A Harbor Visit

We tried a solo family vacation, leaving Friday afternoon and returning Saturday. It was fun, but as I read somewhere recently, with small kids you take "trips" and not "vacations".

We went to a harbor area with some attractions nearby. It worked out well, and we just missed torrential rains. On Friday night we headed to the night market, which had a range of foods: corn, fried squid, vietnamese papaya, baked sweet potato, etc. We haven't been to a night market in forever, and though there is one close. The nice thing about this one was it was not humongous and seemed easy to navigate. It was close to the hotel so that we could get back before anyone melted down.

We had a king and twin bed, so Emily took the twin, Sam and I slept in the king and the twins actually chose to sleep on the floor (I think they're used to it from nap time). The kids have just reached the age where a hotel room is super fun. You can jump on the bed! There's a harbor you can watch! Cable TV! They had a blast.

The next day we did breakfast, Emily got a quick swim, and we went to some sort of Buddhist-theme park, which is one of the main regional attractions. There were few people though. The only challenge was that the kids really wanted to ride the coin-operated vehicles that were almost everywhere. They got basically two rounds and that was enough for us. It's funny how enjoyable I remember Chucky Cheese and these kind of places being when I was a kid, and how much they seem like an incredible time suck now. I probably need an attitutude. I think Sam described riding on this moving car-thing as "the most fun thing in his whole life" or some such language. Anyway, it was a memorable trip for them. I'm kind of glad we won't be repeating this immediately, but know the kids had a great time.

Otherwise life is going pretty well. I have a quiet, creeping dread about the start of the new semester, but am trying to keep it in check. Church work is relatively contained, school is currently an "OK" schedule, but I have this feeling we may end up doing our apartment switch mid semester and Emily is "close" on dissertation. All good things, but also quite stressful.