The American Family Goerss: 17th Anniversary in Singapore

At the end of August, Jeff had to take a work trip to Singapore. It was right near our anniversary which fell on a weekend this year, so it was perfect timing for me to fly down and for us to celebrate our 17th anniversary in Singapore.

There seems to be a Botero, St. Regis connection in this part of the world, and Jeff found a couple Botero statues at the one in Singapore.

I was glad he had told me, because my taxi driver wasn't sure where the hotel was, but as soon as I saw the Botero statue, I knew we were in the right place.

Jeff had prepared for me with roses and bubbles, which was a lovely anniversary touch.

His fancy status gets him complimentary evening drinks and appetizers. It was quite a spread, so that's what we did for dinner.

The hotel is walking distance from the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which we never made it to on any family trips, so after fuelling up on the huge breakfast buffet, we set off to explore.

As with everything in Singapore, it's beautifully curated and clean. There were lots of trees, so even though it was hot, we kept to the shade, and it wasn't too bad.

The paths meander through the huge park area. There are some birds wandering about, include roosters, which we weren't expecting.

There are also tons of interesting plants, many of them with labels and signs. One of the most interesting was the Cannonball Tree. It has beautiful flowers and fruits that are indeed cannonball like in shape.

There are also several water features. One of them is Swan Lake, and, sure enough, there were swans swimming around.

Just in case the birds go flying elsewhere though, there are statues to make sure everyone can get a bird picture.

Jeff got the double whammy of swans with the swan statue.

We found a path that felt very "land before time".

We also went for a stroll along the canopy walk.

There was also a canopy "web". I was not going to step out there, but Jeff went for it.

After our adventures, we got cleaned up and headed over to Marina Bay Sands. The main lobby has a hotel and lots of restaurants. It's quite a space.

There's also a mall attached. I had remembered from a previous trip that they had a canal with boat rides, so I wanted to go take a closer look. Unfortunately, it wasn't as romantic as I had remembered it.

Also, it was all sold out for the day, so instead we had fun window shopping. Eventually, we made our way up to our reservation at LAVO, which is an Italian restaurant at the top of Marina Bay Sands.

It's kind of a weird name, because it means "I wash", but maybe there's a story behind it we don't know. They had a drink made with pink dragonfruit though, so I had to try it.

They're also famous for their giant meatball with ricotta cheese on top, so Jeff had to try that.

There was some art next to us that seemed like a meatball cautionary tale, but that didn't deter him.

The best part of being up that high is, of course, the view over Singapore, so we went out onto the balcony after dinner to get some pictures.

We didn't get to Gardens by the Bay on this trip, but it's a family favorite, so we'll definitely go with the girls next time.

Before we knew it, Sunday rolled around, and it was time to head back to KL, but not without one final sight seeing stop. Singapore's airport is famous, and they keep raising the bar. The latest addition is the largest indoor waterfall in the world. They don't run it all the time, so we got to the airport right before it was set to start. There was quite a crowd.

On cue, there was a puff of mist, dramatic music, a booming voice, and then . . . water! Jeff got a video, and there was a little girl on the balcony with us who delightedly yelled water! right on cue. The video is too big to link here, but we got many pictures of the waterfall once it was going.