The Elephants in the Resort

With excitement and numbered post-it notes, we counted down the days until we saw the elephants. We flew into Phuket (pronounced poo-KET, not the way you want to say it) last Saturday amidst much excitement. The boys were AWESOME on the plane... Kahlil got a new number / math book that completely absorbed him and Langston was busy playing with his new cars / airplanes. Everything was off to a great start.

When the plane started to land, there was quite a bit of cloud cover and once we hit the ground it was rainy. Hum, should blow over by tomorrow. We'll just spend today getting settled in. So we did... we checked in (at the Sheraton Grande Laguna), got our bags unpacked, took our first excursion out of the hotel room and ran into Lucky, the three year old elephant!

Luck was out for his afternoon visit. It was so fun to interact with him. He wrapped his trunk around my shoulders and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He landed a kiss on Kahlil's tummy, gave us high fives and was generally a sweet boy. Baby elephants have always been one of my favorite animals and Lucky just confirmed that my affections are well placed.

Even though it was raining, our excitement carried us out to the beach where we were the only crazy people there. But after a little while the sun was setting and the temperature cooled so we stepped into one of the beach restaurants and had a fantastic Thai dinner that included the best dessert in the world, mango sticky rice... YUM!

The next morning we started the day with a visit with both Lucky and Lilly, the 4 1/2 year old elephant. Lilly is a little bigger but just as sweet. We got to see more of their tricks... harmonic playing, massaging your back, waving, giving rides (which K and L weren't up to yet), and posing for photos. It is amazing that an animal so large is so gentle and kind.

After breakfast we spent some time in the endless pool... seriously we didn't think we would find the end. At the start is a sandy beach area so you can get sand in your suite but not get salty. Floating under a couple bridges would take you to the main swimming pool that included a swim up drink bar. Off of the main pool was a canal that wondered though the grounds so we were off to see where it took us. Kahlil was on a boogie board while Jay was helping Langston along. I followed on land and took pictures. After many twists and turns though the garden, we ended up at the final pool that was topped off with a waterfall. After lunch we were tuckered out and took a nap. In the afternoon the rain was a little more persistent and it was cooler so we didn't venture back into the water. Dinner again was the beach side restaurant... yum!


Then the next three days happened... each day was a little more rainy and cooler. It was too cold to spend time in the water so we wondered the grounds in the covered walk ways, hung out at the kids club (a play room), and watched TV. Not how we were expecting to spend our tropical vacation.

But it wasn't all bad. We did get to visit with Lilly and Lucky every morning and after a couple days the boys were confident enough to go for a ride on Lilly. Such a special activity and something I hope they both remember for a LONG time.

In the evening after dinner we found these AWESOME beetles laying about on the walk ways. It was strange as they would just be laying in the middle of a landing as though they had been paralyzed and dropped, waiting to be stepped on. At first we thought they were already dead, but after a strategically placed leaf poke we realized they were alive if not very lively. This gave us purpose... find the beetles and move them out of harms way. I'm not sure how many we 'rescued' but I'm sure the beetle population saw a small dip in die-off rate for the time we were there. We also saw a few huge millipedes and a pond full of talkative frogs. Some of the frogs were smaller than my pinky thumb nail. Of course there were geckos. What we did NOT see (thank GOD) was a snake.

On the day we were scheduled to leave, the day broke with some bird song and sunshine. That morning we said goodbye to Lucky and Lilly then ran back to our room to put on swim suites. We got in a quick kayak ride and some time in the surf. Then the rain started again, but no matter. We had to shower and pack.

All in all it was a bitter sweet trip. Jay's scuba adventure and the family snorkel day never happened. But we got to hang with Lucky and Lilly, see some cool bugs, and eat some fantastic food - YUM! It wasn't all we hoped for, but it was still a vacation to remember.