Today's beach day can only be described as ultimate. I'm thankful that we have visited some of the most beautiful beaches in the world in Hawaii, Greece and other places, so that we could fully appreciate this.

It was an early morning. We had to meet our cams at 6am. That sounds early until you realize most of us were still waking up at 3:30 in the morning. At 5:45 in the morning the options were breakfast are limited. After some debate at the 7-11 with Brett about the authenticity of the orange juice I grabbed a bottle. I couldn't bring myself to try any of the pastries. My later findings were that the liquid substance was Tang with a pulp mixture added. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

The short van ride deposited us at an elegant resort marina. A Robin Leach doppelgänger and his business partner showed us to our charter boat. The crew of three local Thai men were honestly the most professional crew we have ever had. No messing around, no gimmicks, no making me throw up. I was highly impressed with our charter. Good job Bobby. I spent the ride out to the islands talking to Bobby and just enjoying being on the water. About 45 minutes in I noticed everyone started to stand up with their cameras so I took note.

The Phi Phi Islands are one of those places you see on tv or in photos and just can't believe it's real. It is. And it's spectacular in person. I'll have to add all the island names later but I love how the day was planned out. We had just enough time everywhere but you never got bored.

The first island must be the busiest. It is the one I always see pictured. We arrived by 7:30 and it was already getting busy. The beach is flanked by these massive green cliffs and black rock overhangs. We explored the beach for a bit and then hiked into the island where there were some paths leading through to the other side. You could climb up some old rickety stairs and get a view through to where we would snorkel next. Once we made our way back down we found our group mulling around and then started to make our way back to the boat. Fishie time!

For Christmas, Josh surprised me with snorkel masks and snorkels. We keep going to these amazing spots around the world and he thought it was time to invest. Wow. What a difference that makes. There weren't a huge variety of fish but boy were there a lot. Bobby kept throwing bread at me so that the fish were literally swimming on me. It was crazy. There was apparently a bright blue starfish but I missed it.

We then headed to another cove to snorkel but there didn't seem to be any fish. I enjoyed the view from the boat and finally picked up the camera. This is a photography trip! After a lot of tries the first picture below (with a but of Josh editing) is my result. It was pretty cool back there with all the long tail boats.

Next stop Phi Phi Don Island . I think that is the name. If you have seen the videos from the tsunami you were probably watching video from here. That in itself was intense. This island has a narrow path down the beach barely wide enough for the carts to get through pulling guests luggage to their beachside hotels. Restaurants and tourist shops line both sides. After checking out a few spots (sometimes finding seating for 15 can be tough) we settled on the very Thai Italiano Restaurant. We had a swank setup with couches under some fans. Only in Thailand. Love it. I gave in and finally got a fruit shake and Khao Pad. I'm all about eating local here. No spices please. Josh loved his Pad Thai and his mojito that appeared to have an entire mint garden in it. Good lunch.

Now full, we reboarded. On the way out we pulled by an island with monkeys all over the beach. Apparently we will have monkeys galore in Cambodia so we just quickly looked.

The last stop was a beach that appeared to be just for day trippers. The bottom of the water was covered in coral so it made it difficult to stand, but the beach around the island had some cool rocks and tide pools. We spent a bit of time relaxing before getting on the boat one last time and heading back,

After cleaning up, our group headed out for dinner. We ended up next to a fish foot station. These are the grossest thing I've seen. Tanks of tiny fish, on the street, where people let fish eat the dead skin off their feet. Yuck. How appetizing next to a restaurant? Dinner was pretty typical. I was adventurous and ordered a Signapore Sling even though the waiter couldn't tell me what it was. It came in a glass with boobs on it and only one took me a bit askew.

Some of our group had Ben raving about mitosis they had early so most of our group moved on to search for that place. After walking almost to Bangkok we found it. Not what I would have pictured as the Home of Thailand's best mojito but ok. These mojitos must have taken a good 45 minutes to make. No amount of deliciousness was going to save Josh from quickly falling into a state of slumber. When the drinks came, we downed ours, paid up and headed back. We passed the bar truck which might be one of the coolet things we've seen. A VW bus turned into a bar and dj booth outside of a bar. We avoided buying any laser pointers or barking dog toys and called it a night. Little did we know what was going to happen.

Let me first start by saying that getting pictures on this iPad for the blog are rough. We have three cameras and my iPhone. Only one camera being able to upload. So what I can post as far as pictures while we travel is limited.

