honeymoon lovebirds circa 1981.

I know what you're thinking, a load of photos, but photos from film and photos from the Caribbean in 1981 of my parents honeymoon! A couple of weeks ago was my parents 32nd wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we dug up their honeymoon photos only to find that they were in the form of SLIDES. Talk about a major buzz kill... that is until we found the slide projector!

Unfortunately, as cool as the slide projector was, we realized the bulb was burnt out and ancient, and to find a new one we'd have to dig real deep all over the internet, so we quit our crying and bucked up and took the slides to Costco and waited a couple of weeks for them to develop.

The wait was worth it! Are these photographs amazing or what? I love the scenery that my parents captured, and I love these shots of them when they were just babes deep in love and all mushy gooshy. These photos just make me so happy. It's crazy to think that I am currently the age that they are in these photos. They look the exact same to me, with slight different hairstyles and wardrobe.

Good gosh am I ever so giddy over these photos! I can't get over how beautiful they are. As an artist, you know I'm always viewing things in an artistic way, shoot me. But for real, esthetically, these are over the top pleasing! You know how I gush over my favorite photographer from the 50's -70's, Slim Aarons? Well, I must admit, some of these photos remind me of some of his work!

I cannot wait to print these out and frame them for all of the world to see. These are new keepsakes of mine and I love having photos of my parents when they were alone and in love. Photos are so important to me. I know I can be a bit over the top and take a few too many in not so important events or occasions but every moment matters to me. My brain can only remember so much that I have to capture the moment and keep it still, forever. I know sometimes I can drive the Zoo insane with the camera, and I don't blame him, but when I dig up treasures like these and see the fun times my parents had together when they were kids, I am really grateful to have these photos for myself.  Thank goodness for these! I just hope the same goes for my future kids that they'll want to share and look at photos of Zeke and I - see how we've had our fun, our adventures, how we've aged. Photos are precious and one of the most valuable things we keep throughout our lives.

Happy 32nd Anniversary to my parents, who've shown me how to love and love the right way. To forget your head, and listen to you heart. To love with humility. I'm so thankful you've chosen each other and have fallen in love. 1981 is a special year, one for the records. I'm thinking we take your 50th anniversary back to the islands of the Caribbean, what-a ya say? I love you two so much. I couldn't think of a more perfect pair.

the grand cayman islands :: caribbean.

Uh yeah, so i'd say the honeymoon was a whoppin' success. Luckily, with the bad timing with school starting, the zoo and I were still able to go on a week long honeymoon to one of my favorite places in the world. THE CARIBBEAN. especially after my cruise to the mexican riviera, which dont get me wrong, it was awesome and all, but it just enhanced my love even more for the Caribbean. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the architecture of the caribbean houses and buildings which to me, are a mixture of new orleans and charleston x 10 with a tropical twist. and you know those two places really tug at my heart strings. So zeke and I found a cheap flight which was evident through our 5 layovers from salt lake, to texas, to TWO stops in florida and finally, to Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

Now, I have never been to the Grand Cayman Islands. I've been to other islands in the Caribbean such as St. Thomas, St. John and St. Martin, but never to the grand cayman. And I loved it! I will say, I didn't like it as much as the other caribbean places I have been to, only because it was very urbanized. And the history was minimal. The island was more updated with great shopping and nice cars. Lots of new real estate. I loved the other islands because it felt as though they were more set in living the ways of their culture. Its what you imagine when you think of the Caribbean. Either way, how could i complain? It was the peak week of hurricane season and the resort was EMPTY because of it. With our luck, we had perfect weather the whole entire week. I think we just found the secret time to travel to the caribbean. The resort was great, it was right on the water and towards the end of the famous 7 mile beach, so it wasn't packed with tourists at all. The Marriott had awesome pool like floats about 50 yards into the water, which was bright turquoise and clear might I add. The floats were right in front of a reef in which we snorkeled through from time to time. That was our favorite past time, to bask in the sun on those pool floats, feed the fish , and snorkel. We did this just about every day.

Our favorite food was the cheapest kind and the most local caribbean you could get. Jamaican Jerk Chicken with cornbread, mac n'cheese and potatoes. we pounded that chicken like no other. and we never stopped craving it. We would get it from our two favorite local places : Chicken Chicken! and Seymours Jerk Chicken. Seymours was awesome because the caribbean women would hack that thing right at its neck and cook it and dish it over to us like it was nobody's business. then we sat at these picnic tables in the heat with a million flies swarming about us, but we didn't care because it was kind of a fun way of living. we tried to do all the nice fancy dinners, like at the ritz, but the food was too expensive, too gourmet and too small of portions. too fancy. it's just not adventurous or enjoyable. i'd rather go cheap, lots of food, local and traditional. thats our style. the one thing i did love, was the taste of the caribbean! rum cake! it is ALL over the island. Stocked like no other in the grocery stores. everyone there loves rum cake. so did the pirates. they had all sorts of flavors : coconut, chocolate, banana, you name it.

we lived in our bathing suits most of the time and had a joy ride in the buses with the locals. they'd ask us where we wanted to go and we'd respond, "not sure, we are wanting to kind of get lost today, so take us wherever." they'd just laugh hysterically. The people in the Grand Cayman are very friendly. I loved being around them. we spent one day in georgetown where we found this really neat store of ship wrecked treasures. they had a million gold coins found in ship wreaks and pirate ships that dated back before the louisiana purchase. i love that sort of stuff. it really intrigues me. hence, my serious titanic illness.

The only adventure we went on was to Stingray City & snorkeled in the reefs. Stingray city was truly an experience. I loved it. We took a catamaran out into the caribbean sea and anchored at a sand bank that was swarming with stingrays. strangely enough, I was more comfortable allowing a stingray to swim up into my arms and hold it, and kiss it (which gave zeke and i each 7 years of good luck) rather then having them swim around me and graze my legs. i was so paranoid their tails would sting me. which of course, they wouldn't but it was all in my head.

all in all. it was an adventure that i got to spend with the zoo and we had a grand ol' time. on the way back, we had a nightly lay over in miami which i was NOT complaining about. i LOVE miami. so much to do. South Beach is my kind of spot since it is known for its art deco architecture and its retro old hollywood regency style. so i was gobbling up every minute of it. especially since, the zoo let me finally witness with my real own eyes a hotel i have been drooling over for years. The Raleigh Hotel. I am sad I wasn't able to see it in the daylight because pictures didn't turn out the best, but man oh man did i fall in love. i'll post more of the raleigh later and give you a taste of the most miraculous jcrew store i have ever stepped foot it. but for now, here was our honeymoon. i hope you enjoyed our pictures! i sure wish we could go back to the caribbean soon. as i do dream of it all of the time. luckily to keep me sane, the zoo and i just ordered some of my favorite vintage travel posters for our living room in our home. two of them just so happen to be of the caribbean, just as how i envision it. oh happy day.

so long, and have a fabulous weekend my friends!