Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the name of the videogame I’ve been playing lately. It’s also the only videogame I think I ever want to play ever again. It’s a shooting game where you run around trying to kill the other players over the online. The more you play the more points you get and the more points you get the more super-points you get until you get all the way up to 70 points. At first, I thought this was pretty stupid.
“Who has the time to get up to 70 of these points?!” I thought.
Now I’ve got 58 of them.
Probably because I play every night for at least an hour but more like 2 hours. I am going to get all 70 of those points. And just the other day I found out that once you’ve got the 70 points, you can reset your whole game and start all over in exchange for one SUPER-super-point called a “Prestige” point. There are a maximum of 10 of those that you can get.
Soon they are going to make some new maps and oh how pleased that will make me. Don’t get me wrong; the current maps are great, but I’m ready for new ones. I think my favorite map is the airport terminal, or maybe the grimy city one.
The only thing I don’t like about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is how long the name is. Technically speaking, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is really “Call of Duty 6″ but it’s called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and that’s a real mouthful, you know?
I can’t wait to go home tonight and play. Maybe Dave will be online and I will beat him soundly - as I normally do - because he only has about 40 of those super-points. Him playing against me is an absurd mismatch like a baby bunny trying to attack a full-grown human.
So this weekend we got away from it all with a Polark family trip to fabulous Las Vegas. Oh the fun that we did have! We gamed. We shopped. We took in the show We dined. We relaxed and reflected.
Key Takeaways:
- This new Elvis Cirque du Soleil show… it ain’t all that. In fact, most of us agreed it was only close to being some of that, and far from being all that. Mostly just a big Las Vegas stage show without as much crazy French Circus-y stuff like we’ve come to expect.
- Ate at Bobby Flay restaurant again, and again this was the best meal we had.
- I finally learned the rudiments of craps and I am so proud of myself - probably because it only cost Jim P about $100 for me to get the hang of it.
Last night I went with Kyle and Barnicle to a hog-butchering lesson from a local chef. It started a little like a Satanic ritual, with us all taking seats around a kitchen table loaded with half a hog. But the chef quickly got to work explaining to us how pigs work and breaking it down… telling us how to cook what parts and so forth. And we all stood up and watched and asked questions. I asked tons of questions I didn’t even expect to have. We got to take home some different cuts at the end, and now we’re game-planning buying our own half of a consciously-raised, hormone-free boutique hog.
At least once a winter I try to make it out to the Northern edges of civilization to engage in some brisk wintersportactivity. This weekend, we headed to dear ol’ Wandawega for fun and sun and snow and ice.
I had volunteered to help Kyle in the preparation of enchiladas for a dinner, so Friday night I stayed up late frying pork and roasting peppers. Bethie was unpleased with the smells, but she got over it. Saturday morning she hatched a little plan whereby she could ditch me and go shopping at the outlet malls, so Kyle was nice enough to drive me and John up there.
We hit that ice running…
10:00 AM - Biscuits and gravy courtesy of Mary and Alexei followed by a snowmobiling tutorial with Dave.
11:00 AM - Snowmobiling, followed by snowmobiling, followed by more snowmobiling, followed by riding the ATV’s on the frozen lake, followed by snowmobiling, followed by throwing snowballs at other people snowmobiling followed (briefly) by ice-skating.
2:30 PM - Exploratory committee formed to evaluate the strengths of various sledding spots around the premises. We settled on the 4-wheeler path up into the trees. Initial testing concludes that a large ramp would be needed at the bottom of sledding hill.
3:00 PM - With the aid of two snow shovels, a trashcan full of water and a bottle of whiskey, work commences on our snow ramp.
4:00 PM - Construction of the “That Guy That Died Doing Luge At The Olympics Commemorative Snow Jump” is officially unveiled - most of the whiskey is gone.
6:00 PM - As with most wintersport days, by the time the jump is officially finished, the sun is setting and we are all pretty wiped out. We freshen up a little bit and get the oven heated up for Noche de Enchiladas! While we wait, we pass the time playing left-right-center and Bethie and I cleaned up at that.
8:00 PM - Enchilada night goes off without a hitch. I was kind of nervous because I had really thrown mine together of the top of my head. I was actually writing down what I was doing as I was doing it so I’d be sure not to forget a step, but they turned out really great. I made a carnitas-style pork enchilada with red sauce and a roasted green chile, spinach and cheese enchilada with a sour cream and green sauce. The roasted chile one turned out SO good.
