Paytons World Wide
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We’ve Moved!
We’ve decided to move our blog to:
www.paytonsworldwide.wordpress.com
Hope you’ll follow our travels from Wordpress!
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Just found out this little guy will be taking us and/or our luggage up to steps of our first Santorini hotel. We’ll be headed to Zannos Melathron, and we’ll either arrive by donkey or we’ll use our own two feet to get us up the steep hill. I think either way we’ll manage. (photo taken from TripAdvisor)
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Plaka here we come!
We just booked our Athens hotel! Thanks to our honeymoon registry, we were able to secure a room at Plaka Hotel, which features stellar views of the Acropolis. Just look at these two lovers below!
Their rooftop looks like the perfect spot for two newlyweds to enjoy the ruins of the Acropolis while helping themselves to some Grecian wine. I can’t wait to settle in with my husband after a long day of treking around Athens. With views like this I don’t think we’ll miss watching Modern Family or catching the Bulls game on ESPN.
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Adventure and love
Richard writing this time. One of my favorite aspects of married life is knowing that Christa and I get to continue traditions together forever! For example, since living in DC, we’ve made traditions out of spending a little time with Martha Washington during the holidays and celebrating annual work anniversaries at chain restaurants. (Though we’ll never go back to Outback after celebrating there for Christa’s 1-year anniversary at NCTM…horrible food!)
Anyway, we recently continued a tradition that we started in Chicago. If you’ve never heard of it, the Banff Mountain Film Festival and its world tour feature some of the most amazing films you’ll ever see, from epic mountaineering to heart-wrenching stories of disappearing cultures. I can’t help but leave the festival each year feeling inspired and respecting the limits to which people push themselves around the world.
One of my favorite movies from this year’s festival was called Journey on the Wild Coast, which follows a married couple as they travel 4000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska - solely by human power. Their sense of adventure is obviously admirable, but what really stuck with me was their devotion to one another amidst an incredible challenge. I can’t say that Christa and I will take a year off and schlep 4000 miles across the planet, but this film definitely reminded me that marriage is about having wonderful traditions and enjoying every possible minute of life together, but also showing patience and never-ending support in times of challenge.
Other favorites from this year’s festival: Blue Obsession and Kadoma
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Fun with Sweethearts
Now my sweetheart is Richard, of course, but I also like to have fun with other sweethearts. I am referring to the candy, of course. Thanks to my brother-in-law, I’ve found they are a cheap, creative and cute way to ring in the month of love. Re-reading these past two sentences I suppose I should have put a “mushy post ahead” disclaimer. Oh well! If you’re still with me check out the photos to see what I mean.
Sweethearts in our glass vases!
Or try them on your favorite decorative platter with some fun tea lights. It’s beginning to look a lot like Valentine’s Day in this abode!
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Honeymoon Planning
I think Richard and I will both readily admit the best piece of wedding advice we received (thanks Jen and Andrew) was to book an all-inclusive honeymoon. Unfortunately, that now doubles as the best piece of wedding advice we didn’t take.
Like most things in my life, a closet full of clothes, a linen closet full of discounted goods from Target (bought with a coupon! Hello double deal!), all I can say in our defense is that the do it yourself (DIY) honeymoon started with a deal! Richard found a great Snique Away deal for Greece and all of a sudden we were buried in travel books and tutorials, bookmarking travel sites and evaluating the advice from Trip Advisor.
It can be a bit overwhelming booking everything yourself, but the images from Santorini certainly provide us with a breathtaking respite.
*Images taken from Mr. and Mrs. Smith
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“I have a feeling we’re going to wish we had spent more time in Santorini,” Richard Payton, the smartest man I know. The picture above is a shot of the pool at our hotel. Sweet Zeus, I can’t wait to go!
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DC adventures are always fun! We stole this idea from our maid of honor, Amanda, who tries to explore new restaurants, museums and fun spots in St. Louis that she and her fiance don’t normally spend time in.
Well, we’ve completely stolen that idea and adopted it as our own. We recently went to the Smithsonian Postal Museum (free admittance!), and surprisingly had a lot more fun that we thought we would. Did you know the USPS uses a machine that can read your handwriting? It then compares the address it reads and assigns it a barcode and sorts it into the correct bin. It does all of this in less than a second! What?!
I’m pretty sure that machine could run the world!
