Touchdown in Colorado and then on the Road Again (Tuesday, December 1st, 2015)

It was so exciting to be home after our long trip to Thailand. We were looking forward to getting unpacked and readjusted before our girls got home so we could enjoy every minute with them while we were all home together. We came home to snow, and lots of it. It was very cold, never getting above freezing, and we were definitely not enjoying that part. 

When we arrived home, our house was empty. Our oldest daughter was out visiting her husband in Georgia and our youngest was still in school. We spent a few days getting unpacked and settling back into life. We made the first 12 hour time change pretty easily, but we struggled to the the last two hour adjustment made. We were up at 4:00 every morning and by 7:30 at night we couldn't keep our eyes open.  We weren't much fun to hang with in the evening but knew we would finish our adjustment soon. We talked to a few other people from our Thailand tour group and it sounded like they were all having trouble too, so that made us feel a little better. I tried to catch up on my work as quickly as I could, since our youngest daughter would be home soon.

After a few days our youngest daughter came home for her Thanksgiving break from school. It was so nice to have her home, and she is doing very well. We’ve had a lot of fun cooking together to accommodate her gluten free diet for Thanksgiving.

We were invited to Steve’s cousin’s house for Thanksgiving, so in addition to our dessert that we were taking, we took stuffing and gluten free gravy for our youngest daughter. We had a great time with all of the family. We were split among 3 tables for the Thanksgiving dinner, with four generations in attendance. The youngest and oldest generation were at one table, Steve’s parent’s and aunt and uncle were at another table, and Steve and I were seated with his cousin and his wife who are a little younger than us. It was the first time in a long time that we were able to really sit and talk with them. We really enjoyed every minute that we spent with them. The dinner was fabulous, but the company with the whole family was definitely the highlight of the day. 

We had a chance to face-time with our oldest daughter and her husband during our Thanksgiving celebration. He recently graduated from his officer’s boot camp, which was certainly the highlight of the month, but it was also their first Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of them and it was so fun to see their excitement about preparing their own meal and just having time together. 

When our oldest daughter got home from Georgia, we invited Steve's parents over for an evening, and had a fun evening of setting up for Christmas.  This will probably be our last time to have the help of our oldest daughter, so this was a very special evening.  

Hanging Stockings

Steve in his usual position handing out ornaments

Love my Charlie Brown Tree, so little and cute!

All done with ornaments!

Time for the nativity scene

Very careful placement!

The perfect nativity, but where's the angel?

There's the angel, Steve is adding her to the top of the tree!

A wonderful meal to end the night

Lobster tails, broccoli salad, beets, beet greens and polenta

I think she liked the beets!

When Thanksgiving break was over, our youngest daughter returned to school, our oldest daughter came home and went back to her routine of work and school, and we were once again on the move.

About a week and a half after getting home, we were off again for another trip to Lake Havasu City, this time with Steve’s parents. Our oldest daughter took us to the airport at 5:15 in the morning, before she left for school. We appreciate this so much, as she has such a busy life. We trade this favor back and forth for each other so that we don’t always have to leave a car in the parking lot while we’re gone. 

We had a treat for Steve’s parents on the plane, we had four Southwest drink coupons, so we all ordered bloody marys. Steve’s mom and dad loved it, and said that now he was going to have to do that on every flight. Steve's dad enjoyed the entertainment that he got out of pouring and mixing and pouring and mixing. The next thing he knew, we were touching down.

We landed in Las Vegas at about 9:30 am and headed straight to Avis Car Rental. We can do a one way rental from the Vegas airport to the little airport in Havasu. We are Avis Preferred, so when we got to the car rental building, we just looked for our name on their electronic sign, and it told us which car was ours. We walked out, got in our car and drove off. It is was so, so easy and very quick. 

We drove to Lake Havasu City via Laughlin, NV where we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch. It’s always fun to enjoy our first In-N-Out Burger after we’ve been gone for a while. It’s about the only fast food that we really ever eat, so it’s a treat. 

It’s so much warmer here than at home, so it’s a treat to be able to run around with just a light jacket.

