The Calm Before the Storm

Not a ton of exciting stuff to be posting about these last few weeks.  We’re really in the calm before the storm part of getting ready to go.  We’ve been doing a ton of paperwork and slowly getting the house ready for the packers room by room. There are always more plans to make for all of the little things like bills and mail and such.

This Thursday, Jack flies off to Boston so that my mother can drop him off at summer camp on Saturday. The lucky guy gets to spend 2 weeks on Lake Winnipesaukee sailing and swimming and just having fun in general.  Camp Lawrence is a beautiful place that I remember fondly from my summers there as a kid. Hopefully, we will get a letter from him this year!

On Saturday, we went out for a nice dinner at The Melting Pot in Houston to celebrate Jack’s good grades this year.  It is a fondue restaurant that Jack really likes.  It is fun to be able to cook your own food at the table and try something a bit different.  The best part is definitely dessert.  You can’t beat dipping fruit, brownies and marshmallows into warm melted chocolate.

While Jack is off at camp, Melissa and I will be enjoying ourselves as well.  This Sunday we are sailing off on a cruise leaving from Galveston.  We are going to be visiting Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We are really looking forward to it as it is the first kid free vacation we’ve had in years.  We love spending our holidays with Jack, but it’s going to be a whole different kind of vacation without my favorite 12 year old there to entertain.

This is also the last real break we’re going to get for a number of months.  After we get back, it will be "Go, Go, Go" until we are really settled in Singapore.  From the 24 hour flight, to starting work and temporary apartments, to finding a new home and starting a new school, we’re about to kick of a few crazy months.  Wish us luck!!!

Packing up the Texas life

This week we said goodbye to our wonderful pop-up trailer.  After moving back to Texas, we decided we would give the camper lifestyle a try.  Melissa's sister's family has one so we knew we'd have someone to vacation with.  After a bit of looking around, we bought this 2000 Jayco that we couldn't have been happier to find.

Over the last four years we spent a lot of great weekends in the camper visiting parks all over Texas.  We even traveled as far as the White River in Arkansas once.  10 hours is a long drive, but Bull Shoals is a great state park and it has even better fishing. I really regret not getting a chance to go back there and spend a weekend fishing with my brothers.

We realized that there is no reason to head off to Singapore and leave the camper in storage, so we made the decision to sell a few weeks ago.  All it took was one listing on Craigslist and a few weeks to find the right buyer.  After about 10 different inquiries and 3 different people coming to look, we made the sale to a nice family on Saturday.  Hopefully, they will enjoy the camper as much as we did.

I'm back!

We'll folks...there's only one way to say it.  We're heading back to Singapore!

Honestly, I can't believe it.  After four years back in the US, I had a surprise conversation with the boss.  I had absolutely no idea it was coming.  I knew that there was a job move in the near term planned for me, but I thought the plan was for my company to shift me to another role in the Houston office I was currently working in.  When the big boss told me I was getting a promotion and a transfer to Singapore, I we pretty much in shock.

It has now been a few weeks since I heard the news and it has finally settled in.  Time to start packing up the wonderful house we have in Texas and planning to start the next school year in Singapore.

I'm a little embarrassed to be back on the blog after it sort of fizzled out during my return to the states.  I only needed to make about two more good posts to really finish it well and close out the record of our two year adventure. 

The return the the US was a lot tougher than we would have expected.  Those first six months returning to the real life in the USA were a real struggle.  I guess it's just hard to go back to the real world after living in expat land.  Jack had  his first experience with the Texas public school system. (Which was tough, but worked out great in the end.) After a ton of looking, we found a house that we really fell in love with in a town that we really enjoy living in.

We're now knee deep in the family decision making that surrounds this kind of move.  What things do we want to bring with us and what do we want to leave behind?  Where in Singapore do we want to live? Should we really subject our 15 & 17 year old dogs to the stress of the move?  If not, then what? Blah, Blah, Blah...

Looks like we are planing to leave Texas on the last week of July.  It's going to be a busy 2 months. We've still got to finish the 6th grade, go to summer camp(s), visit with whoever we can, enjoy a previously planned cruise vacation and oh, yeah....pack to move to the other side of the world.

Wish us luck.  I'll do my best to keep up with our progress online.

I can't believe it...back to this Singapore Thing.

