The Terrific3 travel blog

When we return to Portland, the kids and I have a sprint triathlon we are doing, with a 250 m swim, 4.8 mile bike and 1.5 mile run. I’m pretty sure I can do that with my current level of fitness but my kids have never done that type of endurance distance. Z is very motivated to practice and perfect (yes the apple didn’t fall far from the tree here) so I’ve been encouraging him to run 1.5 miles with me in the morning, but that I plan to do it at 6am before it gets too hot. So this morning, he woke up right at 6, changed into running clothes, and got into my bed to snuggle for a few minutes and then asked if I was ready to run! I’ve never met another 7 year old like this. I was planning on 5 sloooowwww humid miles and he ran the first 1.5 miles with me (much faster than me, so not really WITH me).

After my run was done, we went to the pool to play and Z got right in and swam 250m, timing himself, and taking pointers from me about how to make his stroke more efficient.

Then this thing happened—our first international tooth loss! Z has been waiting for this for a while and was so excited.

We then headed to Maya Lifestyle shopping center, where we had been previously, to buy a few things and let the boys have some arcade time. This time, I observed the Thai teens and 20 somethings. Really not much different than teenagers anywhere else. Lots of makeup, hair all done up for the girls, cell phone in hand, in groups of 3-4.

After a small lunch (pizza for kids, mushroom buns and chive and radish cake for me; mango sticky rice for all), we did some shopping (books, soccer ball, some hot wheels), and headed to the arcade and each kid got $5 of tokens. This allowed for multiple games of air hockey and several other games.

This mall has food on every floor, it seems. So we next went to the 4th floor food court and I introduced my kids to Roti with butter and condensed milk, and we all got Italian sodas. Z liked the roti so much he wanted another so I have him some money and asked him to maneuver getting a “cash card,” and ordering the roti himself with the vendor who spoke minimal English. These are good lessons to learn early 😜

We then went to the food court to get some take out for dinner for me (vegan gyozas and some radish cake), and a chocolate cake for dessert for kids for later, to the supermarket on the first floor to buy some mangoes, yogurt and cheese, and then used our Bolt app to get a car ride home.

It seemed like a pretty “regular” day in that we didn’t do anything particularly cultural or touristy, but I remind myself that this is the advantage of a longer stay, that we get to really experience this place more like we are actually living here. And it’s not terrible to relax, though my definition of relaxing is that I’m already at 17k steps for the day.

It is 5pm, and I’m sitting by the pool as Z shows me his “circus” acts with the new ball we bought today. It’s amazing how great of a toy a ball can be! S is reading in his room, and I’m writing the blog. I love how we each have space here to do what we need to recenter.

I asked Z what he thought he Thai tooth fairy world bring him and he said there was a 50-75% chance that he would get a toy instead of money….let’s seeeeeeee…..

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