Hello! Sorry we have been absent for almost a month. I realize now that it has sparked some concern as I’ve been hearing from family and friends wondering where we are. Also with rising crisis overseas, and some natural disasters in places we were supposed to be in (Philippines and Australia) I now know I should’ve done better at keeping everyone updated on our lives! We are 100% OK! We just hit a few road bumps over the last month, so I’ll quickly get you all caught up and then we will get back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Right before the holidays we were in Vietnam and I still have a post that I need to write for Hanoi (coming soon) and then quickly after that there was the chaos of me taking some exams in Kuala Lumpur, and then meeting up with my parents and my mom’s side of the family in Penang, Malaysia to spend the holidays. That was all wonderful and I will write another post (also coming soon) for all of those adventures. We wanted to be fully in the moment with family so we stayed far away from our computers with the intention of blogging it up while we were in Langkawi, an island off of Malaysia, for the New Year. Well, that also didn’t happen because well, life.
I promise that as soon as we get back to our version of “normal” which now that I think about it is far from normal, we will update you all with posts of Hanoi, Penang, Langkawi, and a surprise Tokyo! Anyways, a day after the New Year we got shocking news that Scott’s grandmother, Dorothy, had passed away peacefully at home. Dorothy was 89 going on 90, a firecracker in great health, who followed our blog religiously (read previous posts for her comments, she was so sweet). Dorothy was with it for being 89 in an ever changing world but a rampant support of Scott and I and always seemed chipper when we saw her. We were lucky enough to spend some time with her right before we left in September, she even got to show me around her house that she was quite proud of. These are moments that we will really appreciate and remember. Our last conversation with Dorothy was on Christmas when she sweetly asked where we are, are we safe, and when we were planning on getting married and having kids, a classic grandma response.
When we decided to travel there were only two things that would bring us home: death/illness within our families, or if we decided to break up. Our travel insurance actually covers trip interruption for death of a family member, so it was an easy decision to get back home as quickly as possible in order to help out Scott’s family and attend a service. Our trip home was sudden, expensive (thank goodness for insurance) and with a lot of hiccups, but after a two day layover in Tokyo, we landed back in the USA after four months of being gone in Asia and it was a breath of fresh air, literally.
We spent two very short weeks at home, visiting with friends and family, eating our favorites foods, and helping pack up Dorothy’s house. It was exhausting, but a great reminder of the place we love so much. Being home made us realize how great we have it in Oregon, fresh air, clean water, amazing outdoors, and lots of great food. We truly love it so much here. Our whirlwind of being home came to end with a small service for Dorothy in Cottage Grove, and then we were off to the Bay area (flights were much cheaper from SFO).
Now that we are in SF we spent some time with Michael Haro (he and Melody are who’s wedding we attended in September, and then we crashed their honeymoon in Bali). We got to see their new home, new pup Stevie, as well as eat at Michael’s work, Flores. Some of the best food you will eat in SF, I get emotional even thinking about it, it’s that good. We’ll spend some time with Scott’s childhood friends before heading off into the great big world tomorrow.
The portion of our trip we forego-ed in order to return home was the Philippines. Being that their country is in a bit of a state of disaster, maybe it was for the best that we didn’t end up there. Now Scott with continue to Thailand as he was planning on meeting up with some friends for a week and half there. I will be heading to Australia to meet up with one of my best childhood friends, Saige. We will all rejoin in Australia, along with Scott’s parents at the beginning of February to finish off the rest of our world trip wandering. I’ve got a short little two day layover in Hawaii before heading off to Sydney and then Coff’s Harbour. We’ve got a little left in this journey, two months almost exactly, and we are planning to make the most of Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii!
In the days to come, I hope to backtrack and write a bit about the places we were at before we went home, and then hopefully we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming! Thank you for being patient and keeping us in mind on this crazy adventure!
Adventures of Scooter and Hales 