I was invited to both APVRS in Singapore and PAO in Manila this year. With two weeks between the two meetings, we decided to squeeze in a family trip to Thailand. After a parent-teacher conference and piano lesson, we drove to SFO for noodles and chowder before our flight to Changi. Our hotel let us settle in early and chow down at Food Republic with chicken rice, yong tau fu, and fish noodle soup en route to the ArtScience Museum, where the World of Studio Ghibli exhibit of dioramas and activities immersed us in Miyazaki’s masterpieces and more Totoro merch. After a short nap to overcome jet lag, we returned to Night Safari with enough energy this time to watch scootching pangolins, pacing bitturongs, and lunging gharials. I gave my talk on Saturday while Melody and Westley sweated it out at Bird Paradise before meeting up for yummy chicken rice, laksa, and fishball soup at the airport. The flight delayed our prearranged transport to Railay, resulting in a late dinner of pad thai, pineapple fried rice, and steamed seafood at the Local Thai Restaurant. On Sunday, we chartered a speed boat to Phi Phi Island, which included stops to snap selfies at Maya Bay, swim in Pileh Lagoon, peek at Viking Cave, and watch macaques at Monkey Bay, followed by lunch at Phi Phi Don including yummy McThai’s pineapple and corn pies, Pirates House’s curries, and Mango Garden’s sticky rice. Although the corals were too deep for Melody, Westley and I snorkeled in the afternoon before helping to tow a stranded long-tail boat on our ride back for dinner at Mom’s. We spent next morning at Phra Nang Cave Beach, passing climbers and lingams to explore the clear but mostly fish-free waters. After savoring BBQ chicken in West Railay, we relaxed at our resort lobby watching Muay Thay videos before traversing sea, land, and air to Chiang Mai, where our Airbnb host Charles met us at the airport to show us Old City and his massive info binder. We awoke to porridge to fuel our tour with Tom – an ex-Buddhist monk who showed us the dark tunnels of Wat Umong, quiet meditation at Wat Pha Lat, many steps at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and Lanna-styled Wat Chedi Luang, followed by tasty khao soi at Lamduan. Our evening cooking class taught us to create Northern Thai dishes, and even included a local market stop for dried mangos, mangosteens, and durian. On Wednesday, we learned to make elephant digestives and give them a mud bath at the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. Westley relaxed at the house in the afternoon while Melody and I braved the heat for more khao soi, khanom chin nam ngiaw, papaya salad, and sai oua at Huen Phen and a visit to Wat Phra Singh. We explored Chang Phuak Gate Night Market for dinner, where we sampled khao kha moo from the Cowboy Hat Lady, along with meat skewers, dry suki stir fry, kanom krok, pa tong ko with soy milk, steamed pandan cakes, and a warm coconut-tapioca-salted egg dessert thing. Next morning, our hired driver / Charles’ ex Tukta drove us to Chiang Rai, stopping briefly for cappuccino and soaking our feet at Thaweesin hot spring on the way to the Wat Rong Khun (white temple), Wat Rong Suea Ten (blue temple), Baan Dam Museum (black house), and Wat Huay Pla Kang (guan yin temple). We followed our late lunch with an early dinner at CEI before flying to DMK. With our delicious and eye-opening tour of North Thailand, we did not miss celebrating Thanksgiving back home.

This year, Westley’s Halloween costume came together at the last minute as we assembled the white posterboard, black mesh, blue fabric, white sweatsuit, and color-changing LED puck lights into an Astrobot suit that drew much attention and compliments from other trick-or-treaters. Melody and I also enjoyed our own fright-fest at Sacramento Ballet’s performance of Michael Pink’s Dracula. The stage set, fog machines, and focal lighting helped create an aura of mystique surrounding the title character to complement the choreography that was both creepy and beautiful. Back home, I finally set up a Synology NAS server for Plex that allowed me to recycle a pair of 10-year-old WD Red HDDs. The unfamiliar Linux interface was a learning curve for me, but definitely worth the QoL improvement of not having to send WoL packages every time we wanted to watch something. Last week, I traveled to Ann Arbor to give a research seminar at Kellogg. After filling on a chorizo burger and coconut milkshake from Frita Batidos and relaxing among vintage collegiate decor at the Graduate hotel, I powered through two days of back-to-back meetings, breaking briefly for Zingerman’s pastrami sandwich, Knight’s ribeye, and a visit to my friend Raj’s home, before returning to my family for the long weekend. We set up our holiday decor early, and caught up on Miyazaki films including Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky to prepare for our upcoming visit to the World of Studio Ghibli exhibit. This weekend, I returned to Seattle to give the keynote at the ACVP primate workshop, which also gave me a chance to go all out at DTF, savor a cold brew malt from Starbucks Reserve, and catch up with my college friend Keith at his house with his son and dog. The trip left me little time to prep for our lab holiday gathering at home this evening, where we shared soups and stews followed by a game of Azul. With days left before our SE Asia trip, we felt our mounting excitement for our fourth and final trip aboard this year.