Chip of the World: Summer, Part 2~ SC and beyond

At Safeco Field in Seattle for a Mariner's game.

After a great visit to Bangkok and Lao PDR, I was ready to get home to South Carolina. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to unlocking my condo door and walking inside to spend time. I have to admit, I love the way it looks after all the work I did on it during my year off. There is still more to do and the ideas keep on coming from all the HGTV that I watch during the summer! However, this summer I decided to be lazy and not do anything. The summer went something like this: after a few days in the Upstate to visit my sister and her family plus other relatives it was two weeks in Mt. Pleasant, a week at the beach in Garden City, SC, a few days back in Mt. Pleasant and then an 8 day trip (which turned to nine!) “out west” in Seattle and Bend, Oregon. Then, it was back to Mt. Pleasant for two more weeks before heading back to Dubai.

The first two weeks in Mt. Pleasant were a bit nondescript with me mostly being lazy and getting acclimated again to a life of not working, not having to adhere to any particular schedule, and watching a lot of Wimbledon on my computer via a Spanish website since I had a glitch with Comcast and didn’t have any cable for a week! In addition, I didn’t even have a digital converter box to receive the local stations. When I wasn’t watching Wimbledon, I was watching my new favorite show via DVD~ Dexter. I love it! In that week I watched two complete seasons and can’t wait for season four to begin in September. Now, instead of waiting for it to be released on bootleg DVD in Asia, I’ll watch it week to week on Showtime via my Slingbox which allows me to watch cable TV through my computer from the US (and my cousin’s house!)

The week at Garden City was great. My extended family and I rented a house that slept 15 people. The house was on the front beach with part of Murrells Inlet behind it. The weather was great and there was lots of sunning on the beach, beach walks, and hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. For the older kids (myself included!) there were trips to a water park, an amusement park, and the local pier with arcade. I also met up with an old roommate from back in the day (Rob N. for those in the know). He was in North MB for a few days, and it was great to catch up with him.

The House of Pain in the water: Annsley(10), Brooks(7), and Blake(51/2)

After a quick trip back to my condo, it was on to Seattle (Bainbridge Island to be exact) for most of a day and night and then on to Bend, Oregon to visit my good friends and colleagues from Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia – Joe and Trina (for those in the know). Bend is in central Oregon in what’s called the high desert and with incredible snow-covered mountain views. Joe and Trina hope to either buy or build a house in the area but this summer they rented a place that had unbelievable views. It was so cool to sit upstairs and stare out at the views and watch the sun set. After dark and after their darling little girl had been tucked away for the night, we would sit in the warm Jacuzzi in the cool night air (low 50’s) and just catch up on the year while looking up at a sky filled with stars. Bend is such a cool town and one I hope to visit in the future. On unexpected surprise was a 2 hour road trip to a small Oregon town to meet another CNG friend of ours for breakfast. Susan O. (for those in the know) was driving from Portland to Boise and we decided we all had to meet up. Trina found the tiny town of a meeting place on a map and the meeting place on line. The small town was barely a blip on the map and the diner a ‘country café’ type of place out of the movies. When we walked in on the Saturday morning the “he-man” locals – farmer and rodeo types – were sitting around a big round table eating hardy meals! We had lunch for about an hour, caught up on all our lives, and then we all hit the road again. Susan O had to get to Boise, and I had a plane to catch back to Seattle.

An ex-basketball player/ex-student for three years in Colombia and current good friend of mine Alex L. picked me up from the airport and we headed to my cousin’s (Linda Ann) house on Bainbridge Island. Alex had driven up from Salt Lake City to hang out and explore the Seattle area for a few days. I was really looking forward to some nice cool Pacific NW weather, but instead, found myself in a heat wave that had the weather in Seattle similar to that of SC except for the low humidity! The nights were still pleasant, but the days were hot especially since not many people have AC, including my cousin! Alex has a Jeep so down went the top and off we went exploring, mostly to parts of the Olympic Peninsula…the coast and Hurricane Ridge for those familiar with the area. What a beautiful area of the country! We also caught a Mariner’s game, sought refuge from the heat ‘over the pass’ to a national park and lake, and along with my cousin Katie, took a late night dip in Puget Sound in its 55* water. For those that might remember the chronicles, Katie is my cousin who spent a year with me in Nepal and attended Lincoln School. Claire, her sister and recent HS graduate, was around for a day before taking a trip to Idaho with HS friends. Usually these three cousins are part of the ‘family’ that joins in on the beach week, but schedules didn’t quite work out this summer for that to happen.

After an unexpected night in Detroit because of a canceled flight, it was back to Mt. Pleasant for two weeks. Most of the time was spent getting organized to leave ‘home’ for the next 10 months, meeting up with friends and seeing relatives one last time. These two weeks were gone in a blur and before I knew it, I was on the plane to begin Year # 3 in Dubai. As usual it was a great summer that ended as it has the last few times I been home: flying out of the Upstate of SC after leaving my car at my sister’s house and visiting with them the last day. Lately, the tradition has been to head over to my aunt and uncle’s house on the farm where my cousins come over and we swim in the pool, eat a meal, and hang out one last time before I go to the airport. What a great way to end the summer for me.

To the USA people, see y’all next summer. (And Frank, I better see you in Dubai at some point this year!) To the ‘internationals’ – perhaps our paths will cross somewhere in the world this year!?

Alex and his baby...his Jeep!