East Bay Heads to the Far East

Well, its actually closer if you go West, but Far West doesn't sound as normal to the ears. Candy and Salene sent this at 2am on Thursday as they prepared to go on vacation to Thailand...


Just wanted to let you know that Candy, myself and our good friend Zena are leaving in a few hours to Thailand. Asia has been a place we have been wanting to explore for a very long time.

The opportunity was offered for us to stay with a friend of ours there in a huge house with a maid and a chef, so we ran with it. We will be homebound in Bangkok, but jumping around to some of the famous islands and hotspots like Chiang Mai and Phuket :).

Some things we are looking forward to are the night markets, riding elephants on the beaches, snorkeling, horseback rides in the jungles, visiting the temples, the $5/hr massages, the art, the water sports, the food, and staying in cabanas on the beaches.

Candy has been practicing a lot of the language! I will be sure to send pictures when we get back! Some internet access, but no cell phones.

Be back in 2 weeks!
laa kawn (goodbye)


And here's an update from Friday morning at 10am...


WE ARRIVED in Bangkok and we are safe. It's 1am and we just got settled in to our friend Jill's apartment. Her place is beautiful. The temperature is currently 81 degrees (yikes!). We all slept 7 hours on our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok so we are wide awake and ready to hit the streets. We'll try to keep in touch....

xoxox


Here are some pics to let you know what and where...

The Girls Plan A Getaway

It’s early in the planning stages, but the Aunties and Cousins are planning an All-Female getaway in July 2008.

It goes without saying that trips like these are a good and necessary thing. They build and strengthen ties, allow people to catch up on how life is for everyone else, and the trip can be relaxation away from the usual hubbub of every day life.

Of course, that’s not the primary reason for the trip next summer.

It comes at a time just before Leah’s wedding. And a better time could scarcely be found for the getaway. This gives the Women of our family a chance to get together and share advice, experience, and wisdom learned from one generation to another. The exchange of knowledge will surely be great. It is a special thing for the Aunties and Cousins to do with and for Leah as she becomes a bride and builds the foundations of her own family.

Thus far, either stays at the Chumash Resort near Santa Barbara’s numerous wineries, or somewhere close to the heart of California’s Wine Country in Napa Valley have been tossed around for consideration. Nothing is definite yet.

There is still time. But don’t wait too long or places will be booked by the summer tourists.

In any case, to everyone going: enjoy!

Get On The Bus

This was discussed over Thanksgiving Weekend while the Nor Cal Contingent visited. Namely, some of the Aunties and Uncles were thinking it a good idea to charter a bus to take us Santa Barbarians to Morgan Hill, CA for Leah's wedding.

Well, I did some looking. I didn't do in-depth research. I simply wanted to get an idea for the cost. I emailed 2 companies: US Coachways, and Santa Barbara Airbus. Though it's been over a week, I only have a response from US Coachways.

Here is what they say:

We have available a 56 passenger coach. It comes equipped with high back bucket reclining seats, TV, VCR, AC, AM-FM stereo, rest rooms and some have CD/DVD players. On any overnight stays a private room is required for the driver. The price will be $2390 plus a 15-20% gratuity for the driver. We work on a first come first serve basis. If you decide to book please sign all forms and completely fill out the attached forms and return them to us.

So, that's $2,390 base cost. The 15% gratuity adds $358.50. And let's estimate the room for the driver at $120 for the night. That puts the estimated cost for the bus charter at $2,868.50.

If we have 50 people on the bus, it makes the cost about $60 per person (no discounts for kids and senior citizens).

I'm fairly confident this is what we can expect, with little deviation, if we decide to go with a bus for the trip. There are details we must work out, and we can talk about those things later.

My opinion: this would be fun. We'd all be on the bus, free to move seats, chatting it up the whole way. There's be no wear-and-tear on personal vehicles. This would be like sitting on Monica's deck on any given afternoon. Good times, I say.

Think about it and discuss amongst yourselves. Ask and I can provide you some things to consider.

November Poll Closed

The Poll for November closed last week. This poll had the highest response rate yet-- 8 people voted!

So, that might not even get to 10% of our family, but it's still the highest yet. I expect December's Poll to have more responses.

Th question was, "How many times have you traveled outside of California?" This isn't just a random question. Rather, it goes to the heart of one of the defining characteristics about who we are as a family. That is, we don't travel, we don't get out much.

It has been said that any person's best quality is also their worst flaw. Viewing the motivation for the Poll and results of the Poll under the guise of that statement, what can we say about our Family?

You may come to your own conclusions, and perhaps you had an opinion established beforehand, but my conclusion is as follows:

We are a close, tight-knit family. It is nothing for us to show up at any other's house on a random Tuesday, or even a Sunday. It doesn't take a birthday or wedding to get several dozen of us gathered for coffee, dinner, or just to sit and talk. And we happen to live in a city and in a state that together have some of the most beautiful views and weather in the world.

Now, on the flip side of things, this is also what keeps us close to home and most-often within our own family circle. Who needs friends when you have such a big family? Why travel when we live in such a beautiful place? Our familiarity (pardon the pun) is our security blanket, comforting and warm, and always nearby.

This isn't to say that it's a bad thing-- not at all. We are close as a family, and we extend this to anyone who enters the circle, whether they are friends or significant others. Every in-law, boyfriend and girlfriend, cousin Wolf and Uncle Larry (Bob's brother) are a testament to that.

It is not all of these positives about us that are at issue. The issue is whether the comfort of the circle keeps us from doing things-- from travel, from trying new things, from meeting new people, from doing anything that might fall outside of what the Family considers normal or usual.

This is food for thought, to be sure. But that's all it should be. Do not take offense. This isn't an indictment, it is merely a topic for consideration. And after such consideration, no doubt we will get back to those things that make our family so great, and so rich with kindness.

Out of 8 responses, 3 have traveled outside of California 1-5 times, 2 have traveled outside of the state 6-10 times, 2 chose 11-15 times, and one 16 or more times. The votes are leaning toward staying close to home.

Now, you discuss.

New Poll

How's things, y'all?

There's a new poll up on the right. It asks:

How many times have you traveled outside of California?

I'm not counting Las Vegas because it's like going to Canada and saying you've been to a foreign country-- it's really not that out-of-the-way.

I'm trying to gauge our level of travel, to see if it's true that, as a whole, we tend to stay at home where things are nice and cozy.

If we took it back to early man on the plains of the Serengeti, back when we were hunter-gatherers living on piles of grass, we wouldn't be the ones to look out over the horizon and wonder "What's over there?" We'd have thrown some more grass on the pile, picked a root to gnaw on, and lounged under a tree until the sun went down. Then we would have gone to sleep, to have the energy to do it all over again the next day.

Just kidding, folks.

Cheers!