We have done the drive to Lake Havasu so many times over the last 20 years, that it is really a treat to be able to fly. It only cuts about 7 hours off of the commute, but it is so much easier than making the full drive. 

We got to Havasu, and we all felt great, and ready for the day. We had to grab some groceries and return the rental car, and of course, take some time to enjoy the 70 degree temperatures!

Thailand - Flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles (Saturday, November 16th, 2015)

We had a chance to sleep in this morning for the first time in almost three weeks.  Oh my did that feel good!  

We finally got up and enjoyed our breakfast in Bangkok at the Century Park Hotel where this whole adventure began. Many of the people from our tour were in the dining room so we had one final chance to say goodbye before returning to our room for showers and packing.  

As we looked out our hotel window, we noticed some construction on the roof of the temple below us.  They were re-roofing it, using the same bamboo scaffolding we have seen so many times before, only this time, it was set up on a slanting roof.

Nothing scary about this right?!!

Crazy!

All of the hotels we have stayed in for the last three weeks have had the blowdryers hidden away in drawers, so we would go on an adventure each morning to find the blow dryer.  So this morning when I got out of the shower, I started going through drawers looking for the blowdryer.  Steve started the search as well but was also unsuccessful.  So Steve went on the search for our housekeeper.  He found her in the hall not far from our room, and started doing sign language for the blowdryer.  She immediately pulled out a toilet plunger (that must be the most common issue she runs into), but thankfully that wasn't our issue, so next she pulled out a spare bottle of water, but that didn't help either.  Steve finally got her to understand that it was the blow dryer, so she followed him back to the room, thinking that ours was broke.  She walked into the bathroom, pulled the blow dryer off the wall in the bathroom, where it had been conspicuously stored the entire time, and turned it on.  It worked like a charm.  

At this point, we realized how tired we must really be, and were so embarrassed that we didn't see it there, so we quickly gave her a nice tip and sent her on her way.  We both laughed so hard after she left that we didn't see it right there on the wall!  

While I finished getting ready Steve ran out and picked up our final iced mocha of the trip from 7-11 just down the street from our hotel.  We bought coffee in every city we visited, and some of them were quite expensive, but none of them even came close to being as good as the double shot mochas we got in Bangkok at the 7-11.  Amazingly enough, they have a true espresso machine that they use to make them.  And the only 7-11 where we could find coffee was in Bangkok.  None of the 7-11's in the other towns we visited had the machines.....darn!  And the best part was that they cost us 30 baht each, less than $1.00.  Oh are we going to miss these!!

Once we were packed up, we made our way down to the lobby, checked out of our room, and waited for our airport transport.

Hotel checkout was at 12:00 and so we waited in the lobby for our our shuttle to arrive at the hotel at 12:30.  In true Gate-1 fashion our driver showed up about 15 minutes early and came into the lobby looking for us.  Once he found us, he pulled up the van and we got in, so it was such an easy morning.  We were on our way to Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

The Bangkok International Departure terminal is very big but very easy to navigate.  We walked in and looked for the departure screen.  It lists departure time, followed by flight number and then check-in counter.  We proceeded to our check-in counter for our boarding pass and to check our luggage.  They were also able to check our seat assignments  and luggage all the way through to Los Angeles.  As we worked our way through the airport, we had to show our boarding passes and passports four different times, so we learned to just keep them handy.

The Bangkok International Departures Terminal is very big

As we entered the international departure terminal, we were greeted by signs to help us find our way.

The departure screen

Our flight is the third one down, flight CZ3082.  We were directed to isle "U" for our check-in counter

The bright yellow signs mark the check-in rows

Once we found our check-in row, we just looked for the China Southern Check-in windows

The international departure terminal is beautiful!

Looking for our gate.  Not a bad view!

Our China Southern plane left Bangkok at 3:35 pm and landed in Guangzhou, China at 7:20 pm (on-time). We had a two-hour layover in Guangzhou, and were supposed to take off again at 9:30 pm, but we had a medical issue on our flight after one of the passengers got hit in the head by a bag.  