I was also nervous that I’d be facing some stiff competition with Kyle filling the other half of the enchilada order, but when he offered up enchiladas rolled with flour tortillas my trepidation eased a little bit. They were great - don’t get me wrong - but flour?! Come on, now.
10:00 PM - We make one last check of our snow jump and sled down that hill at night. Then we were officially done with our day of wintersport.
Sunday morning, Bethie and I return to the city and meet up with her dad for lunch. First we stopped at the Alcala’s so her dad could by a sensible pair of cowboy boots. Then we had a late lunch/brunch at this place Branch 27. I like this place a lot, and I really want to get in there for dinner sometime. Lots of local/organic this and that but cooked up big and rustic. I had the braised goat.
Last night, Bethie and I celebrated our Valentine’s at One Sixty Blue. One Sixty Blue is a restaurant right next to our gym and it’s owned by Michael Jordan. The food is very good. The fact that we went on a Monday night meant that no one was there. And I mean NO ONE. We were the only people in the dining room for the first half hour of our meal. I hope Michael Jordan has some money stashed away somewhere, because I don’t know if he’s gonna survive off of those kind of turnouts.
I didn’t care for them. I don’t think I cared for the whole lot of them. And please don’t tell me your opinions of them, because I could care even less about that. I think this whole “Super Bowl commercials” thing is yesterday’s news. I bet they don’t even run commercials for next years.
Also, did anybody catch the premier of Undercover Boss? A show about a bunch of dopes working at the trash factory that don’t realize the soft-handed old white guy who is followed around by a camera crew is either their very own CEO or some sort of sex offender? Another big win, CBS!
On Saturday, Bethie and I went to the dentist. Our first trip to the dentist together as husband and wife. We did the honorable thing by waiting to go to the dentist together until we were married. The dentist could not get over how nice my teeth were. She said I had deep roots and they’d probably be hard to get out. She also said Bethie’s weren’t as good on account of the soft bristled toothbrush she uses. (Not true.)
Is nowhere in sight, you dummies!!! We are not even NEAR the end! I am gonna be killing this blogging game in 2010 and well beyond!
Last night Kyle and I went for Mexican and the Bulls game. Kyle doesn’t drink during his holy month of February, but that doesn’t preclude him from having a good time - albeit at a slower, booze-craving pace. The game was terrible, but the halftime antics were on point. We witnessed the Argentinean acrobatics of “Perch Pole.” They thrilled and dazzled. We saw a guy who seemingly didn’t know the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe. We were driven to the brink of rage by the people who couldn’t get the suitcases open in the “Guess the Suitcase” game.
My wife got a new job finally. Which is great news for our bank account, but terrible news for our lonely, lonely dog.
Large Amounts of Food We’ve Cooked So That We Could Eat It Throughout The Week:
-Potato-Leek Soup (Twice)
-Chili
-Spaghetti Sauce
-Chicken Casserole Thing
Called the “Triple Chocolate Chewies” that we just started buying recently. Let me tell you, I don’t know what we as a culture have been doing making all these other kinds of cookies over the past couple hundred years. If we had just started off with these chewy cookies, that’d be it. Job done. Everybody could just go get on with their lives. They could get back to spending time with their wife and kids instead of slaving away at the cookie lab trying to come up with some new cookie recipe that no one would like - working on the weekends trying to invent some new kind of cookie that nobody wants or even needs.
Look, I guess what I am saying is, I really like these cookies and I pity all other cookies by comparison. I’m going to eat several of them when I get home.
What is going on with Kansas basketball? I will tell you what is going on with Kansas basketball. We got a bunch of individuals running around out there and they are not playing as a team. They are not looking for the extra bounce pass. Their bounce pass proficiency rating (BPP) is through the floor.
That Tennessee game reminded me of the 2008 Oklahoma State game, when I thought to myself “Well, I guess no national championship this year.” So maybe that’ll work out for the best.
At this point, I’ve got the feeling Kentucky might go undefeated in the regular season given the rest of their schedule. That’s a good and a bad thing, as they’ll get seeded really well, but I bet they’re not up to the task as they get deep into the tournament.
The Big 12 was supposed to be the Big East of last year, but it’s not quite shaping up like that. I think the competition at the top should be fierce enough to prepare us for tournament play though. I think the top of the Big Ten looks tough as well.
