April 27th 2015 - Koh Lanta, Thailand - Day 256
Big Pete's POV
Today we woke up and had our typical morning, however at about 9:00 our power went out. Normally this would not be much of an issue (we are in Thailand on a beach, why would we need electricity?), however, we are still in the middle of trying to figure out what to do in the wake of the Nepal news and badly needed the internet to do some research and communication with airlines, hotels etc. With very little to do and lots to discuss we made our way to what has become our dining room - the Miami Restaurant. It was already quite hot so we ordered some smoothies. However, we were informed by our nice waitress that you need a blender to make a smoothie and without power the blenders don't work - duh. We ordered ice cream instead. Normally ice cream at 9:00 in the morning is not a solid option, but for this conversation and this heat, it was perfect. I asked one of the waiters about the power and he told me it would be out all day, at least until 4:00, so we knew we did not need to keep checking. and prepared for an idol day.
We had a good conversation about our options and then made our way home to spend a lazy day considering what to do. At 4:00 I found a stray internet connection and started to do a little research, at around 5:00 the power came back on and we made some headway. We are leaning towards staying in Thailand a little longer and maybe heading home a few days early, but we still have more research to do so stay tuned.
In the evening Stacie and I headed down the beach for a drink, but this time we stopped at Lucky Fish instead of going to Miami. They had nice chairs out on the beach and we were in the mood to shake it up a bit. While we were sitting enjoying another lovely sunset we noticed a mother and daughter walk by and take a seat on the beach in front of Miami. We had seen them several times over the past couple of days and Stacie and I had been encouraging Lea to go say hello to the girl, who looked like she was roughly the same age. A few minutes later the dad and son showed up and were attempting to take a family photo, so I got up and offered to take it for them. We ended up chatting for a few minutes and then the rest of our family came over and joined in. They turned out to be Canadian's who had been living in Australia for the past 15 years and who were on their last day of a month long vacation in Sri Lanka and Thailand.
We spent most of the evening with Brad, Lori, Kalyania and Kayden and had a wonderful time. Both families are on a similar search for something more and we hit it off well. Even better than that Lea and Kalyania connected immediately and spent the entire evening sitting on the beach chatting like best friends. It was wonderful to see Lea connect with someone her age and have so much fun.
We ended the evening by purchasing 8 floating lanterns, lighting them together and making wishes from the beach. It was a very special evening that none of our family will soon forget.