Thailand to Seattle, and Back Again
November 5, 2015
Well, we finally got to get away from Chiang Mai and took a vacation. Yes, retirees can go on vacation. So we thought, where to go? London, Paris, Rome, Istanbul? We decided to go to our favorite city in the world, Seattle. We’d go see our son Darin, eat lots of Dungeness crabs, check out the Seahawks (The Hawks won two games while we were there), maybe see a whale or two, and visit with old friends. We’d get back to Chiang Mai for the beautiful cool season.
It’s been a while since we took that 17 hour in-the-air, 24 hour door-to-door flight back to the Great Pacific Northwest, and I soon remembered why we don’t do this more often. When I first did this trip at age 22 it was more or less fun and exciting. Now it is just long, with no sleep. And jet lag lasted almost the entire trip. Getting old isn’t for sissies, as Bette Davis said.
But we finally made it to the condo where we would be staying. We have a Thai friend who spends half his time in Seattle and the other half in Thailand and when he comes up to Chiang Mai he stays in our guest bungalow. So he let us stay in his condo on Capitol Hill right in the heart of the city.
We visited Darin up on Orcas Island right on the border of Canada, Pikun got to play for a last time with her old Thai classical ensemble, saw close friends, ate some great Dungeness crabs, Taco Bell, Ivar’s creamy clam chowder, and did lots of shopping.
We did learn that although we truly miss our life in Seattle, that is all in the past. We are very happy to be back in Chiang Mai. Instead of writing about the trip here is a pictorial essay.
A great trip. And as the sun set on rainy Seattle we get ready for 17 more flying hours and another week of jet lag. Our next trip will be the one-hour flight to Luang Prabang.
And to use the typical Seattle form of goodbye, “Go Hawks!”.