We spent about an hour at the gate as the doctors examined the passenger and finally gave her clearance to fly.  The flight crew took good care of us as we sat waiting for our takeoff.  The plane was air conditioned the entire time, and the flight crew provided drinks if we wanted them.  Our pilot made up much of the lost time in flight, still allowing us to arrive on time in Los Angeles, California at about 6:30 pm on November 16th (the same day we left Bangkok).

Our flight home was interesting, in that we remained on Asia time for most of the flight.  When we boarded the flight, it was about 9:20pm.  After we got in the air, they fed us a nice meal, and then at about midnight, we settled ourselves for sleep.  So we ended up sleeping for most of the flight, then when we awoke, they fed us a nice breakfast, we flew awhile longer, and then landed in Los Angeles at about 6:30 pm. 

We collected our luggage without issue at the carousel: 

One of our bags that held all our worldly possessions for the last three weeks!

We called the hotel shuttle as we made our way through the airport, so he was waiting for us when we exited the airport.  Again, we will stay a night at the Holiday Inn Express in Los Angeles before heading home on Southwest Airlines tomorrow morning. 

We received a text from our oldest daughter (she is trying to fly out of Denver International Airport today to go see her husband for Thanksgiving), and she said that they aren't allowing many flights into the airport due to the weather.  They are trying to get as many flights out as possible, so she is hoping to get out okay.

Our daughter will drive out and leave the car at The Parking Spot (an offsite parking lot for airport travelers).  We will then fly in tomorrow and pick it up.  We all get nice trips, and only have to pay for a day of parking.  Not bad!  She just sends us a picture of where the car is parked, and we let the shuttle driver know.

Although we slept through most of the flight, when we got to the hotel, it was time to sleep again.  And believe it or not, we were ready for more sleep.  But even more importantly at this point, we were both really hungry.  

Unfortunately there are no restaurants very close to our hotel, except for McDonald's, which is right across the street, so for the first time in probably 15+ years, I was treated to a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries.  Since I am kind of a health food nut, I struggled with this concept a little bit, but hunger won out.  It was such a big day in our lives that we even sent a picture to our girls, who thought the world must be coming to an end with mom eating McDonald's!!!!

This sure isn't Thai fast food!

We got a good laugh out of our dinner and headed back to the hotel.  We're very tired, but mostly just mixed up on our time.  I'm sure it will take a little time to get back to normal, but for now we'll try and get a good night's sleep.

Thailand - Returning to Bangkok (Saturday, November 15th, 2015)

Unfortunately our amazing trip to Thailand is quickly coming to an end. This morning we had our usual drill for travel days... morning wake up call at 5:45, bags outside the room at 6:45, meet in the hotel lobby at 7:45. In true Gate-1 fashion, Mike, our Tour Director, met all of us in the hotel lobby, made sure that we were all checked out of our rooms and ready to go. We got on our beautiful coach bus for the last time and headed to the airport. 

The morning sun is a little bright shining in the windows

As we were all seated, Mike made his usual announce for one final time.... "OK, folks; touch your passport".  And of course, a few of us responded with our silly unmentionable reply (Yes Helen, I'm talking about us).  

Every time we moved from one city to another, Mike always made us touch our passport, to make sure that everyone had them. It got to be funny by the end of the trip, but needless to say, we all appreciated it greatly. He has taken such good care of us for these 2+ weeks. 

The bus pulled out of the hotel, and we headed to the Chiang Mai airport. Today's flight is just a domestic flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, so there will be no customs to go through. We arrived at the airport and Mike herded all of us through the airport and helped us get to our check-in counter. 

Steve and I did not have our seats for this flight prearranged, but the Bangkok Airways representative had no problem getting us seats together. We even got the emergency exit row with lots of leg room. 

Once we were checked in, we gave Mike our final hugs and headed through security. We were flying Bangkok Airways, so Mike let us know about the lounge they had in the terminal.  Mike likes Bangkok Airways as they generally are on-time and are very professional.  

Thank you Mike for your friendship and all of your surprises these last two weeks. We loved your surprises!!!  Your morning wake up calls were very early, but because of them we didn't miss a thing! You taught us so much about Thailand that we never could have learned on our own!  We hope we can keep in touch and return the favor some day!  We're sure your beautiful new daughter would love to see the U.S.

