Philippines – Casteluzzo

Exciting News!

July 12, 2014Sarah Bringhurst Familia

You know all those times people told me I should write a book about our international adventures? Well, last week I indie published my very first book. Here it is:

Paradise Interrupted: Romantic Adventures Backpacking Across the Philippines, Baby in Tow by Sarah Bringhurst

It’s available on Amazon for Kindle here. Check it out!… Read more

Cooking in the Tropics

July 20, 2012July 20, 2012Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last year while I was waiting for our Tunisian landlord to get air conditioning installed in our apartment, I did a couple of posts on cooking for hot weather. When we are not having hurricanes and tornados here in Florida, the weather here is also very hot. And unlike Tunisia, where the sweltering wind off the Sahara desert kept things pretty dry even by the coast, Florida is more of a tropical place. In fact, I’m convinced that if we let our lawn go for, say, six months, we’d probably end up with not a knee-high grassy field, but a full-out jungle.… Read more

An Evening in the Philippines

July 1, 2012July 1, 2012Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last night we had the good fortune to be invited to dinner by Estela, a friend of ours who is Filipina. There was a Filipino restaurant we used to eat at occasionally in Utah, but it’s been a long time since we had real Filipino food. Estela is an amazing cook, and she prepared several classic Filipino dishes for us. We started out with two kinds of lumpia, or egg rolls. The first ones were “fresh” (i.e. unfried) lumpia, which are like a very thin, light crepe wrapped around julienne carrots, palm hearts, and curly lettuce.

Fresh lumpia usually have peanuts in them, but Estela’s were peanut-free, so my enjoyment of them was multiplied by all the peanut-laced lumpia that I had drooled over in the Philippines and been unable to eat.… Read more

Waiting for the Rainbow

June 13, 2012July 10, 2012Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So, do houses not need lightning rods anymore?

I have been wondering this for a few weeks, ever since thunderstorm season (I don’t use the word “hurricane,” because I think it’s bad luck) began in earnest. I distinctly remember that in Ray Bradbury’s creepy masterpiece, Something Wicked This Way Comes, it was of utmost importance to get a lightning rod installed on one’s house before the big storm arrived. And then when the lightning hit the rod, I think that was when the army of spiders started to invade the house. Or was that just some bad dream I had after reading it?… Read more

Welcome Home, Part 2: The Dining Room

February 23, 2012Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Well, I finally got around to taking pictures of another room in our house. And I do have another decorating problem to share with you. But first, a few photos.

Here’s our dining room:

Isn’t our bar-height table fun? I feel like a little kid sitting at it with my feet dangling. We got it when Axa was a toddler, partly because we loved the fact that she couldn’t reach onto the table and pull the dishes off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good photo of the picture behind it, which is one of my favorite pictures ever. In fact, I tried to convince Tony that we should recreate it for our engagement picture.… Read more

Get Me to the Church on Time

May 14, 2011October 24, 2011Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When Tony and I lived on BYU campus as newlyweds, we pretty much walked straight out our front door into the Mormon chapel, which was also on campus. Forgot an extra diaper? No problem (please tell me I’m not the only mother who’s ever done this). There was no hassle if one of us needed to be at Church early. And home/visiting teaching was a piece of cake. Tony still loves to tell about his Elder’s Quorum President, who stood up in opening exercises one morning to recount a conversation in which his father (also Elder’s Quorum President in his own ward) begged to know his secret for achieving 100% home teaching.… Read more

Philippines Travelogue Postscript: Hong Kong

March 30, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I just can’t stop writing about this trip. As promised, here is the exciting final conclusion to our Philippines trip: our layover in Hong Kong. (If you missed any episodes in the Philippines series, you can find them all together here.)

As the vintage double-decker bus wound up the wooded peak, we considered our state of affairs with a mixture of dismay and wild anticipation. We were on our way to the top of Victoria Peak, number one on every list of Hong Kong Island’s numerous attractions. That we had no money to get back down to the airport for our flight home, which left in a mere three hours, had not concerned us much when we boarded the bus.… Read more

Philippines, Part 15: All’s Well that Ends Well (Manila and Home)

March 11, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Here is the long-awaited ending to the story of the summer we spent traveling in the Philippines, baby in tow. If you are just joining us, or have missed a previous episode, you can find them all right here:

Philippines, Part 14: Trouble in Paradise (Malapascua)

January 13, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Good morning, and welcome back to our Friday in the Philippines. I hope you’ve enjoyed the new header photos, which come from the Philippines. I’ve noticed a lot of extra pageviews, and I suspect my faithful readers of refreshing the page to look at the pictures rather than to read my clever words. Shame! Last week we kissed neither tarsiers nor bats during the Bohol Choco Tour. If you missed that episode (or any others), links can be found here:

Philippines, Part 13: The Chocolate Hills (Bohol Again)

January 7, 2011January 14, 2017Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last week we had our first monsoon and were almost marooned on a desert island. Check out that and other past adventures here:

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