Sherron Collins gets my Hi-Five All-Star Hustle Award for Hard-Hitting Hoops Hexcellence.
Sherron Collins is incredible and essential. He is the best point guard in the country but he’s also the only point guard I watch play. He cuts the floor up, he draws all kinds of fouls, he hits gigantic threes. Sometimes he puts the whole team on his back and wins the game, but sometimes he puts the whole team on his back and misses all his shots in the last four minutes and it’s embarrassing - like in the Tennessee game. They can’t rely on him to bail them out every game. He’s a great player, but not that great.
Cole Aldrich is averaging a double-double, but that’s a surprise to me. I guess it’s nice to have his 10 rebounds a game, but he’s got to get the ball in the post and start knocking some people over. Especially when we’re playing against teams with no size. He also seems lost on defense. Is he taking a step back?
The Morris twins also need to play bigger. It’s nice that they can hit threes sometimes, but they probably shouldn’t be. We’ve got shooters, we need bangers. Perimeter shooting should rarely be the deciding factor.
Tyshawn Taylor could be my second favorite player if he would just figure his shit out. He complained the other day that he didn’t know what his role was. Somebody needs to tell him his role can be whatever he wants it to be. For now, he could focus on distributing the ball. He can continue getting stronger and better at slashing to the basket. He should keep playing good D and force turnovers. He should pay close attention to Sherron this season and step up next year to lead the team and forget about the NBA for another year.
I wish Xavier could/would take over games and take pressure off of Collins, but he still seems like a role player. Elijah Johnson is only going to get better.
Crack open the fortune cookie, because it’s time for my Psychic Mid-Season Final Four Prediction:
I like Michigan State, Texas, Kansas and Duke. (but also Kentucky, Syracuse and Villanova.)
Bethie and I went to visit there over the holiday break. It was so fun. Last year we went skiing and that was fun, but this was a different kind of weird, desolate, nature-filled patriotic fun. We left Kansas and drove up into Nebraska and then on into the great nothingness that is the middle of our country. We inadvertently stopped at an indian reservation for gas. That was a depressing place. We drove through the starkest, brownest hills on the loneliest highway, and then we drove on the loneliest interstate. We pulled into the frontier metropolis of Rapid City and secured lodging at the local Holiday Inn. We also stopped at a frontier petsmart to get the dog a sweater because it was cold. But this truly was the frontier, as that store had no sweaters that would fit our dog. So we got him one from the frontier Target.
The next day we lit out early to see the Mt. Rushmore. We fretted over what to do with the dog, ultimately deciding to bring him with us and park the car in the sun so he’d stay warm. It worked out great and he seemed really happy to be getting to see some of this great land of ours.
There were very few people at Mt. Rushmore and there were some mountain goats chewing grass by the parking garage. We took pictures of them. I think the most interesting thing about Mt. Rushmore is all the unfinished plans. The sculptures were supposed to be more finished or placed in different positions and there was supposed to be a hall of records carved into the mountain. I like bold plans.
Which brings us to our next sightseeing stop, The Crazyhorse Memorial. I had told Bethie about it but didn’t convey to her the fact that it was a work-in-progress. She was disappointed with the seeming lack of activity, but was excited to return in 50 years and see how it’s shaping up.
Next we went to the Wind Cave, but we just missed the tour. We had stopped a couple too many times to take pictures of animals. So we went to the town of Hot Springs and had a lunch. We returned to the cave for the three o’clock tour. The tour starts with the guy going “Ok, what do you think of when you think of caves? Cool stalactites and huge crystal formations? Well, you won’t be seeing that here. This one is mostly rocks - but there’s a lot of them!” And there was! It was still pretty cool, a short tour looking at tiny crystal formations and turn-of-the-century graffiti.
We returned to our Holiday Inn accommodations and soaked in their frontier hot tubs for a while. Then we treated ourselves to Rapid City’s take on Italian food. It was pretty good.
The next morning, we woke up early for the fourteen hour drive home, detouring down the Badlands scenic byway. We were supposed to stop at the visitor center to pay them $15, but we didn’t really look at enough stuff to justify the cost.
I drove most of the rest of the way home, listening to an audiobook, while Bethie watched episodes of Weeds on her iphone and the dog dozed in the backseat. We got home around nine and rung in the New Year with a toast of beer and the assembly of our new vacuum cleaner.
