Happy Endings......New Beginnings

We had a happy ending in Thailand.....not the kind you get at the massage places, but our own Girls World Tour happy ending. It was a perfect way for Molly and I to end our 3 month "travelling" adventure with some time "vacationing" with family and friends.

Our travel time has been epic, adventuresome and went amazingly without disasterous incident or illness or mother/daughter wars. I am feeling very thankful and blessed to have had this moment in time to experience the richness of life on the road. It was a big plan, a chance of a lifetime and often hard work, but the choice to make it happen will never be regretted. As dear Maryann says, "you never regret what you do, only what you don't do". Well, I may have a couple things I have done that I regret, but they are tiny in the scope of all the regrets I do not have.

As we sit in the London airport, awaiting our flight to Seattle, I am reflecting on all the things we have done and looking at all the pictures we have taken and remembering all the new friends we have met. I believe Molly has grown in this time in many ways and I think the travels and memories will be worth more to her in a lifetime than a quarter at college. And lucky me, I was there too.

Both of us return to start a new time in our lives. Molly will move into WWU the day after we return and registers for classes and starts her higher education learning as soon as we get back. I return to a change in lifestyle with no more kids at home and a new, all most full-time, job. I have some fear about the future, but also welcome what ever comes with an open mind and an optimistic attitude.......one door closes, a new door opens, happy endings and new beginnings.

Good Bye 2009!

We flew back to Bangkok on New Year's Eve morning to spend our last couple of days on the beach near the airport. Cookie, Nee and Thee graciously returned to Bangkok and picked us up at the airport and we all drove a ways south to Baen Sung beach. We all booked nice rooms in the resort across the street from the beach.

More sunshine, more massages, more Thai food, more laughter. The kids and I layed around the pool and Cookie and family avoided the sun......we avoided the beach, it was just too crazy. Baen Sung is a tourist havens for Thai's from Bangkok. The beach was packed with families under umbrellas or in the water, with local food vendors and fresh bbq seafood. The streets were packed with cars, cars that just seem to park where they choose to stop, thus reducing a 4 lane street to one lane.

I argued with Nee and Thee and agreed only to go to dinner with them on New Year's if I could pay for everyone. Under duress, they agreed. I don't know if you should go against the grain like that, but in our culture, it seemed appropriate to pay after everything that they had done for us in the past couple weeks. We had dinner at a beachside, seafood restaurant. The kids drank a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label and got goofy......

After dinner, we walked thru the vendors, the food fair, listened to music and people watched before the countdown to 2010. We were just about the only white people in the crowd, it was truly a local experience. There were fireworks and flares and music playing out of pimped out cars with dancing partiers everywhere. It was an interesting night, but I missed the tradition of the Barron family New Year's and watching fireworks over Lake Whatcom.

I think 2010 is going to be a great year.