Happy Thanksgiving from Penang, Malaysia!

I hope this post finds everyone fat and full of turkey, ham and whatever else you like to gorge on at Thanksgiving.

We finally made it to Penang after days of motoring with a few hair raising experiences thrown in to make things interesting (a tug boat almost ran us over in the middle of the night on the one night we decided to keep sailing).  We anchored outside of the Straits Quay Marina because that's where Jake's friends are staying.  This place is swanky.  It's right up there with any waterfront town marina in the states, complete with nice restaurants, a mall and a pretty decent grocery store.  Our expectations were exceeded.  As were Jake's... He picked right back up with his friends Morgan and Wyatt like they had just seen each other yesterday (when in fact, it's been three years).  They've had sleep overs, play dates, gotten some taste of freedom (staying alone!), and he's now spent a day at their school with them.  All in less than a week.  One of the unexpected outcomes of this has been a positive one...my little 6 am wake up call is now delayed to at least 7:30... poor thing is so tired he can't get out of bed!  Awesome.

It was a cloudy day, but this was one of the views from
Penang Hill.  You can't see the actual city behind all that.

We've managed to do a little touring as well.  We bought a 24 hour ticket on a double decker tour bus where you hop and on and off at all the different stops around town.  We rode a crazy train up to the top of Penang Hill, climbed a gazillion steps to the top of a temple (what's with Malaysia and all their stairs?), and stopped at Fort Conwallis for a little history lesson.  The next day we used our last few hours on our ticket to hit the Butterfly farm...very, very cool.

We were lucky enough to be there when they
were releasing some butterflies. 

We were able to enjoy our Thanksgiving here in Malaysia at a nice hotel nearby with a special "Thanksgiving" Buffet.  I'm not entirely sure it resembled turkey day, but there was plenty of food and it was huge hit for our group.  The boys spent most of their time at the chocolate fountain...  I have to say it was a strange experience for me.  Good, but different.  First off, we have never, in my entire life, gone out to eat at a restaurant on Thanksgiving (at least not that I can remember).   I did cook brunch and make Andy a pecan pie but other than that, I got off relatively easy in the cooking department.  Secondly, it was truly an international experience.  Our group alone had fewer Americans than Aussies.  When I looked around the restaurant I saw Chinese, Malaysian, Australian, British, and a few other nationalities I couldn't quite place.

Unfortunately, I'm a bit behind on pictures so the Thanksgiving ones and the boy's pics will have to come later....until then, enjoy!

We're a LONG way from home!

This was about half way up...

Finally made it to the top!

Wouldn't want to meet him in a back alley!

In the middle of all this extravagance...Jake found a place to
rest his tired dogs.

Our budding photog...not too bad...