So we get off the speedboat and we’re no longer living in luxury. We get hustled by cab people. All of them. We can’t catch a break, so we wind up paying this guy somewhere around $20 to drive us to our next resort. These were Chicago cab prices! But these guys all got a racket going because none of their cabs are regulated or have meters and negotiations are tough.
We drive over the hill, we drive through the town, we drive past the beach, we drive up another hill and then we’re at the resort. They seem surprised to see us. They scramble around and find our reservation. They bring us chilled, cut open coconuts as our “welcome drink.” This is not at all Bethie’s speed. I drink mine, even though I don’t like it all that much. They get the paperwork settled and offer to show us some room options. This place was also all individual villas, but they were a little more rustic. To get around, you ride on this tiny truck that zig zags up and down the cliff. Everything is real tropical with plants and vines everywhere. The first option is nice, closer to the top of the hill with a tiny hot-tub outside of it. It’s the more expensive one. We go with the one we had booked which is at the bottom of the hill by the pools. The whole place is fronting like it’s “eco-friendly” but that’s just a gussied up excuse for being cheap. In the room, you have to plug your key in to get the electricity and AC to come on.
So Bethie is simply not feeling any of this. I’m not either and I’m a little bit panicked. But we’ve got to get into town to meet with the diveshop so we can set up our scuba training. You’ll remember that we finished the first part of scuba training in the America, but we needed to do the “open water” portion in Thailand. The cab driver wants to charge us a lot, we haggle down a couple bucks. He turns out to be super-patient and helpful. By the time we get to the diveshop in the town, Bethie is having a proper meltdown, so she goes to this cafe and gets some pad thai while I sort out details at the dive shop. The manager advises us to spring for doing all of our dives off the boat and not to do the first two off the beach. We obliged and were glad we did. The cab driver waits for us the whole time.
We head back to our resort. I go swimming, and Bethie gets used to her new less-luxurious accommodations. We call the car to take us up to dinner. Whoah. Dinner at this place is great. In fact, the breakfasts were great too! We just had some little appetizers and happy hour drinks, but we had dinner there every night afterwards. The car drives us back down the hill to our hut, but not before we stop at the internet corner to check out room rates at the JW Marriott.
We had to get up early the next day to get on our shuttle to go back to the pier to get back on a boat to go back to the island we had just left, as that was where our scuba diving would be. It’s a big commotion to us, getting on the boat, getting settled, whatnot. We meet our dive instructor, a cagey Irishman named BJ. Behind his eyes, hints of an inscrutable vagabond lifestyle. He’s also sick with some sort of rare tropical disease.
The boat provides the air tanks, the ride, the helpers who get you in and out of the water, coffee, breakfast, lunch and sodas. 7-UP is the best soda for scuba. The boat ride back to the island takes an hour and a half. We spend the time going over gear set-up and routines with BJ.
Our first dive finds us doing some basic skills, and then doing regular old diving like anybody else would. Basically, just drifting around looking at stuff. (Obviously.) Bethie loves the skills - I think she thinks it gives the whole undertaking a purpose. She hates having to take off her mask underwater, but I don’t mind it so much. It’s novel how little time it takes to get comfortable with breathing underwater. Probably less than a minute of being panicked about it, and then it’s smooth sailing.
We come up when we’re out of air and the boat chugs over to pick you up. We have lunch on the boat that tastes great; because scuba makes you pretty hungry. On our next dive, more skills, more underwater world. We’re really doing it!
Back on the boat and we return to dry land. After diving, you get to drink Chang beers on the boat and just cool out. This diving thing is working out great.
We get back to the hotel, have a big dinner and the car drives us down to our hut.
The next day, rinse, repeat. This time the shuttle driver can’t find some people he needs to pick up. How are there two resorts with “boomerang” in the name? We get to the pier, and this time, Bethie and I are old salts at this stuff, taking our shoes off and putting them in the milk crates before we get on the boat like we go around doing that all the time. BJ was being sly because I guess the immigration people were on the pier trying to shake people down for not having the right work papers. We got out of there alright though.
We did some more skills and saw some more stuff. Saw an eel. Saw lots of fish. Saw one fish that looked like it was designed by committee. Saw lots of coral. Saw a shrimp thing that supposedly could punch you with the force of a bullet. Saw a fish that Bethie said looked like a grumpy grandpa. Saw a stingray. BJ helped us with our underwater camera and took tons of pics for us. We had lunch. We did another dive. This time, the current was mighty and we were doing a dive that was a little beyond our expertise. Bethie was fairly terrified. I was too, but only at first, then it was just like riding in a giant underwater waterslide.