Ok. Back to the trip. So we woke up fairly early to talk to the kids on the Skype. Getting better. They could see us. We could hear them. Like I said, better. Then we packed up and headed to grab a quick breakfast before checking out and catching our taxi.

The taxi ride was easy. He had no clue where we were going so I showed him a map, address and picture on the iPad. I did have to tell him when he drove right by the hotel we were meeting at but we got there safe and sound.

We were two of the last people to arrive and joined our group assembled in the lobby of a hotel we weren't staying at. Supposed to but not, so we were just meeting there before walking to our hotel. It felt a little like the first day of camp. Not sure who these people are you are about to spend two weeks with. We've had a Facebook group for almost a year so we somewhat knew some people. But still. I was definitely a fish out of water. I can't imagine what Josh felt like.

We chatted about our itinerary for awhile and after the last person arrived we walked to our hotel. I lied. One girl had gotten stuck in Bangkok and they had lost her luggage so we were still short one. The hotel was new. And when I say new we think it opened that day. They were working out the Internet and beach towels were arriving in the mail that day. Rooms were pleasant with a queen bed, shower and AC. What more do you need to sleep?

We all freshened up and headed down the street to the Elephant Cafe. I learned a few things here. 1. Some restaurants in Thailand have menus bigger than the Cheesecake Factory. 2. If you want anything a little spicy, say NO SPICES!. Even then it is spicey. I almost lost all my taste buds. 3. Our group is filled with look-a-likes. We have Kevin Costner and Ryan Lochte.

After getting to know everyone a bit we headed back to get ready for the beach. We found Anna 2 (two Anna's and two Josh's are in our group) waiting at the hotel. She had arrived but her luggage had not. We shortly herded our group into a van and a taxi and headed off for Surin Beach.

Surin was on the other side of Patong. My sense of direction is off but it's over there. It had a completely different feel to the other two beaches. The beach itself was lines with hundreds of lounge chairs and umbrellas. The beach was flanked by swanky lounge-type or tree covered restaurants. The best part was the floating dock that rose and fell with the waves meant to be run across. As the waves crashed under it people lined up to launch themselves over the side of the dock. A few of our brave photographers went out on the floating dock to shoot from the water side. I can't wait to see some of the pictures.

The afternoon was spent goofing off on the beach and in the water. At one point our whole group lined up on the dock and took a shot jumping off together. In the midst, Kate dropped her underwater camera in what must have been at least 15 feet ocean water. Vince, aka Kevin Costner, retrieved it in one dive with no mask. Needless to say, we were impressed.

Around six tummies were grumbling and taxis were going to need to return soon. We walked back behind the beach and down the restaurant row. It was a bit enchanting. We found our spot and Josh and I sat down with Kevin Costner and Ryan Lochte (okay Lucas). During our dinner I learned that Lucas is VERY single and doesn't want to hear anything about kids! Ha. And Vince can not only hold his breath but he used to be a firefighter, is a part time police officer and an ordained minister. If he still likes me in a week he offered to renew our vows for us. Did I mention he gets my sense of humor?

Dinner was good pad Thai. It was relaxing to eat on the beach with more fireworks in the background and we even saw some lanterns being let off from in front of us. It is kind of hard to believe we have only known these people ten hours. After dinner we headed back. Vans leave at 6am to catch our boat for Phi Phi Islands. No messing around!

After a day and a half of travel, Monday was a day to just try and get adjusted and relax. I had been fighting off a cold the whole week prior to leaving. Being on a plane that long didn't help matters. By the time we had gotten showered and to bed it was 3:30. Our bodies thought it was 3:30 in the afternoon but since they were so confused we told them to go back to bed. No surprise we both fell fast asleep.

Josh swears I spent most of the night talking in my sleep. I'm sure I was worrying about something. I was jolted out of bed at 7:30 when I heard our Skype. Skype. Computer. Must answer. Since I'm blind as a bat I woke Josh up to quickly answer it. I'm not sure what he thought I was saying but all I know is he ended up going to the bathroom. By the time we got our act together we had missed the call and couldn't get a connection to through at home. We hadn't talked to the kids in 36 hours so I was kiddie sick. After about half an hour we got the Skype signal to work briefly enough to see the kids but had to end up calling them. Hopefully this gets easier!

By 8:30 I was wide awake and starving. Our resort has free breakfast. Reminiscent of our honeymoon we planned to stuff ourselves silly and then eat an early dinner.