Back in the US

After our great trip to Australia, it was time to head back to real life in the US. There isn't really an easy way to fly to the east coast from Australia. We boarded our flight on Delta Airlines in Sydney and flew for half a day to get to LAX. From there, we couldn't get a direct flight to Norfolk, VA so we had to fly through Detroit and deal with another layover. Then, after 3 planes and about 24 hours of travel, we finally landed in Virginia. I'd spend time telling you about all of the interesting stories we lived through during this trip, but there weren't any. Get on a plane, sit, wait, get off the plane, look for the next plane. Not exactly an exciting tale.

It did feel good to be on the ground in Virginia. Melissa's mom Chris was waiting for us at the airport. Jack ran over and gave her a huge hug as soon as he saw her. We collected the bags we'd been living out of for the last 3 weeks from baggage claim and piled into the the old red truck we've owned since before Jack was born.

We had a great time staying at Melissa's parents place in Virginia. My favorite part of staying there is that the Bar & Grill they've been building for the last five years is finally open. I essentially had my own bar for watching the World Cup this summer.

The Old Firehouse is a great place on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to grab a beer and burger for lunch or have a nice dinner with a glass (or bottle) of wine. With 8 different beers on tap, I spent more than my share of time sitting at the bar every day.



Unfortunately, I was only able to stay there less than a week. We'd arrived on a Tuesday and I had to start work in Houston the following Monday. Melissa and Jack were able to spend some extra time there after I left, but for me, it was time to start packing again.

Melissa's mom had been keeping two things for us while we were in Singapore. One was the old red truck I'd previously mentioned. The other was our dogs, Milo and Pepper. My job was to take both the truck and the dogs back to Houston.

We took a trip over the bridge to the mall in Norfolk during the middle of the week to stock up on things I'd need for the trip as well as leave the truck at the Toyota dealer for the day for some much needed maintenance before the long drive. We were able to find a good travel kennel for the dogs while we were shopping. It fit perfectly in the back seat of the truck and would hold both of the dogs for the drive. I was also able to replace the charger I'd lost for my Blackberry and get Melissa and new phone for the US.

Of course, the truck wasn't ready when we got back to the dealer and we ended up sitting around for another two hours waiting for it to be finished. We should have just gotten an early dinner in Norfolk instead of just sitting around and staring at each other for two hours. At least ($1800 later) the truck was now in great shape. We headed back to Cape Charles and had a great dinner at the Firehouse. Always a better idea than Chili's.

On Friday afternoon, I kissed Melissa and Jack goodbye and started my drive to Houston with the dogs. I got about 6 hours in on Friday and called it a night around 10pm. Between walking the dogs every few hours and needing to stop for gas, I didn't feel like I was getting very far, but at least it was a start.

Saturday was my big day on the road and I got in a good 14 hours of driving. I made it all the way to Louisiana and left myself a short 5 hour drive for Sunday. Unfortunately, after checking into the hotel the night, I found out (from a sign near the entrance) that they didn't allow dogs. I thought that their website had said they did, but trusting Travelocity isn't always the best option. Regardless, I wasn't moving after I'd already checked in, so I snuck the dogs in through the back door and did my best to keep them quiet.

We were able to sneak our way out successfully in the morning and get back on the road. Finally, after 24 hours driving over three days, Milo, Pepper and I made it to our temporary apartment in Houston on April 20th. We've been staying there since and Melissa and Jack arrived in the middle of May after vacationing with family and friends in Virginia and Chicago. The house hunt started in earnest after Melissa arrived and we've finally got a place contracted to close at the end of August. But that's another post.

Australia Vacation

During the last week of May, the relocation company cleared out our apartment in Singapore and put all of our stuff in a container to ship back to the US. After all the work of getting ready for the packers and living at the Hilton hotel for our last week in Singapore, we were ready for a vacation. Australia, here we come!

We booked a 10 day vacation on the east coast of Australia as part of our trip back to the States. The first part of the trip was a 6 day bus tour of the "Gold Coast" area around Brisbane. From there, we would fly to Sydney on our own and spend 4 days exploring the city.

We booked our bus tour portion of the trip from a Singaporean travel agency. Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by the agency's local representative. "Oh, you're with the Dynasty group? Wow, I wasn't expecting any Caucasians!"

