The Long and Winding Road

So since our departure from Thailand, we have finally arrived in Zion National Park, Utah. We made a beeline for the area, spending 3 weeks in the Philippines hanging out with my cousin, Eloy. Then we hit up Brett's homeland of Oregon, spent time with his family and friends, bought a car, got geared up for camping, and thanks to his mom Sharen, put together some last minute details for the wedding. We took the LONGEST way possible to get from Grants Pass, OR to San Francisco, taking every scenic byway we could. The trip took 14 hours. While it was a gorgeous trip, we won't be doing that again. We arrived in San Fran where I got to reconnect with old High School and Peace Corps friends. We continued on to Lake Tahoe to visit another friend then traveled down the loneliest road in America (Hwy 50) through Nevada stopping to camp at Great Basin National Park. We went on a cave tour, got back on the road, and finally arrived at Zion National Park. The scenery coming in kept smiles on our faces. As we drove into the park, I kept laughing at how ridiculously beautiful it all was. Words fail. We're here, last details have been cemented and now we will be enjoying the park while we wait for our family and friends to arrive for the big date. Brett's mom will be arriving early as well as his brother and some friends. It's all very exciting. Here's a photo progression of our journey.

My birthday present: Parasailing at White Sands Beach, Mindoro, Philippines

With my cousin and his friend in Puerta Galera, Mindoro, Phil.

Baby Bump in front of our new car! Portland, Or.

With friends and family in front of Multnomah Falls.

With Sharen and Jack in the Lava Caves.

A garden complete with unicorn, pegasus, and elephant:
The hard work of a 3 year-old girl and I while visiting friends in Grants Pass, OR.

California!
Redwood Forest.

California Poppies along the highway.

We couldn't drive through because of our roof carrier.

So we parked on top of a tree instead.

Highway 1, the Shoreline Highway in California
Again.

Little River Inn where we had an surprisingly AMAZING dinner.

Their garden

Driving into San Francisco at night.

Brett and I in front of Bridal Veil falls.
Apparently there are alot of "Bridal Veil" falls.

Entering South Lake Tahoe! Pretty, woodsy, mountains!

Tempting.

A shoe tree along the highway

Pony express territory in Austin, NV

Loneliest Road driving into the Great Basins

Deer? Elk? Moose?

Marmot!!!!!!!!

Barn swallow takes flight at our breakfast cafe.

Dead drunk things in cars
Its a drunk dead horse.

Another Roadside Attraction


Entering Great Basin National Park

The very, very ornate Lehman's Cave

Great Basin NP

Marmot Crossing

Cows on skateboards crossing into Utah!


Entering Springdale, UT and the Zion NP Area.

Our first home in the US.

Our backyard

Our Kitchen

Our Living Room

Our Bathroom

Overwhelming? Perhaps.

A whirlwind doesn’t even begin to describe my/our past 5 months. Since I left off in Phenom Penh, it goes something like this:

·Go to Siem Reap. See Angkor Wat by bicycle. Try not to frown at the throngs of Japanese tourists endlessly posing in the places where I would like to take a picture of Angkor Wat WITHOUT Japanese tourists in the shot. See a floating village in the middle of a lake. Make friends with a wonderful Indian guy who is also a fabulous shopping partner.

· Go to KL to meet with a friend and former coworker, Sara.

· Go to Sumatra with Sara and trekked around in our quest to see more orangutans up close and personal. Mission accomplished.

· Say goodbye to Sara and take up with an unlikely duo (young, quiet, singer/songwriter/climber from Cali and a very verbose older organizational psychologist living in Houston, prouder than any native Texan to be living in Texas) as travel partners to Lake Toba where we explore the island on the lake by scooters and almost get trapped in the mud. Pass little girl on water buffalo.

· Return to Bangkok just in time to join Brett and our friends on a trip to Koh Samet.

· Meet up serendipitously with other friends in Koh Samet, eat mediocre to bad food but get plenty of beach, kayak, and massage time.

· Return to Bangkok.

· Leave for Chiang Mai. Trek for 2 days and wade through a long river cave lit only by bamboo torches.

· Spend a lovely New Years with old friends and coworkers in Mae Rim, north of Chiang Mai.

