I Love the Beach!

Koh PhiPhi 2003

Over these years we have been privileged to live close enough to Thailand to be able to enjoy some summer holidays at the lovely beaches there. We haven't gone every year, but enough times to have built up quite a store of family memories along the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. This year we spent a quiet 8 days (perhaps our last Thailand vacation together as a whole family) at Dolphin Bay near HuaHin. There were moments, even half days, when the boys felt it was too quiet; but we did manage to squeeze in a kayaking trip to infamous Monkey Island, an evening of night fishing and a day of snorkeling, daily swims and walks on the beach, and amazing Thai meals.

The Plot....

Monkey chief: "You two monkeys lead them down the rocky coast, and the rest of us will move in for the heist."

Monkey scout: "Ouick! It worked. Those gullible farangs (Thai word for foreigner). There's food in this boat!"

Yep, they stole our snacks and would have taken the water bottles as well. Wish we had thought to bring along some bananas and lychees.

We had a lovely place to stay.

Even at high tide the shallows lasted a long way out.

Patiently waiting for a nice Thai-Seafood dinner: Crab, Stir-fried Shrimp & Cashew nuts, TomYamKai, PadThai.

What a gift this time has been.

Since I last wrote...

"The Girls" have got a new look...



The Boys have got a new look...

Junior-Senior Banquet

And I had the pleasure of visiting "the Hawaii of China" (well, they are close to the same latitude), Sanya 三亚. It was warm and lovely. And my appearance enhancement? I softened and exfoliated my skin in a feeding frenzy which some delicately call a "fish spa."

Paint With Me Beach Doodle

Ever since spiral-bound notebooks, I've been littering my note-taking margins with countless varieties of unknown flora. So for my first Paint With Me Thursday, I thought I would do the same. I kept thinking I should go look online and see what tropical flowers and palms and beach chairs really look like; but that would have required me to stop drawing, get up, and exert some technology. Oh well, maybe next time. This Beach Doodle is for Allen ... ... sigh. Paint With Me Thursday is the brainchild of Simply Feather. You can participate and find more fun artwork here.

Alphabet Thursday on Saturday - E!

I just discovered this great site which includes Jenny Matlock's Excellent idea to post through the Alphabet. Obviously, I am starting out behind; so I will try to do some catching up. But today I will focus on the letter "E" ....

E is for Entering (as in Entering Jenny's classroom to accept this challenging assignment). E is also for Exams (of which I hope there will be none). And for English, which unbelievably, was my major. But finally I am stealing one of Jenny's own Examples in "E is for Elephant;" because I love this picture from the beach in Thailand of my son and his Elephant friend.

Hope you Enjoy it too.

Btw... I must confess that I Erased some one out this photo using PhotoImpact.