What a nice welcome! It turned out that we were the only non-Chinese family on the tour. This kind of turned out to be the theme of the week. In 6 days, we heard a version of that line 9 times. As we walked into places with our group, the people that worked there would try to stop us because they didn't think we were part of the Asian tour group. It became our running joke with our family to keep a tally.

Our first stop on the tour was Tangalooma Island Resort. This resort on Moreton Island is known for it's dolphin feeding experience. At night, wild dolphins come into the beach to be hand fed. (Unfortunately, no pictures of that because it was to dark.) We stood in water up to our waists and were able to hand feed fish to a dolphin.

The other great part of Tangalooma was the sand dunes. We all got a chance to go "sand tabogoning" down the dunes.









It was so fun to slide down the sand dunes just like a snowy hill. The only difference is that the sand doesn't melt when it gets all over your face.


The climb up the dune was a lot harder than it looks in the pictures. For every step you take, you slide backwards half a step in the sand. These old legs were pretty worn out after my 2nd climb. Jack was a crazy man and climbed the hill 4 times; the most of anyone there. At the end of the day, the staff presented Jack with an award for the best sand slider in the group of 50 people.

After eating our fair share of sand, we left Moreton Island and made our way to the "Gold Coast" which is a very popular vacation spot in Australia. It's very similar to Florida because people go there for two things; the great beaches and the amusement parks.

Unfortunately, it was June and that means winter in Australia. Our only visit to the beach was a short one but at least Melissa can say that she's been in the Australian ocean.


On three straight days, we went to Movie World, Sea World and Dream World.







After three days in a row of amusement parks, we were pretty burnt out on rides and looked forward to seeing more "Australian" sights.

One thing on the itinerary that we were unsure about was "pumping for yabbies on the crab hunt." I didn't even want to guess what that meant. It turns out "yabbies" are a kind of cross between a crawfish and shrimp that live in the rivers in Australia. They're smaller though and mainly used for bait.


Yabbies are caught by "pumping" them out of the mud in the river into strainers.






After pumping for yabbies, we also pulled up some crab pots and looking for snacks.







They actually cooked the crabs we caught on the boat and we all got to have a snack.

The next "Australian" adventure was a stop at "Honeyworld". This was a working honey farm complete with it's own bees. We got a very informative tour and were able to try all different flavors of honey. It was amazing how different each kind of honey could taste.






After spending the morning with the bees, we spent the afternoon on a fruit farm. This was a fully functioning farm and research facility that grew all kinds of different fruit for the market as well as tried to develop new breeds of fruit for other farmers to grow.

We got to pick our own oranges as well as taste all kinds of different things. Choices ranged from simple apples and bananas to exotic things like breadfruit and capote.







After the wonders of all the honey, fruit and Asian people we could stand for a whole week, it was time to break away from our group and head off to Sydney on our own. We took a quick flight to Sydney and checked into our hotel near downtown. We didn't really have any planned activities scheduled in Sydney, and that suited us just fine after 6 days of the precision of a Singaporean scheduled bus tour.

Sydney is a beautiful city that Melissa, Jack and I all really enjoyed. One the the tings we were happiest about was the weather. After 2 years in Singapore, the cool Australian winter was a wonderful weather. It was the first time I'd needed to put on a sweatshirt in over 2 years.


One of the places we visited in Sydney that I really enjoyed was the amazing maritime museum. They had a wonderful display about the relationship between the Australian and US navies. We were also able to go onboard the navy ship and submarine they had at the quayside.








We were also able to tour an amazing replica of the HMS Endeavour, the ship of the famous Captain Cook.




The other highlight of visiting Sydney was that we went to the zoo. By far, the highlight of the zoo visit getting to see the kangaroos and other animals.




That's more than enough for this post. I've gone on long enough. I'll be back in a day or two.

Where have you been???

This has easily been the longest I have been away from the blog. While I could try to come up with a few, I really have no good excuse. Even though I have been starting a new job and trying to buy a house, I can't say that I've had no free time at all to throw up a few posts. Over the next week or so, I'll try to get all caught up. Let's see: Australia, Virginia, drive to Houston, start new job, Disneyworld, buy a house. That covers most of it. Let's see if I can get the Australia post done tonight.

Australia, a preview