• My friend Jas married her best friend, Sancha, after a decade of friendship and all of us wondering if they were ever going to realize what we already knew ;)
• Lots of awesome music festivals to remember with WMC, Coachella and Outside Lands. Always grateful for a chance to be with friends, music and outdoors dancing. Rain or shine.
• Had another amazing year of food parties with the friends. Too many to recount here. Just know, I'm one lucky gal.

Hope you're having a wonderful New Year. See you in 2012.