We head back to the pier. BJ filled out our official paperwork and we drank celebratory scuba beers. We were official scuba pros! BJ did an awesome job.
Back in town, we stopped by the diveshop to do some more papers and then wander around buying scarves and t-shirts. Bethie loves haggling, but it stresses me out. Especially when I have to stand there with the money, calculating how much she can afford to spend.
Jamie from the diveshop drove us back to our hotel. A nice gesture. We immediately have a huge dinner. I ate curry at least once a day.
On Saturday, we had no agenda, but woke that morning and made a reservation for the next night at the JW Marriott. (Thanks, AAA!) Then we haggled with the cab guy and got him to drive us around for three hours. First we went to the Big Buddha. Lots of obnoxious tourists and monks having lunch.
The next stop was some elephants. I wasn’t in to this idea, but Bethie wanted to ride on one. We stop at the first place and the elephants look all miserable chained up on the side of a hill. We go to another place next to the shooting range/paintball/go-kart park and this place is a more highclass operation. Bethie feeds them pineapple quarters and bananas and we take pictures. We don’t ride on them.
We ask the driver to take us to shopping as we hadn’t picked up enough souvenir t-shirts yet. He misunderstands and takes us to this big gem factory like we want to buy a bunch of gems. I felt bad telling him we weren’t going in, as he might have gotten some money from them if we did. We got many shirts instead. I needed shirts, as I had run out. We bought a fake designer bag to carry all of our junk home. We stop at the 7-11 where the beers are crazy cheap and we also get some waters and cokes.
Back at the resort we savor our final time there, relaxing at the pool and reading magazines. No room to bring those mags home with us.
Took the car ride to dinner. Started with spring rolls for the lady, laab salad for the fella. Showed the waitress our underwater pics. Bethie operated, the waitress looked and I studied the scene. I have never seen a tiny Asian waitress so amazed by the underwater photos we had taken on a dive trip the day before. She was delighted. Bus ride back down the hill. The next day, the Marriott. Then, the Hilton. Then after, home.
The next day, we packed our bags and caused a lot of confusion for the desk staff at the Centara Villas by checking out early. Wound up with the same cab guy as the day before. Same awkward barter with the hotel people and the cab guy. Stopped again for t-shirts in patong, surprising the hawkers into touting too early in the morning. That cab guy must think we loooove t-shirts. (we do.) The drive to the Marriott takes a long time and might have been worth the money.
Oh, how young Bethie’s spirits were lifted upon arrival at this Marriott. I was really impressed too. It was extremely fancy and expensive with very nice people. The last place had finally gotten comfortable for us, but this move was well worth it. We sat by the pool from noon ’til around 6 doing close to nothing but swimming in the ocean for a bit. We abused the happy hour that night and split a dinner at the Italian restaurant. We half-heartedly tried to work our way into the Ogilvy Thailand fancy dinner party. It didn’t work. Went to bed early as usual and had a light breakfast for a change. Sat by the pool for four hours then cleaned up, checked out and spent a little time at the deserted but nice mall by the hotel. Played a heated game of Jenga in a bar.
Got gouged by the taxi guy getting us to the airport. Bethie’s poor packing finally came back to haunt us as we had to shift luggage around to meet the weight limit.
Hanging in the airline lounge, some young girl comes getting wheeled in by a wheelchair looking all rough and her two friends are doting on her. She somehow mustered the strength to raise herself and flop down on this couch while her friends attended her with 7-up and cold towels. Oh brother. She made everyone so uncomfortable. If you’re that sick, then don’t fly. If you’re good enough to fly, then buck up and don’t make everyone scared that you’re gonna give them H1N1 disease (in reality, I think everyone suspected her of just having drank too much.)
We fly. We get to the Hilton. We get our custom tailored stuff. We go to sleep. We leave in the middle of the night to go back to the airport. Dreadful flight home. We get super expensive Starbucks at the Tokyo airport. Back in America, we finally make it home and treat ourselves to a giant pizza. Good trip.
Our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was on Bangkok Airlines, Asia’s Boutique Airline, as they so frequently reminded us on the marketing and over the loudspeaker. One of the nice things about these Thai flights is the use of these special lounges the airline provides prior to your flight. You get to sit in there reading papers, checking the internet and eating little breakfast treats. Some of our flights, like this one, didn’t rely on gates to get you on the plane, but instead you ride on a bus to the plane on the tarmac.
