villa griya and goodbye!

Our airbnb in central Ubud was located in Penenstan- a small village on the outskirts of Ubud (the bigger town).  It was a two house villa on the property of a lovely Balinese family who took very good care of us!

these pictures are from their site- but here is the family!  we saw them every morning and evening when we left and came home!  they were so lovely!

This is the view from the front gate down towards the main road.

and- this is the main road :)

every morning the family brought us fresh breakfast of fruit, smoothies, toast, and the most amazing banana coconut pancakes EVER.  I still think about them!!

I took these pictures on another early morning run around the village where we stayed!  there were more temples in bali than anywhere we've been.  Literally every corner has one.

 and these small offerings are left on the front step of every home in bali!  they family members make them every day.

 I'd never seen a flower like this before- but I loved it!

this is the path right out our front door!  

and this is the entryway to our villa!  the grounds were so lush and vibrant. there were papayas and bananas growing on the trees!! 

there was also a little cafe called 'cafe vespa' on the corner of our little village.  I had the best salmon, beet, feta, walnut, and avocado sandwich!!  it was SO tasty.  Balinese food was definitely the tastiest and most flavorful of all of our vacations!!

I don't know what I'm going to do after living in asia if we move somewhere dry and brown all of the time!  these tropical locations are so beautiful!!

Saying goodby to our place was so sad!  for our last day in Bali- we drove back down to southern Bali near the airport for some final shopping and one last stop at the beach!

we spent some time at Kuta beach- one of the most touristy- and were not impressed!  too many people and rough water!  luckily- it had a great market :)

and, of course, fabulous popsicles!!

we dropped my parents off at the airport late afternoon- and made one last stop at Jimbaran beach for seafood and an ocean sunset send off!  we should have just gone to the airport!!

The beach was beautiful and the boys loved running around-

but Mack was OVER our vacation.  So tired and ready to go home :)  Ahh, the joys of traveling with children!!

he's crying in this picture, too!!

kadek- our pal and driver- dropped us off at the airport and we said our goodbyes!  he was the best guy ever!!  we loved having him take us around and we really hope to go back one day and visit him again!!  Bali was the best.  I am so glad we had my parents with us, too.  such a wonderful vacation!!