July, maybe I better just stick with what the hubby wrote. He does a better job at proof reading his than mine. He doesn't write much because that's just how he rolls. He feels afraid that he's bragging too much if he writes a lot. I guess I never cared that much to think that way.
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| We had 2 hotels that were loud and not very nice so I broke down and booked a really nice hotel downtown |
I am one of those weird people that actually enjoyed packing. It's amazing the things you collect in a short amount of time. I do believe I will enjoy my house even more when we get back. We have given thoughts to other places like Austin or Atlanta, but our hearts are still yearning for Seattle. I think coming home will be a great experience but the adventure ahead in foreign countries is exciting and unforgettable.
July 2018
Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin,
July was packed. And we packed time and space and stuff and activities. We packed up a lot of
stuff into storage, a lot of stuff into the trash, a lot of stuff into suit cases, and left a few things for our new renters. We packed in several families into our house such that we popped out. We packed in activities, and we packed out of the continent. The first half of the month went swimmingly. We packed, and eliminated and sold and organized and put stuff in storage. All was well. But then the slow ascension of the roller coaster came to a swift end and we plummeted into chaos. I suppose that’s fine. It’s what we’re generally used to. Admittedly, it’s usually our fault. It started with me getting a job. It’s a remote gig so I can work where ever I want. Which is good, because the first week of it we spent as wanderers in a familiar land.
We had given Thuan’s sister permission long ago to use our house as a base for her husband’s family reunion. The final count of people was enough that we fled the house for hotels. One night in Kent, one in Everett, one in downtown Seattle, and one in the home of some helpful people in our ward (whereupon I found out the gentleman of the house knew great grandpa Forsberg). We went to Alki Beach one of those nights with their family. They were borrowing one of our cars. The battery died. We got it jumped, and all was back into chaos but now with a working car. But not all was disquieting. We closed on the selling of our Utah house. We got the money, and that was finally that. The guests left – ha, I was about to say soon enough – and as they did so, we said goodbye to our small car as Thuan’s sister took it for us.
Down to one car, we packed furiously. Where the crap does all this crap come from? We had to shutdown our aquaponics so we harvested the small trout, gave away our plants, and wrapped the whole thing up in tarps. We let the renters back out of taking care of it, but we weren’t about to dismantle it. Then the end came.
All told, we had slightly less than seven hundred pieces of luggage, roughly half of it being carry-ons. Our van was left for one of Thuan’s friends to take off our hands. A helpful lady in the ward came to take Thuan, Reena, Darion and all of our luggage to the airport while Debrie, Ronin, and I had an extra 20 minutes to shove whatever we could into our van or the already overflowing garbage and recycle bins before the Uber picked us up. Then it came, and for some brief instant I think I may have felt a tinge of sadness, but it didn’t last long because sadness gets impaled by the steering wheel when you are crashing into a wall of crazy. We got to the airport, met up with the half that had already arrived, and proceeded to be told that this security line was slower than that other one so would you please go over there, only to find out that the reason only a few were allowed in the first was that some blowhard official of some bureaucracy or another was getting themselves filmed in front of that line in order to show how wonderfully efficient the Seattle airport security theater lines are at getting people to not show up in films with blowhards. Nonetheless, we had gone to the airport early. This is unusual for us.
We had enough time to eat breakfast, so we did. When it was time to go, we picked up our things, and with one last check of the gate, realized what we thought was the boarding time was really the takeoff time and now we’re back into our usual swing of things, so off to the races we went.
Somehow, we made it to San Francisco. We walked across the airport to a gate near Vancouver, I believe, got on the plane, sat there long enough for Ronin and Darion to fall asleep, and then were told that the plane we were on was no longer in service. So we picked up our carry-ons, and with two sleeping boys, and no stroller (because that had already been taken away) we trudged back to SFO to the gate we had come in at. So it goes I suppose. And, to make a long flight short – if you could, I’d give you money – we finally landed in Maui.
I’m not sure which laws of physics we were able to break in order to cram all of our belongings and persons into the poor Lyft driver’s car, but I’m certain I may be able to tell you some of the less physical laws that were broken. We were tired, it was late, we got into our hotel/condo thing in Kihei
Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin,
July was packed. And we packed time and space and stuff and activities. We packed up a lot of
stuff into storage, a lot of stuff into the trash, a lot of stuff into suit cases, and left a few things for our new renters. We packed in several families into our house such that we popped out. We packed in activities, and we packed out of the continent. The first half of the month went swimmingly. We packed, and eliminated and sold and organized and put stuff in storage. All was well. But then the slow ascension of the roller coaster came to a swift end and we plummeted into chaos. I suppose that’s fine. It’s what we’re generally used to. Admittedly, it’s usually our fault. It started with me getting a job. It’s a remote gig so I can work where ever I want. Which is good, because the first week of it we spent as wanderers in a familiar land.
We had given Thuan’s sister permission long ago to use our house as a base for her husband’s family reunion. The final count of people was enough that we fled the house for hotels. One night in Kent, one in Everett, one in downtown Seattle, and one in the home of some helpful people in our ward (whereupon I found out the gentleman of the house knew great grandpa Forsberg). We went to Alki Beach one of those nights with their family. They were borrowing one of our cars. The battery died. We got it jumped, and all was back into chaos but now with a working car. But not all was disquieting. We closed on the selling of our Utah house. We got the money, and that was finally that. The guests left – ha, I was about to say soon enough – and as they did so, we said goodbye to our small car as Thuan’s sister took it for us.
