We have spent the last few days here just lounging about like retired people 🙂  Given that we have done most of the tourist highlights here there is noting we really need to do so we just start our days with a leisurely breakfast and then go where our mood strikes us for the day.

We have spent a fair amount of time just walking around different parts of the old city exploring the little local markets and looking at a few of the 100s of temples that are spread out all over Chiang Mai.

I took Mrs. Columbus out for a ‘date night’ the other night, we had dinner for 2, drinks, dessert and a massage each and the whole night was less than $15 – crazy!

We met a retired couple from Australia yesterday at our hotel who are basically moving here for the next 12 months because they say that it is getting so expensive in Australia.  They rented a fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment just outside the old city for $300 per month!  They have to fly back to Australia once every 13 weeks for a couple of days to maintain their pensions, but will spend the rest of their time here.  I must admit to being a little jealous…..

There was supposed to be a 4th of July party here hosted by the American Consulate – something that the expatriate community comes out for every year with their families, but perhaps Washington is spending all their extra cash on election ads or something because the party was canceled this year.  A few of the local expat owned restaurants had their own fireworks displays but unfortunately we missed them while having a massage 🙂 – it was still a good way to celebrate the 4th for us!

We took a walk up to the university area yesterday, it is very much a trendy area of the city as only foreigners and wealthy Thai families can afford to send their kids to university.  The area is sort of like downtown Kirkland or Whyte Ave back in Edmonton with lots of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and shopping.  It was a good 2 mile walk each way and during the walk back the overcast skies cleared and the sun was beating down hard so we stopped at a mall on the way back for an ice cream sundae at Swenson’s – mostly because we think that Grandpa would approve!!

We still have yet to decide when and where we will move to next, but we need to figure that out soon, or start looking for an apartment to rent 😉

That’s all for now – hope all our friends back in the USA had a great 4th of July!!