Poolside

Finishing up on our trip to Hua Hin...

The pool area featured a sandy walk-in "beach" for little ones as well as a lazy river (the nicest I have ever seen) and a 22 meter long (and 7 meter high) slide. The pool, beach and lazy river were all on the edge of the property that bordered the beach. If the boys were in the pool, we (or rather the pool boy) turned our chairs to face the pool. If they were on the beach, our chairs were turned to face the beach. Very convenient.

The walk-in beach was perfect for toddlers and young swimmers.

Near the beginning of the lazy river.

The lazy river emptied into one side of the pool area...

And then continued to wind through the property on the other side of the pool.  

 

 
The area in the photo below reminded me of the small creeks and springs in Florida. I almost expected to see an alligator or two float by. 

 

I don't know how long the lazy river is but I swam it (slowly) a couple of times and it took me a good 20 mins to swim from end to end. After looping around the northern edge of the property, the lazy river dumped back into the pool. 

The boys spent hours on the water slide...

 

 

I think this was a wading pool for the younger children.

 

The boys contemplating their next activity... go on the water slide, swim or ride the "cushion" on the Gulf?

 Or, a nap?

The hotel says that it has 200 meters of beachfront, the longest of all Hua-Hin hotels. The beach was spotless and the sand was nice and soft. There were the usual vendors hawking clothing, rides on horses, jet skis and banana boats but they weren't aggressive if you weren't interested.

Looking out to the beach from the pool area.  

Looking south down the beach.

Although the skies were overcast each day, the rain held off until nighttime and we were able to have a lot of pool and beach time.

I used the "auto adjust" feature on my photo program and ended up with this...

Doing their best to support the local economy (with our money), the boys rode this "cushion" around the Gulf many, many times... 

Ready to go home - just waiting for our driver. 

Why is there such a short time between the good behavior giving way to silliness?!?

The boys and the girl.

As you can see from the photos, the resort was deserted! I thought there would be more people at the hotel and on the beach since it was the Songkran holiday but I was wrong. Not that I am complaining. We never had a problem getting chairs at the pool or a table at a restaurant and the resort was, generally, very quiet. The boys had a great time swimming and Caitlynne, my friend and I caught up on our reading. 

I did take a few photos of food. 

I had this arugula, shrimp and pesto risotto one night for dinner.

And the kids each had this sun-dried tomato and mascarpone risotto. Both dishes were excellent.

For dessert one evening, we had this yummy passion-fruit, white chocolate and dark chocolate mousse. 

The girl back at home with her shadow. 

The last couple of times that we have traveled, I have left Sonder with Khun Jun, the lady that does his grooming. While I liked having him board at the vet, when he stays with Khun Jun, he gets much more socialization with other dogs and people. Most days, she will bring him to her grooming shop for the day and he gets to hang out and see his "friends" from around Nichada. There is a family in Nichada with a beautiful black labradoodle - Sonder and I often see "Sophie" and her dad when we are out in the mornings. Sophie was also boarding with Khun Jun last week and she and Sonder got to have a few days to play together. 

There are only two more "must do" trips on our list before we leave - a visit to Cambodia and a visit to Vietnam. Cambodia can be done in a long weekend and we might try and squeeze that in while Kevin is home in mid-May. We will need about 5 days to see what we want to in Vietnam so that trip will probably need to wait until the kids are out of school and Kevin is back in June. It would be nice to get in another trip to Hua Hin but with just two months left and Kevin not here for most of it, it just might not be possible.

Have a great Monday!