The Day Before Yesterday

My mouth is watering as I upload this...

I've been delinquent in writing, I know. I got rather busy after the last time I posted and with so many things going on, I did the pilot thing of prioritizing and leaving off tasks I didn't consider essential. But on my Sunday afternoon as I've been sitting in the house and scrolling through my Microsoft To Do app and deciding what I should try to accomplish during the rest of day, I saw something that has been sitting unchecked for...months now. Okay, time to blog again. But boy, where do I start? Perhaps the day before the world changed.

Well, sadly for the folks in China, things had already changed for the worse, but at the beginning of February, COVID-19 wasn't even in our vocabulary yet and life in most other parts of the world was still "normal". My mom and sister and I were weighing whether it was a good idea to go ahead on a vacation we'd planned together to Thailand. After giving it careful thought, it still looked safe enough and so we boarded planes from our respective corners of the globe to travel to the place I had enjoyed visiting so much last year: Chiang Mai!

Never expected to see tulips in Chiang Mai!

It was so good to see my family again and what a lovely time we had together. The thing about my trip last year was that while it was a fun adventure, there was just always this empty feeling each day as I would sit in some little eclectic vegan restaurant enjoying good food all by myself with just my phone and no one that I knew. To me, I think the best part of traveling is getting to share the experience with your favorite people. And that's exactly what I got to do this last February!

We had a blast - from trying every restaurant and favorite dish I had discovered last year, to stumbling across a flower festival in the park, to getting up close and personal with giraffes at the night safari, to negotiating a much-too-narrow mountain road in the rental car. And of course, seeing many, many (did I say many?) temples and pagodas. This year I wanted to make sure we could also see Doi Inthanon National Park, which I hadn't been able to visit last time. Unfortunately, the annual smoke season had already begun, so the spectacular views that the park is famous for were largely hidden, but what we did see was still quite worth it. We made sure to take our fair share of photos in front of the iconic pagodas that star in every advertisement of Chiang Mai.

One of the twin pagodas near the summit

Our favorite part of the adventure? I'm pretty sure we're unanimous on that one: the food! That was the highlight of each day, and with so many options to try, it was always a tossup as to whether to go back and eat something we'd really enjoyed the other day or try something new. But by the end we had begun to figure out some favorites that were worth returning for - the vegan brownie and sandwich wraps at Vegan Heaven, the gluten-free strawberry cake at Pink House, the enormous tasty portions at Goodsouls Kitchen, and of course the unbeatable vegan chocolate croissants at Blue Diamond Breakfast Club.

The ten days went by very quickly and soon we were making a list of the last things we wanted to see and eat before it was time to head on. But the great part about finishing up in Chiang Mai was that our family vacation wasn't over! We had planned a Part 2 in Taipei where my sister lives and so the three of us boarded our Air Asia flight and flew to the island of Taiwan where Rachel took over as tour guide and helped us experience and try all her favorite things.

Feeling out of my league with Airbus and ATR pilots!

While there, I also had the fun opportunity to meet up with people from my previous life as a CFI. I got to catch up with my former boss Ryan and meet his wife and cute little kids. Also, some of my former students managed to get time off out of their busy EVA Air schedules and I got to meet up with them for lunch and hear about what their lives are like as airline pilots. It's so strange to think how just a couple short years ago we were droning around the traffic pattern in little Diamond 40s and now they're flying all over Asia and taking off and landing huge hunks of metal that are many times bigger than anything I've ever flown! It's neat to see what they've accomplished and I'm proud of them and really happy I could play a small part in helping them reach their dream jobs.

Vacations usually are the times of year that go by the quickest and this one was no exception. All too soon it was time to say goodbye and step on another flight that would take me away from my loved ones. We said our farewells in an almost empty airport, and set out on our individual journeys that would take us into a very different world than the one we were used to.

February seems like a lifetime ago now. Looking back, the timing couldn't have been better. Any later and we would have run the risk of getting marooned somewhere or stuck in quarantine, or worse. Yes, perhaps it was more of a risk than we realized at the time. But seeing how it turned out, it was really worth it and I can't help but think that our Heavenly Father was blessing us with a special gift. We had such a marvelous time together and came away with wonderful memories and for that I'm very grateful. I'm really glad we got to go.

Welcome to the new "normal"