After getting through security, we all headed to the lounge, where they had free food, drinks and wifi for us to enjoy until our boarding time. We all took advantage of this and took time to talk and relax. 

At 9:20, we all moved from the lounge to our gate for our 10:00 flight and then onto the plane. Steve and I were thrilled with our seats since we had so much extra legroom. We were seated next to a man from Ireland who was doing missionary work in Thailand off and on for the past 20-years. We chatted with him for the whole flight. He was very nice and interesting. 

After our one hour flight we landed back in Bangkok where we had started this amazing adventure. We were on a small plane, so we didn't get a tarmac.  We disembarked and rode buses back to the terminal.

Once we retrieved our bags, we were greeted by Pete, one of Mikes colleagues from Gate-1, who helped us find our bus and traveled back to the hotel with us. As always, our room keys were waiting for us in the lobby, which made getting settled back in very easy. 

We heard Bangkok Air has a good frequent fliers program

We had the remainder of the day on our own to once again enjoy the beautiful city of Bangkok. Steve and I took an afternoon stroll through the park and again stopped at our favorite little massage place. We each had another Thai massage. We asked for mine to be a little more gentle, and of course, my wishes were granted. It was the most amazing massage ever!  Again, they are 200 baht for an hour or ~$5.75 US.  Of course we also like to provide a nice tip also. We both came out of the there feeling so relaxed!!! 

We walked a few feet further up the street and grabbed our usual iced mochas at 7-11 and then headed back toward our hotel. On our way back, we ran into a few of the women from our tour who were interested in the massages, so we showed them how to get there.

As we looked around the beautiful city of Bangkok, we remembered a few more interesting facts that Mike taught us throughout our adventure, so I will share the with you here:

As we walk or drive through the streets of Bangkok, there are shops on the main floor of all the buildings.  Mike explained that these are called; Shop houses.  Many people in Bangkok live in Shop houses. They are small in area, but when you purchase one, you purchase every floor above your shop.  The first floor is always the shop and/or store, with a garage door that can be opened up during the day for business.  The second floor is usually the office to run the shop, the third floor is the living area, the next floor is the sleeping area and the top floor is the kitchen.  Shop houses are all hooked together in one long building, but are all individually maintained by their owners.  As we walk around, we notice that one section of the building will be well maintained, but others will not.  

Notice of the individual units are maintained differently.

A few more interesting facts about Bangkok

• Water pressure is very low in Bangkok, so most  of the houses and business have water tanks on the roof.  The water is slowly filled in these tanks throughout the day, and then when someone needs are shower or something, the gravity fed water has enough pressure to make a good shower.

• The very wealthy of Bangkok live in condominiums, and some live in apartments.  The poorest are called water people and live on the canals in makeshift houses.  Their babies learn to swim before they learn to walk.  

A few more pictures from our hotel window before we leave this wonderful city.  We will truly miss it!

We saw this little guy on our walk through the park after a brief rain storm.  He was a good two inches long.

For dinner, our friends Jess and Gina wanted to try the noodle bowls that we had eaten on our prior visit, so they along with Helen and Chris and us decided to meet at 5:00 in our room and then we all headed out to find our dinner. 

Jess and Gina had not been to the park yet, so we took the long route through the park, and by the massage place, and finally ended up at Center-one Shopping Center. We entered through the basement where the locals eat, and headed up all of the escalators to the 4th floor. We were able to find a table for six, and enjoyed bowl after bowl of mystery noodles (since we never really know what we were ordering). They were all good, so who really cares!

Locals doing a Zumba class in the park

Our fast food dinner in the food court at the mall.

So many bowls!  Each bowl was 12 baht or about $.35!

 As we headed back to the hotel, Jess and Gina called it a night since they had a very early flight in the morning, and Chris and Helen came back to the room for a few more minutes of chatting before we all called it a night. What a great way to end a fantastic trip!

We all enjoyed the view one last time before we called it a night

Thank you Helen and Chris for all of the laughs, we truly enjoyed your adventurous spirits and all of your worldly knowledge. We hope to see you in San Francisco soon!   Good luck with the remodel and the shoulder!

