Vacation

After the video was done and we said our goodbyes to our dear Thai friends (some of which we've said goodbye to 6 times!), we took a family vacation to a national park just south of the city of Hua Hin. When I say "family" I mean our family plus Andrew and Libby, our teammates, and our good friends Ped and Tik. It was an excellent time. Quite eventful too.

We stayed at a place called Dolphin Bay Resort in a 2 bedroom apartment with the 2 singles on our team. Adelaide loved all the space to run around (since she'd been used to one room for 3 of us). The kitchen helped us save money by making our own lunches, and the balcony gave us some great space for hanging out in the evenings. The resort got great reviews online and for good reason.

On top of us having a great apartment, there were 2 nice pools. 1 which had an excellent water slide that Adelaide loved. There were swing sets and a playscape, a massage place built into the hotel, etc. Oh, and the best part was the price. It was around the same price we'd pay for a Motel 6 here in the States!

This was the view from our breakfast table, not too shabby.

Our first morning on vacation our family went for a bike ride after breakfast. It was awesome. Bike rentals were 50 baht a day, about $1.50. Adelaide and I rode for about 2 hours-- on the beach, next to rice paddies, near fields of flowers. . .

Here we are on our ride. The national park we were near is called Kaow Sam Roy Yod, 300 hundred peaks. The mountains were so beautiful.

The next day the whole gang headed out on a boat trip around Monkey Island, it was right across the water from our place. It's not named Monkey Island for nothing. Here's one of the monkeys.

And here's another one. Adelaide was not interested in the monkeys, only in the bananas we were feeding them and climbing on the boulders.

The 3 of us on Monkey Island. I know we look like tools, but hey there are monkeys.

And more monkeys as our boat ride continued.

In the national park we hiked up a mountain to visit Sai Cave. We didn't anticipate such a steep hike but we all made it safe and sound. The cave was awesome. I love this picture of us all mesmerized by the cave and some endangered monkeys we saw near the top.

The following day we rented motorcycles to explore the park some more. Adelaide felt so comfortable on the motorcycle that she fell asleep after only 10 minutes or so.

More national park pictures.

This picture doesn't do justice to show how huge this lizard was. We thought it was an alligator at first. The park has tons of wild life. Obviously you've seen some of the monkeys but I really enjoyed the varieties of birds and the mud skippers best I think.

The whole family on the motorcycle. I remember when we left for Thailand I was worried about Adelaide not having a carseat all summer. Obviously I worked through that fear.

Adelaide building sand castles with Rocky and her first crush, Andrew. She loves Andrew. She loved spending time with him and even kissed him a few times. Andrew used to teach swim lessons for toddlers so he also gave us some pointers along the way. Adelaide's doing really well so far. She can hold her breathe for about 4 seconds and can dog paddle under water pretty well. She will jump right in to the pool and we've been working on her turning around on her own and going back to the end. She is totally not scared. Andrew said it's a funny quality to see in a first born, but thinking back I'd say Rocky and I are some adventurous first borns so she must get it from us.

Unfortunately on the last day of our trip the tide brought in tons of jellyfish. Fortunately we didn't find that out the hard way. We found this blue one which we thought was pretty cool.

These flowers were growing all over the beach.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture or video of one of the best parts of the trip-- Adelaide swimming or sliding down the water slide. I guess I was always having too much fun when I was there. I can't even describe to you how much Adelaide enjoyed the slide. She'd say "more" just as soon as she landed and she'd have a open mouthed smile from the moment we sat down with her at the top. You'd think she'd be afraid of the big splash at the end but no. She squealed even more when she hit the water.

Adelaide fell asleep on my lap on the way to the train station. She didn't stay that way long with the train whistle and all. Look at the crazy blonde hair and tan skin. She looks like a beach bum for sure.

Since Adelaide was awakened too soon from her nap, the train ride seemed a little longer than 3.5 hours. She was constantly wiggling and needing some entertainment. Rocky and I were a little worn out after the ride. Here's Adelaide wearing Andrew's hat, one of those attempted to preoccupy her.

Even though one of the things that was the hardest to adjust to on this trip were the prices (the value of the dollar going down and the growing economy in Thailand), I'm still amazed at times how cheap some things are in Thailand. Our trains were $10 for the special express. Our meals were often just $1 or $2 . Massages around $7 for an hour. Our motorcycle rentals were less than $7 a day. Rocky's prescription sunglasses were a little over $20. I'm afraid though that next time we head back I may not be very impressed with prices. Things are changing so quickly these days. Some things are beginning to rival America's prices.