An introduction to my summer vacation ....
We left HCMC on 13 June for Vancouver (also affectionately known as YVR to many Canadians - the official airport code for the Vancouver airport). This was our first flight BACK across the dateline since our arrival. It was with Cathay Pacific, thus it was via Hong Kong. As we boarded the delayed 1:30 AM flight in Hong Kong I was texting with our daughter, letting her know we were boarding. Once we got on board and I heard the purser say it was a 12 hour flight to YVR and I did the Math, I realized I had given our daughter THE WRONG DAY for the arrival of our flight. I calmly sat in my aisle seat, working hard to send her telepathic messages. It worked, more or less, because on the other side of "the lake" (if the Atlantic is a pond, surely the Pacific is a lake) she was doing the math and calculated that our flight would be 28 hours long if we were then boarding ... which she knew was impossible. She did some quick checking, realized our arrival time of 10 PM was now going to be after midnight (given the delay leaving Hong Kong) and she had to get up at 4 in the morning to go to work at 5. AND it was impossible to communicate with me for 12 hours. Thus, when I arrived at YVR at 1 AM, turned on my phone and connected to wifi, there was the message from her saying that she had set her alarm for 1 AM to check our flight status, send her a message when we got in, take a taxi to her place, and she would let us in and then go back to sleep before she had to get up.
We all managed a few hours of sleep before she and her roommate were up for their 5 AM jobs. We walked with her to the coffee shop where she works, and wandered around the 3 block retail area in her neighborhood (all 6 coffee shops were clearly busy inside, but none were open). We marveled at the owner/manager helping her set up the outside tables at 6 AM and went inside to order our tea. The guy helping her was one of the regulars who insisted she help us first, but agreed to go first when she said ,"those are my parents." I enjoyed watching her as she greeted customers, made drinks, scurried to put out the new muffins, and worked to remember all the little opening touches (the Spotify Music setting, the background lights, etc.) We read the newspapers (which may have thrown off the routines of some of the regulars) and waited for her to go on break before we ordered breakfast. Such a joy - watching one's adult children. Especially when they forgive their mother for flight arrival miscalculations.
It was a short 2-day stay before we headed to Denver and a whirlwind trip of Colorado and Wyoming.
Then, the real purpose of summer vacation began. We headed to Ecuador to conduct our research on considering it as a retirement destination.
We left HCMC on 13 June for Vancouver (also affectionately known as YVR to many Canadians - the official airport code for the Vancouver airport). This was our first flight BACK across the dateline since our arrival. It was with Cathay Pacific, thus it was via Hong Kong. As we boarded the delayed 1:30 AM flight in Hong Kong I was texting with our daughter, letting her know we were boarding. Once we got on board and I heard the purser say it was a 12 hour flight to YVR and I did the Math, I realized I had given our daughter THE WRONG DAY for the arrival of our flight. I calmly sat in my aisle seat, working hard to send her telepathic messages. It worked, more or less, because on the other side of "the lake" (if the Atlantic is a pond, surely the Pacific is a lake) she was doing the math and calculated that our flight would be 28 hours long if we were then boarding ... which she knew was impossible. She did some quick checking, realized our arrival time of 10 PM was now going to be after midnight (given the delay leaving Hong Kong) and she had to get up at 4 in the morning to go to work at 5. AND it was impossible to communicate with me for 12 hours. Thus, when I arrived at YVR at 1 AM, turned on my phone and connected to wifi, there was the message from her saying that she had set her alarm for 1 AM to check our flight status, send her a message when we got in, take a taxi to her place, and she would let us in and then go back to sleep before she had to get up.
We all managed a few hours of sleep before she and her roommate were up for their 5 AM jobs. We walked with her to the coffee shop where she works, and wandered around the 3 block retail area in her neighborhood (all 6 coffee shops were clearly busy inside, but none were open). We marveled at the owner/manager helping her set up the outside tables at 6 AM and went inside to order our tea. The guy helping her was one of the regulars who insisted she help us first, but agreed to go first when she said ,"those are my parents." I enjoyed watching her as she greeted customers, made drinks, scurried to put out the new muffins, and worked to remember all the little opening touches (the Spotify Music setting, the background lights, etc.) We read the newspapers (which may have thrown off the routines of some of the regulars) and waited for her to go on break before we ordered breakfast. Such a joy - watching one's adult children. Especially when they forgive their mother for flight arrival miscalculations.
It was a short 2-day stay before we headed to Denver and a whirlwind trip of Colorado and Wyoming.
Then, the real purpose of summer vacation began. We headed to Ecuador to conduct our research on considering it as a retirement destination.
We spent a month in Cuenca. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site in four categories ....
for the colonial architecture...
For being part of the Inca Trail
For the unique biosphere at Cajas National Park (a wet, tropical alpine biosphere)
(yes, wild llamas)
and the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Panama Hat (really from Ecuador, not Panama).
More about Cuenca and the rest of the summer in another post. One of my brothers says I should start writing less more often.
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