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It is our pleasure to announce that an addition to the Steinbaugh family is on its way! The bundle of joy is due in September, just after my birthday.

Wish us luck!

Nhu and I recently returned from a week in Dubai. The trip was our first to the Middle East, and we had a great time. We went on a guided tour with friends of mine, Chi and Pamela, who live in Chicago. I don’t usually go for guided tours, but we got an excellent deal on Travelzoo, and I thought a tour might be a good idea for our first visit. We were not disappointed! Aside from the hassle of getting there and back, we had a blast. We were shown the highlights of Dubai, and we also had ample time to explore on our own. I made Chi and Pamela get up with us to see sunrise at a beach. We also went up in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and stayed until sunset to see the water fountain show in front of the tower. We went “dune bashing,” which is what they called some pretty crazy four-wheeling in the desert sand dunes. Sadly, we weren’t the ones doing the driving. I think the highlight of the tour, though, was the trip to see the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The mosque was incredibly beautiful, easily one of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever seen.

Since my last post, we also spent time in San Diego and Florida. We went to San Diego over Thanksgiving to visit Nhu’s brother and his family. Little did we know that we would have the privilege of seeing their newborn daughter! She was not due until December, but apparently she had other plans. She was truly beautiful, albeit very, very tiny. Linh Chi was very excited to have a new baby sister!

Nhu and I went to Ft. Myers, Florida, for a weekend in December. It was nice to get away from winter weather and spend some time strolling on the beach. I had never been to that part of Florida, so it was fun to do some exploring. We spent some time on Sanibel, and worked our way from Fort Myers Beach all the way down to Barefoot Beach. We also went to Six Mile Cypress Slough, which was Nhu’s first time seeing a swamp. After a few days of excellent seafood and time at the beach, though, we were glad to come back home, even though it meant returning to cold, snowy weather.

I finally finished going through the honeymoon pictures! It took a long, long time, but they are done and posted. I ended up with 58 images that I liked enough to give a top rating, which is a record for a single trip. You can find all of the pictures filed under Austria, Italy and Germany.

Since the honeymoon, we've also managed a few shorter trips. At the beginning of August, we went with a bunch of friends to Glacier National Park in Montana. We rented a house in Columbia Falls and had a blast, including various hikes and also a sunrise photo expedition, at my suggestion of course. Also, just this past weekend, Nhu and I went with my parents to Oregon. We visited Crater Lake, and also drove up nearly the entire Oregon coast, from Crescent City to Cannon Beach. It was quite stunning, certainly a trip I'd recommend.