· Return to Bangkok.

· Go to India (Kerala to be exact).

· Go to Varkala Beach.

· Go to Amritapuri, the ashram of India’s Hugging Saint, Amma. Get hugged.

· Go to Sivananda Yoga Ashram. Do yoga. Chant. Meditate.

· Find out I got into the University of Sussex. Barring an exceptional financial reward package from Clark, decide that we’re probably going to Sussex.

· Go through the Panchakarma treatment program at the ashram and do not fare well. The program, which is almost medieval in terms of the amount of discomfort I had during the treatment caused an intense and unwavering nausea and repulsion to food as well as anything oily. The treatment included a lot of oil going on my skin, up my nose, down my throat, and up my, well, you can figure that out.

· Meet absolutely lovely people, many of whom are from England which – at the time- I considered my soon-to-be-home, who help me through this horrible period and brought me apples and water. Apples were the only thing I could stomach. Consider that never in my life have I ever actually desired an apple. But there I was, searching for apples.

· Ditch the ashram as soon as the treatment was over in search of food that didn’t make me want to throw up. But, not before I got my headstand down pat.

· Go to the same beach that I went to where I first arrived.

· Return to Bangkok and still feel pukey from Panchakarma.

· Talk with Brett and decide it would be good to try to defer Sussex for a year and make money in the Middle East.

· Find out from Sussex that we can’t defer. Mentally prepare to move to England in the fall.

· Welcome Brett’s mom, Sharen, to Bangkok. Try not to kill her with Bangkok traffic and spicy food. Try not to puke on her. Continue to blame Panchakarma.

· Go with Brett’s Mom to Krabi. Feel awful the whole time and dry heave and throw up all over the place. Try not to let Brett’s Mom die of heat stroke. (No pictures to include here due to constant puking activity and the cursing of Panchakarma.)

· Return to Bangkok. Find out I’m pregnant. It wasn’t the Panchakarma after all.

· OMG. I’m pregnant.

· Realize that there’s no way to go to England, afford grad school and have a baby on the first week that school starts. Decide to go to Austin to have the baby.

· Go to Chiang Rai with Brett and his Mom. Try not to have a heart attack while Brett’s Mom had several close calls while driving a scooter. Later, happily take over driving duties from Brett’s Mom.

Sightsee.

Brett and Sharen did a 1 day trek while I stayed in movies.

· Go to Laos for the Gibbon Experience. Sharen twists her ankle on the way out of the hotel as we walked to the GE office. The GE includes about 3 hours of hiking up Laotian jungle and zip lining across the jungle canopy and staying in tree houses. We are understandably concerned.

· Sharen, being the trooper that she is, insists on continuing on and Brett fashions an ace bandage from a strip of t-shirt.

We all hike, Brett blazing along while I dry heave and vomit all over the Laotian jungle and Sharen hobbles up mountains on a strained ankle. We do this for 3 days.

· Return to Thailand and go to Chiang Mai. I relax while Brett and Sharen sightsee. Lose Sharen’s camera only to find it the next day via an honest tuk-tuk driver. Whodda thunk?

· Return to Bangkok and say goodbye to Sharen.

· Find out I was accepted to Clark University with a 40% tuition fellowship. Think about going to Clark and having the baby there.

· Pack up our belongings and decide to try to defer Clark for one year. We read somewhere it’s possible. Return to Austin plan.

· Say goodbye to Thailand and our friends there.

· Go to the Philippines. Pat ourselves on the back for our transition out of Bangkok being MUCH smoother than our transition out of Japan. We DO learn!

So there you have it. In the span of 5 months we have mentally prepared to live in four different places in three different countries. And we get married in little under 2 months. And we’re having a baby.

That said, we’re enjoying the calm before the storm in the Philippines while walking around the city in search of air conditioning. The nausea of the 1^st trimester is s l o w l y subsiding and I am again able to experience emotions like excitement. We’re excited about how things have actually played out. We’re excited to see family and friends again. And have a big ‘ol American style apartment. Oh, and have a baby.

For more pictures and a video of me ziplining into the tree house:

Chiang Rai - Laos - Chiang Mai, Feb - March 2010