Two weekends ago, to celebrate our two year anniversary of being together, and to celebrate our engagement, Bill and I went to Zanzibar! (It is an island off of Tanzania where I am convinced that all those stock photos on your computer’s screensaver are taken.) It was something we have been talking about doing but have not done much planning for. We bought the plane tickets and booked a hotel on Thursday morning and left less than 24 hours later. It also happened that Friday was a holiday so we got a free three day weekend!

That Thursday was maybe one of the more stressful days I have had at work even though in hindsight it would have been fine. The men’s World Cup was kicking off that evening, and I had about 40 pieces of furniture (most of which were my design!) by 5 different furniture maker Pros being delivered that day to our client, J’s (an awesome indoor/outdoor bar and restaurant with amazing live music, events, pizza, and is now THE spot to watch the soccer). We have been getting progress photo updates of the pieces from our Pros, but it was only the day before that we got photos of finished pieces – and the colors and the wood stains were all wrong and different from each other! The way paints are often mixed here is by pouring in white and mixing it with a stick until a worker thinks it matches the paint swatch. This non-computer code machine mixing makes for inconsistencies when there are multiple people mixing paint, and that is what happened. So, Wednesday evening was spent making phone calls to all the Pros, telling them exactly what they need to do tomorrow, driving to paint stores, and calling anyone I can think of to help. Lynk founder, CFO, and CTO Johannes picked me up at 7am on Thursday and we spent the day driving up and down Ngong Road and Naivasha road between all the workshops supervising and very helpfully stressing out – well I was, Johannes was very used to this kind of thing. The best part of the day was being able to sit on the 1 pink stool I had made, drinking dawas with Bill, Johannes and his girlfriend Thushanti at J’s while watching the men’s World Cup and watching people using enjoying the furniture we had delivered just an hour before. Phew!

Friday morning we head to the airport, to terminal 1A where I have another project (a new coffee shop and restaurant set to open this coming week!) to find our flight delayed for an hour and a half. The short flight was enjoyable nonetheless with some amazing views! We flew right by Kilimanjaro, saw a bunch of islands in the beautiful blue water and got a nice aerial view of Stone Town as we descended into Zanzibar. Somehow we had a priority pass so we got to skip the visa line to sit in an air-conditioned lounge as the immigration officers checked our passports and we declared we had nothing to declare. Though I did take all the candy on the table. We hop in a cab and head up to the northwest side of the island to Nungwi Beach, where our hotel is located. In the 5 minutes of research I did on Zanzibar, the northwest side of the island was highly recommended as the tide never gets too low and the sun sets over the water. Growing up near the beach in California with the beautiful ocean sunsets, I am always a bit disoriented when I look out over a big body of water and the sun sets behind me. Weird. Not to mention, on the east coast of Zanzibar during low tide, the water can be a mile or more away! So I narrowed my hotels dot com search to the Nungwi and Kendwa Beaches, and to those that had a pool right along the ocean. That was the only criteria I had.

We arrive to the hotel just in time for lunch. The food all weekend was DELICIOUS. It was all you can eat buffet style, which was part of our “full-board” booking. However, when we arrived we were mistakenly given the “all-inclusive” bracelet and we didn’t know the difference. So we got free drinks at lunch!! We settle in the room, walk on the beach, go in the pool, watch some soccer, enjoy the sunset, and before we knew it, it was dinner time! Dinner was served on the beach to a live music and dancing show. It was incredible. Also, I realized over this weekend just how many beach paradise perfect outfits I have. I really need to spend more time at beach paradises like this one. #problemsthatarentproblems

Saturday is our only full day on the island. We had the option to go snorkeling with dolphins but it would have been an all day excursion. We decided to do that next time we come to Zanzibar. And we do plan on going back, since our Tanzania visa is good for a year! Instead of snorkeling, we take a long walk on the beach in both directions, eat food, watch soccer, throw a frisbee, nap on the beach, review wedding venues, do more beach walking, do more beach napping, and do more eating a lot. It was a perfect relaxing day in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Sunday morning we leave for the airport right after breakfast and we were back in Nairobi in time to go to frisbee practice.