Thank you Gina and Jess for your laughter and keeping us all grounded when we got a little wild. We're so glad we got to share a lantern with you.  I'm not sure we'll see you in Cincinnati since Southwest doesn't fly there, but we'll make plans to meet somewhere else!

Thank you Brian and Humana for your friendship! We missed you so much tonight at dinner but know that you had fun at MK Mall. We hope to see you in Florida sometime!

Thank you to all of our new Gate-1 friends for the memories that we will cherish forever!

Getting to Colorado (Wednesday, September 30th, 2015)

We traveled back to Colorado so I could get some work done, and of course to see everyone!  Even though Steve is retired, I'm still working part-time, and that means being flexible with our location. 

So we made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Las Vegas to catch a flight on Southwest Airlines.  We have been flying on Southwest for as long as I can remember, so we have built up a lot of points with them, and luckily for us, this trip was booked completely on points for both of us.   

We planned to get to Las Vegas early so we could have time for a trip to Costco and a quick lunch before heading to the economy lot. 

There isn't a Costco in Lake Havasu City, so everyone goes to either Las Vegas or Phoenix for their big shopping trips.  We had never visited the Costco in Las Vegas, so we stopped on our way into town in the suburb of Henderson.  It was a zoo!  It is one of the most heavily used Costcos we have ever been to.  It took us quite awhile to find a parking spot, and then the store was just as crowded.  There was also a line of about 10 cars per lane waiting to fill up with gas, which we learned was about $.35 per gallon cheaper than the other gas stations in town!

We also wanted to find something new and healthy for lunch.  As we were driving down Tropicana Boulevard on the way to the airport, Steve looked over and saw a cute little restaurant called El Fish Taco.  So we turned around and headed back to see what they had.  

We were very pleasantly surprised.  They had a nice selection on their menu, and the service was great.  Our server brought out a courtesy sample of one of their soups for us to try, and then we each ordered their lunch special which was any two tacos (except for lobster) and a drink for $4.99.  So we each had a fish taco and a shrimp taco and a horchata (a rice and cinnamon drink).  It was very good!  The owner came over and talked to us when we had finished our tacos, and said that they had been open for two months.  

Cute new restaurant in Las Vegas, on Tropicana Boulevard

After lunch we still had a few minutes, so we walked over to a Mercado, called Marketon, that was in the same parking lot.  They had so much nice looking produce, but one thing really caught our eye.  When we were in Puerto Rico about a year ago, a guide that we hired at Cuava De Indio introduced us to these little fruits that he called sea grapes.  They are tiny little fruit that you peel and then suck on until the seed is clean.  There isn't much meat on them, but they are pretty fun and tasty.  And to our amazement, they were selling them at the Mercado.  

Sea Grapes, you sure can't find these just anywhere in Las Vegas

Then off to the airport we went.  As we were sitting in traffic, a jumbo jet flew right over the UCLA stadium, and looked like it was going to land on it.  And then a few minutes later a smaller jet flew over the road we were on.

Not as big as the first one we saw, but still fun to see while sitting in traffic

The flight from Las Vegas to Denver usually takes just under 2 hours, but this time we made it in 1 hour 35 minutes.  Our oldest daughter was waiting for us at the airport.  What a great day and easy way to get home! 

Boston and Portland (Saturday, August 22nd, 2015)

We dropped our oldest daughter off at the airport this morning, so she could go see her husband for the weekend, and we will move our youngest daughter back up to school tomorrow.  It's always a bit of a struggle for us when our kids head back to school, and our house once again becomes very quiet, so we got on-line to see if we could find any cheap flights.  Not knowing where else to start, we started looking in Portland, Oregon.  We have never been to the northwest coast, so thought it might be fun.  Steve was able to find cheap flights, but rental cars were really high.  Finally, he called me over to look at this car rental he had found.  It was a great rate, but I quickly realized that it was in Portland, Maine, not Portland, Oregon!  So I suggested that maybe we wanted to go see the north east coast instead.  He laughed, and then said, "Why not!  Let's see what we can find for flights".  So he started looking at flights, and behold, there were cheap flights into Boston.  Score!

