Once around the globe

We’ve had a great break, but now things are going to get to break neck speed.  Tomorrow the girls go back to school and I’m going to miss J and Kiddo.  It’s been nice having them around.  It’s been nice having lazy mornings, or making plans, or just doing what it is we do.  It’s been a restful break, but we’ve done a lot for not doing anything.

Life, for us, isn’t about routine or staying in a path, but about doing what we do.  Some days that’s going to be planned and busy and things to do.  Some days that’s just hanging out and seeing where the day takes us.  Market lunch or lunch at home; Maybe we could go out, do ramen or McDs or the like.  Pool this afternoon, unless we want to maybe walk to the little garden park near us and see the chickens and feed the koi in the pond.  

We’ve done things though.  We’ve gotten to Central a few times to shop or groceries.  We’ve had Mumma time, Dada time, family time, and everything in between.  We’ve had some fun too.

Butterfly enclosure.  Children’s Museum.  Crafts.  Water and sand play.  Pool time and being a sun lizard.  We’ve eaten at home and gone out, usually to Plurn Dee.   J and I have had a date.  Climbing gym, both with Kiddo and J solo.  We’ve not been lazy and doing nothing, we’ve just been at our own pace.

Sun lizard

Lil Fish

Archeologist in action

Summer will be like that.  At our own pace, that it.  We will have things to do and places to be, sure, but for the most part we will just be doing us.  The plans include 7 flights in 6 weeks and two of those flights are in the 20+hour range.  It will be a lot to do, a lot to overcome, a lot to coordinate and keep on top of, but we will do it at our pace.  Like we did Vietnam.  Like we did this last break.  

We are excited to see LA, GB, and SF and just be with those friends and in those cities.  American food again.  Burgers again.  We can make steak one night, hopefully.  Bagels.  Pizza.  In N Out.  Also, in very much our own style, we also are looking forward to just finding the little mom/pop spots and trying what they have.  Then, we are off to Mexico and taco research.  Again, we will act like we did in Vietnam and just walk and wander and find what looks good to us that day.  Once all the fun is done, we will board a plane and head to Shanghai and start the adventure there.  

Crafting

It will be long.  It will be tiring.  It will be the equivalent to approx 23,000-25,000 flight miles.  For context, the circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles.  So, we are basically flying around the earth this summer.  Not many people can say that.  Guess that’s a feather in the cap.  The funny part is, we are actually looking forward to it!  Not just the flights, all of it.  

Most of all, we are looking forward to see friends, seeing a ball game, seeing familiar things, and seeing what familiar things are no longer so familiar to us.  We will see it and take it all in.  Then we will see more.  Then we will find how and in what ways Shanghai works for us, what little niche we carve out.

We are, in a strange way that is very much our own, looking forward to the chaos that will be our summer, much the same as we are looking forward to the calm and normal that is school life for the ladies.  We will then plan our next.  

It’s us.  Just us poking around and find the things we like and then enjoying them.  At our pace and in our ways.  We don’t need to be at an all inclusive five star resort, we just need to be us.  As we walk and explore, I will take the lead, Kiddo in the middle, and J watching our back and there to hold hands as we cross streets.  We call it Elephant walking.  We saw Vietnam that way.  We saw BKK that way.  We will see MX, LA, GB, and SF that way.  As us.  In our way.  At our pace.  And we can’t wait to do it.

Elephant walking, Kiddo leading

Let’s go, Kiddo… we are heading down hill now and our next stop is Shanghai, but in between that we will see and do a whole lot.  We can’t wait to experience it with you and find the things we like, especially the things you like.  Grab Poley and Porkchop, it’s going to be a wild ride.

PS.  These are just SOME of the pics we got.  J alone has about 200 pics and vids from the last week.  Mega post of those upcoming, once the girls get back to school I'll have more time and space to get those uploaded and processed for posting.  Enjoy the mishmash here today.  :)