Down to one car, we packed furiously. Where the crap does all this crap come from? We had to shutdown our aquaponics so we harvested the small trout, gave away our plants, and wrapped the whole thing up in tarps. We let the renters back out of taking care of it, but we weren’t about to dismantle it. Then the end came.
All told, we had slightly less than seven hundred pieces of luggage, roughly half of it being carry-ons. Our van was left for one of Thuan’s friends to take off our hands. A helpful lady in the ward came to take Thuan, Reena, Darion and all of our luggage to the airport while Debrie, Ronin, and I had an extra 20 minutes to shove whatever we could into our van or the already overflowing garbage and recycle bins before the Uber picked us up. Then it came, and for some brief instant I think I may have felt a tinge of sadness, but it didn’t last long because sadness gets impaled by the steering wheel when you are crashing into a wall of crazy. We got to the airport, met up with the half that had already arrived, and proceeded to be told that this security line was slower than that other one so would you please go over there, only to find out that the reason only a few were allowed in the first was that some blowhard official of some bureaucracy or another was getting themselves filmed in front of that line in order to show how wonderfully efficient the Seattle airport security theater lines are at getting people to not show up in films with blowhards. Nonetheless, we had gone to the airport early. This is unusual for us.
We had enough time to eat breakfast, so we did. When it was time to go, we picked up our things, and with one last check of the gate, realized what we thought was the boarding time was really the takeoff time and now we’re back into our usual swing of things, so off to the races we went.
Somehow, we made it to San Francisco. We walked across the airport to a gate near Vancouver, I believe, got on the plane, sat there long enough for Ronin and Darion to fall asleep, and then were told that the plane we were on was no longer in service. So we picked up our carry-ons, and with two sleeping boys, and no stroller (because that had already been taken away) we trudged back to SFO to the gate we had come in at. So it goes I suppose. And, to make a long flight short – if you could, I’d give you money – we finally landed in Maui.
I’m not sure which laws of physics we were able to break in order to cram all of our belongings and persons into the poor Lyft driver’s car, but I’m certain I may be able to tell you some of the less physical laws that were broken. We were tired, it was late, we got into our hotel/condo thing in Kihei
and crashed. This was the eye of the storm, and this storm had several eyes. The next day we spent at
the beach, in the swimming pool and walking to get food, and shave ice. Reena, Debrie, and I went
snorkeling at Slaughterhouse Beach, which is to say, Reena and I went snorkeling because the company
that sold us the snorkeling deal said Debrie was old enough, but the guide said he has told them
repeatedly that kids her age are not. She was brave enough to sit on the beach and wait. After
snorkeling, we picked up Thuan and the boys who had been playing at the beach, and drove to get more
shave ice, and walk around the more touristy areas on the northwest of Maui.
Now a word about logistics. We are a family of 6. There aren’t many vehicles that hold a family of 6. Fewer still that hold a family of 6 and all of our personal belongings (I a point to tell everyone that we were moving so they’d give us more slack instead of thinking we were crazy tourists that don’t know how to pack). In fact, the only such vehicle on the entire island is exceedingly long, painted yellow and black, and has it’s very own stop sign on the driver’s side. We didn’t get that car for our rental. We had a flight to Oahu on Sunday, but not until night time. We had to check out of the hotel in the morning. We went to church, but I was in the storage unit on wheels, and Thuan took the kids in a Lyft. Thuan went to nursery with Darion and met a wonderful woman who was willing to let us put our stuff in her garage until that night so we could all physically fit into our rental. We drove to Turtle beach, saw a sea turtle, ate some delicious food and lost most of our hats. Drove to the airport, dropped off all but Debrie, drove to the family’s house who had given us their garage code so we could retrieve our stuff while they were out, went back to the airport, got in line, and did the whole song and dance again. The storm had returned. We landed in Oahu around 11pm, and got to our hotel, whereupon the storm opened it’s eye once more.
We spent the last day of July walking around Waikiki, which went, as it were, swimmingly.
Love, Us
Now a word about logistics. We are a family of 6. There aren’t many vehicles that hold a family of 6. Fewer still that hold a family of 6 and all of our personal belongings (I a point to tell everyone that we were moving so they’d give us more slack instead of thinking we were crazy tourists that don’t know how to pack). In fact, the only such vehicle on the entire island is exceedingly long, painted yellow and black, and has it’s very own stop sign on the driver’s side. We didn’t get that car for our rental. We had a flight to Oahu on Sunday, but not until night time. We had to check out of the hotel in the morning. We went to church, but I was in the storage unit on wheels, and Thuan took the kids in a Lyft. Thuan went to nursery with Darion and met a wonderful woman who was willing to let us put our stuff in her garage until that night so we could all physically fit into our rental. We drove to Turtle beach, saw a sea turtle, ate some delicious food and lost most of our hats. Drove to the airport, dropped off all but Debrie, drove to the family’s house who had given us their garage code so we could retrieve our stuff while they were out, went back to the airport, got in line, and did the whole song and dance again. The storm had returned. We landed in Oahu around 11pm, and got to our hotel, whereupon the storm opened it’s eye once more.
We spent the last day of July walking around Waikiki, which went, as it were, swimmingly.
Love, Us