We took a look around for the first time. Our location was pretty ideal. Our room was on the far end of the resort where it was very isolated and right on the beach. I could sit on the couch on the patio listening the waves crash over the rocks for hours (probably why these posts are so long). We are walking distance to the crazy Patong beach area but completely removed. Since we are staying in a different part of Phuket for the next few days I think we picked pretty well!

Breakfast was quite yummy for a resort buffet. The normal omelet station and breakfast goodies plus tons of tropical fruits. We left stuffed. With our bellies full we headed to the pool that overlooks the ocean. The breeze is perfect. We turned on Taylor Swift and played a game of Scrabble. Is this Josh's dream day or what? After I won Scrabble (you read that right, I actually won a game of Scrabble against Josh!) we changed into our tennis shoes to walk into town. We needed to find an ATM and of all things I had forgotten sunglasses

The doorman/bellhop looked at us like we were crazy when we asked how to walk to town but he finally pointed us there. This had us worried and when we saw we were on a hill we were even more worried. However, other than avoiding the mopeds the walk was easy. The most dangerous part was trying not to get assaulted by the taxi drivers giving rides or masseuses offering massages. (Josh and I still debate what those really were)after passing a million ATM's we tried one. What was the conversion again?

We tried to take out one amount of baht. Nope. Hmmm. Strange. Lets try half. Uh oh. It locked our account. That's not good. We are going to need money for a dab tomorrow. No problem we will just call the bank. Good thing we have international service. Too bad it's now 9pm at night. Being the bright adults that we are, we open our eyes and see a woman sitting in front of us to exchange money. We exchange all the USD.

Josh looks at the receipt and says "oh". We have a max on what we can withdraw from our ATM. We were trying to withdraw too much baht. This is what sleep deprivation will do to you,

Now with money we go to find me some sunglasses. Josh drags me into a sunglasses shop with Gucci and Percy. I tell him I was thinking more Guci. We realize we are at the Hard Rock Hotel and remember where we are from last night. We stumble across a market with vendor after vendor of cheap knock of goods. Perfect. After looking at the same sunglasses over and over I pick a stunning pair of plastic yellow ones.

I had heard I should barter so this is how it went.

Lady: they are 250
Me: how about 200
Lady: are you going to buy another.
Me: no
Lady: okay

So I'm pretty sure that means I sucked at bartering. However, I got a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses for under $7.

Outfitted with my lovely sunglasses, we made our way back out of the market. I'm pretty sure that someone asked me why I was shiny. Because I'm sweating people! I was wearing a bikini and a tiny sundress and I was dripping. Josh was called the boss. And we were asked if were from Australian. Yep.

Josh was most entertained by the glass boxes on the end of the market rows that housed tattoo parlors. People were actually getting tattoos done in a glass box in the middle of this craziness.

Thoroughly exhausted and having accomplished what w set out to do we grabbed a giant coke from the store and made our way back up to the resort. The uphill walk was nowhere as hard as we feared but we still needed to cool off. An hour in the pool was about all Josh could handle before heading in from the sun.

After a nap we headed to the lobby for a little planning. When we checked in at 2 in the morning my brain hadn't been working fully and I later realized they had charged us almost twice our rate. The front desk staff was helpful and explained that was just a hold and they indeed had the correct rate on file. We also booked a taxi to take us to meet up with our group the next day. $15 for a 20 minute taxi ride isn't bad right? In NY that will basically get you in the cab.

It was still early but our no lunch plan was kicking in. We headed down by the ocean and saw that the Italian Restaurant had tables right on the water. There wasn't a better location to sit for the sunset. Everything about the dinner was perfect. We had a table right on the railing. There was hardly anyone there. The sunset was pretty, albeit obstructed by the mountain. The breeze was amazing. The food was not only yummy but reasonable. We are used to be killed by resort restaurants. We had an appetizer and salad to share, two large pasta dishes and a beer for Josh for a grand total of $50. In Hawaii we paid that for two drinks to get this view.

Our attempts to take a couple picture were comical. We only had the iPad. I will have to paste all the attempts together back home. Oh well. Josh played around with the night lighting around the grounds on the way back.

After dinner we unsuccessfully tried to connect back home. Then we grabbed the iPad, headed to the pool and played another game of scrabble with Miss Swift along the ocean. Patong put off fireworks over the water ever couple minutes. it was like a private show for us. I'm not sure we could imagine a more peaceful night. Now it's time to meet our friends!