It’s an hour or so flight to Phuket. When you get out of the airport you get harangued for cab rides. 600 bahts to the pier. (about $20.) We worked our way through that crowd to the “official” taxi stand, where people seemed more laid back. They charged us 450 bahts. The ride to the pier takes about an hour.
At the pier, we get settled in the office of the resort with cold drinks and cold towels. Bethie loved the cold towels, often asking for them at odd times, like in the middle of dinner or at places where they probably don’t even have any cold towels. Bethie also loves the little complimentary sandwiches they have laid out. Bethie also loves it when Thai folks respond to her requests in the affirmative “Yes can!”
I go to the 7/11 across the street and get some beers for the boat ride, but we don’t wind up drinking them until later. There were two important types of beers in Thailand. Chang and Singha. Singha seemed to be the slightly fancier, slightly less popular kind. I really gravitated towards the Chang beers. Bethie would ask for Chang Lights but not a lot of places had those.
We ride on a speed boat to the island. This takes about 45 minutes. By the time we got the The Racha, it was raining. This was disappointing. I was only a tiny bit worried. We wandered around waiting for our room to be ready. We had a lunch. We met with some other tourists and talked about the weather.
Our room was beautiful and they sprung for the flower petals on the bed in the shape of a heart seeing as how it was our honeymoon. We had the lowest grade room, but all the rooms were villas, so they were big and nice and private. This place was so incredibly nice. I think we could have spent the whole honeymoon there and been content.
That night, Bethie started getting cranky again because she was up past her 6PM bedtime. I was dragging too, but I wanted us to go to the big Thailand barbeque party! But it wasn’t that fun because, what with the rain, they had to do it inside. It was also very confusing how you were supposed to order. You pointed at a bunch of meats and seafoods on a platter and then they would grill your order. Then they bring it to you with some sauces. (Actually, I guess that doesn’t sound that confusing, but it was at the time.)
The next morning we woke up early to do an exploratory island walk. We walked through jungles. It was already hot. Past the resort are a couple more small rustic resorts and restaurants. On the other side of the island are a couple of other bays that were better for snorkeling.
We had breakfast. The breakfast here was also incredibly good. Except the sausages were just miniature hot dogs. We went to the beach for a while and then got massages. Thai massages are really the way to go. Completely modest, and a little bit violent. Followed with lunch. I stuck with the Thai food, persistently asking for it spicy, but it rarely was. I know supposedly they don’t like to make the food spicy for foreigners, but what if it’s just not that spicy to begin with? Bethie was loving the pad thai. She got that almost everywhere. It’s the perfect exotic pale and salty food for her.
After lunch we would eat gelatos and go back by the pool. Then early dinner and bed or just early bed.
On Monday we repeated our routine with the addition of me getting a pedicure. It was ok, but I probably won’t do that again. I think she cut them too short and she used some sort of buffing chemical on there to make them shine. After that, we borrowed some bikes from the equipment stand and went across the island for snorkeling. The first bay had lots of tiny little jellyfish in it that creeped us out. Bethie complained that they stinged her. I mostly just didn’t like looking at them.
The next bay was better. It was home to a different resort called Ban Raya that we thought looked fun. The bay was full of all sorts of creatures and we snorkeled for a real long time. It gets a little intimidating with all the dive boats cruising around, but I’ve got a feeling they’re pretty good about looking out for people in the water.
Bethie was impressed with how I turned my towel into a backpack for the bike rides.
We made our way back to the resort and had usual lunch then visited the other pool by our villa. This pool had some more features and Bethie and I spent time rolling down the infinity pool walls. I also did a beach attack on her by throwing a volleyball labeled “beach attack” into the water right by her chair.
We did pretty much all the same stuff the next day. I did a solo ascent of the tsunami evacuation route. I played with a different volleyball labeled “soft touch.” I drank some Changs and contemplated their labels. We saw a lizard run into the pool. The bartender said it was ok and that he was just taking a shower. We had a room service dinner that night and packed our bags.
The next day we did our breakfast and sat by the pool. We grabbed our bags and left The Racha at noon. Little did we know our trip was about to take a turn for the worse. Actually, I kind of knew it. This next place was cheaper than The Racha, and I had no doubt that Bethie would notice. But that will be a story for another day…