When we realized that we might be heading to the north east coast, we instantly thought of a couple of families that we know in that area, so we contacted both of them on very short notice to see if they might be available for dinner during the next week or so.  Both of them were available, and seemed excited that we were coming their way.  As we talked more with our friends, it became clear that we would need to head north out of Boston first, and up into Maine, so that we could see our friends in Maine first, then we could take our time getting back to the Boston area to see our other friends.

Our Maine friends, Tony and Sarah gave us a really nice list of things to stop and see on our way up toward them, so we started planning our route, and decided that we would spend our first night in Portland, Maine.  It is a good distance from Logan Airport, and will get us heading in the right direction, but as we started looking at hotels, we realized that even though everything else is cheap, hotels are not.  We decided to stay at the Holiday Inn by the Bay, since we usually get some perks at Holiday Inn because we stay with them so often, but it was going to be $400/night.  Yikes.  That's a lot for a Holiday Inn!  So Steve decided to log into his IHG account to see if he had any points that he could use to help out with the cost a little bit.  And to our surprise, we just reached our one year anniversary with them, and were being rewarded with a free night.  Could this be working out any better?  So we booked our hotel using our free night stay.  Let's hope that the rest of our trip goes this well!!!

We landed in Boston, Massachusetts at 4:50 ET, and found the bus for the rental car lots.  We had booked the car through the Budget Fast Break club (which is free to join), so we were able to skip the line at the budget counter and go straight out to the lot.  In the lot kiosk, there was no line at all, and we quickly got our car and headed out for Portland, Maine.  We were dying to see the ocean, so we took the long way to Portland, via highway 1A, which runs along the coast through the small towns of Hampton and Rye.  This was a more scenic route, but when we got into the town of Hampton, there was a seawall for quite a ways which blocked our view, but soon it was gone, and we enjoyed the view of the ocean as we drove along. 

The beautiful beach in Hampton, New Hampshire

 As we drove down the highway, we periodically saw signs that read "Watch for moose on roadway".  We got a kick out of this, but you see these types of signs everywhere, it's just the animals that change.  In Colorado, it's elk, in Arizona is burros, and in Maine is moose!   When we finally reached Portland, Steve was the first to get out of the car, and as he opened his door the smell of fish hit us like a freight train.  Wow, we're definitely not used to that.

It was dark when we got to our hotel, and apparently, we were the last ones to check in because the only room they had left for us was a smoking room.  In Colorado they don't even have smoking rooms as an option, so we really didn't expect this.  She asked us to go up and check the room out, and we had to admit that it was really bad.
We aren't used to cigarette smoke at all, so we asked them if there was anything they could do to freshen up the room, so they gave us two drink coupons to use while we waited for it to be freshened up.   We each enjoyed a complimentary drink and then they called us to go check it out again.  It was much better so we took it. The room had a great view, and was a great room except for the smoking issue.  

Around 9:00 we  took the hotel shuttle to J's Oyster for dinner.  It came highly rated on Trip Advisor and by the hotel staff, so we gave it a try.  It was an interesting place.  It was a small seafood shack right on the bay with both indoor and outdoor seating.  

J's Oyster with outdoor seating to the right and the restaurant to the left

 We chose to sit inside since it was cooling off for the night, and as we entered, it was a definite bar atmosphere. 

Some of the food was very good, and some was very average, which we found very interesting.  All of the entrees came with bread and a salad.  The bread consisted of a basket of soft white rolls and the salads had been pre-plated and stacked, with a prepackaged envelope of dressing on the side. Water was served in little plastic cups, and yet our beers were served in beer glasses from each of the respective brewery's, and the entrees were fantastic. Steve had boulibaise I had seafood casserole. Both were very good, with nice quantities.  Mine wasn't very healthy, as it was in a butter and white wine sauce, but Steve's was very healthy in a light tomato and wine sauce.  

We had a few leftovers, which we were excited to finish at another time. We chose to walk home, instead of taking the shuttle back, and on the way walked by a love lock fence.

We also stopped at an outdoor venue with a live band. It was very fun and the band was great. We got back to the room very late and enjoyed a great night's sleep!