It’s March 2020, my husband and I are living it up exploring Bali. We have just reached Ubud and my visions of what Bali was like have come true. I am ready for my flower bath and rice terrace. A few days in we start to get messages from family and friends that we should consider coming home. “Virus”, “lockdowns”, “restrictions”, “US Citizens return now”. I’m sorry but there is no way in hell that I am leaving my little paradise just arriving 2 days prior. I have a long checklist of places we were to see and stay at, we hadn’t even skimmed the surface. But then reality gives you a little kick and you realize you need to return to your home country.
Returning from an international trip that lasted less than a week felt odd. My body went from one time zone to another and then back and it was confused. The uncertainty of when can I travel again, can I return to Bali at the end of this year perhaps? It felt as if I left with things unfinished. There was a lot we had yet to see, but we fit as much as we could in before leaving. Then it sank it, we were back home and it was time to return to our normal lives.
To keep busy and to not feel stuck we started to doing “this vs that” comparing experiences/food in our travels and life to recreating them at home. We decided to recreate food we ate in Bali, Disneyland experiences and experiment with bread making. I also got really into cooking not just baking.
Disneyland recreations…
At the beginning of 2020 we found this deal for Disneyland that gave us a discount on a 3-day pass. We immediately jumped on the offer and were excited to explore Disneyland after many years. We got to use one day of it before 2020 turned upside down. In order to relive these moments we decided to recreate some of them at home. We recreated dishes we ate there including Bengal bbq skewers, pinapple dole whip, churros, Jack Jack cookies and some petri dish jello dish called Oga’s obsession.
In addition we did some character drawings from Disney Parks youtube channel playlist: How to Draw series. We “rode” the Matterhorn and Indiana Jones Adventure.
Bali recreations…
We missed being in Bali a lot when we first returned. To not feel like our trip was over we chose to recreate some of the food and experiences. It allowed us to have fun and relive those moments from the trip.
Cooking…
Cooking has been our highlight of 2020. A coworker of mine gave us a sourdough starter and we have been on a bread hype since. In addition to the bread I have found some really great recipes for use of the “discard”. I made some amazing scones that my coworkers and husband love.
Apparently I can’t live on just sourdough bread so learning to cook real meals was also a priority. Yes I know how to cook but ask my husband, it was the same boring thing most of the time. A family member showed me someone on Instagram, Half Baked Harvest, and I became hooked. I started making dishes I would have never had the confidence to before. Tieghan makes these dishes taste amazing and they are not hard to make at all.
Photography…
I have been dabbling in photography since I got my first DSLR in college. Photoshoots with friends or pictures of nature, I love it all. Before we left for Bali I purchased an underwater housing for my camera so I could take all these cool pictures. Well, I only was able to use it once in the hotel pool so here I was wondering what I was going to do. Surf photography! My husband is surfing almost every weekend, normally I stand on the shoreline but this time I went in the water. The water where we live is fairly cold so I purchased a new wet suit and am so happy to have made the leap. I have a long way to go in terms of developing this new skill of photography, but it was a blast.
I started going on walks with my camera for more practice and edit them at home. As time went on some of my coworkers saw my photos I had been taking and I had three photoshoots “booked”. What a great way to continue to practice this skill of photo taking and then editing! I did a teenagers Quinceañera, a couples maternity and a Christmas themed shoot for a baby. After seeing how much fun I was having I decided to start an Instagram page @CallaLilyPhotos to share my work with others!
Star photography has become a photography hobby that my husband also likes to join in and help me shoot. I am still working with dated gear, I really need to upgrade to full frame, however, the photos we have taken don’t seem half bad.
Growth through a pandemic…
Almost a year later as I look back at 2020 I see growth that occurred and hopefully still is. I have become a better cook, I’ve done yoga and meditation again and started organizing our house. This was an opportunity for us to do things we really never had the time to do before. We were always traveling somewhere, even if it was a weekend getaway, at least once a month. There was not much time to just chill or do things around the house. There was unpacking and laundry to do and then time to plan the next getaway.
Despite the attempts to stay busy in quarantine we have still missed traveling. As the year went on we were able to make two trips with family away from home. It felt so good to get away, to see a new scenery and really to hang out with family. Those travels renewed and kept us going during a time of feeling stuck.
So here we are in 2021, socially distancing, vaccinated and dreaming of being able to see new places once again. Hopefully we aren’t too far away from discovering new places and exploring again soon!
