Three Cheers to an AMAZING 2008

I lived in the best 1 bedroom apartment in Portland

and my favorite jeans decided they couldn't take it any more

I walked to work every day,

Nik and I spent a weekend on the Oregon coast,

and he laid down in the beach grass.

The first building I ever worked on was dedicated,

Spring started in Portland,

and my Dad had heart surgery, so I mowed the lawn.

We went to Denver to meet my niece for the first time ever,

and Nik and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary.

We stayed at a lovely B&B

in Nik's favorite American city, San Francisco,

then we said goodbye to so many good Portland friends,

and packed our life into one of these little rooms before saying goodbye to Portland, not knowing if we'd ever return.

I took a solo road-trip from Tennessee to Atlanta,

Attended the family reunion with our little Sinz extension,

And hopped on a big plane the very next day to go to...

Thailand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We climbed a big hill in Krabi to see a big Buddha,

We watched soccer at sunset on Rai Leh Beach,

We rode a longtail boat to Koh Phi Phi,

We found an apartment in Chiang Mai,

and I turned 27 so we took our first long distance motorbike trip to celebrate.

We discovered the best boiled chicken restaurant in town,

We visited the Reservoir for the first time,

we got lost on our way to Pai,

and we wandered around town....A LOT!!

We spent some days overlooking Chiang Mai,

we took a trip to Doi Inthanon,

and then we went to India.

We slept at hawk level near Jama Masjid during Ramadan in Delhi,

we walked to Shey to see a monastery in the Himalayas,

we rode a local bus along the Indus River,

and we fought off touts

while we admired the bathing ghats in Varanasi.

We joined the masses at the Taj Mahal,

we took an Indian cooking class

and walked through the blue streets in Jodhpur,

we slept under the stars in Osiyan,

we dined on rooftops,

witnessed celebrations,

and paddled through Lake Pichola in Udaipur,

we looked at books,

watched the sunset at Chowpatty Beach,

joined the morning commute,

and drank sugarcane juice in Mumbai,

Nik caught a cold in Goa,

I got food poisoning in Bengaluru,

and then we saw the King of Thailand in Bangkok.

we made it back to Chiang Mai just in time for Loi Krathong,

and then left Thailand for good (at least until next year).

But we didn't go home. Instead we went to Beijing to meet some friends,

ride some bikes,

and hike some km's on the Great Wall.

we acted like we had money to spend

and climbed to the top of the Lulu bridge in Shanghai,

we went to a bonfire with Chinese college students,

ate lunch at a long-haired-lady's home,

and hiked along the rice terraces in Longji,

we biked through the countryside

and ate citrus fruit in Yangshuo,

we were amazed by Hong Kong,

and then we came back to America.