We made it to Bangkok!! (+Spain & England Recap)

Sharing some updates while reminiscing on 100+ Tinto de Veranos and Gin & Tonics over the past two weeks :)

Well, our good luck with Delta ran out the minute I hit publish on my last post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unfortunately, both of our backpacks + our wedding essentials suitcase went missing while we were in Spain.

Our trip to Madrid was short and spent mostly on the phone with Delta trying to locate our bags. We also made various Zara/ H&M runs buying clothes for the next few days. Despite the ~baggage drama~ the highlight of Madrid was spending time with Harry and Lizzie who were also heading to Jerez for Carina and Dan’s wedding.

We enjoyed tapas, tortillas, and PLENTY of tinto de veranos (a red wine spritzer that’s more common to drink than sangria!).

My bag showed up 2 days later.. battered and bruised ☹️

Babygirl started her world travel adventures without me and got all banged up!!! (THANKS A LOT, DELTA!!!!!)

We headed to Jerez and began leaning into the Spanish culture: long lunches, siestas, and late dinners. The next few days leading up to the wedding were spent hanging by the pool, golfing (Sam + boys), continuously eating & drinking, and world-class banter («Sam added that line in!).

Carina and Dan ❤️ 

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and a RAGER. After a long beautiful sunset dinner, Sam and Mau completed their joint 25-minute long speech (read: ROAST) for Dan. The crowd went wild (while I clenched my fists hoping Sam didn’t say anything too inappropriate in front of Dan and Carina’s families). We then danced at the villa until 4 a.m. and had the best night celebrating.

We then enjoyed one day in Seville before heading off to England for the week to spend time with Sam’s family.

In Sheffield, we spent lots of time with his Mom, Nan, and her puppy, Amy. We also embarrassingly got 16th place for an American-themed trivia night on the 4th of July.

We later headed down south to see Bob, Steph, and Sam’s brothers. Bob had arranged for us to spend the night in a Safari Park (think of it as a larger Zoo where you can drive your car around some animal enclosures), which opened brand new lodges inside the animal enclosures (we stayed with the lions).

Each bedroom looked into the lion’s enclosure

It was so crazy being so close to lions all night (through double-paned glass)! But we quickly learned they are SO LOUD. No one could sleep through the lion’s little rumbles and Tom & Seb woke up at 4 a.m. to my actual living nightmare (pic below):

Seb’s picture.. scaryy!!!!

We then spent the following few days down in Devon at a family resort camp with tons of sports & activities (pickle ball, golf, axe throwing, archery, etc.). It was amazing spending time with his family before heading off!

Cropped Justin into this one lol

We landed in Bangkok today after a long day of travel and were able to head to a night market and rooftop bar!

We have 5 nights in Bangkok before heading down to the Southern Thai islands. Here’s the game plan (which has already changed multiple times so take it with a grain of salt!):

July 13-18: Bangkok

July 18- Mid-August: Southern Thai Islands —> Malaysia

xoxo, Laura

P.S I switched from Substack to Beehiiv moving forward! Sorry for not realizing the Substack was prompting people to donate/ pay on the first post. This will always be free!!!!!!