Reluctantly, mind you, since Ko Chang was beautiful, chill, and had enough activities, chill-out time and excellent seafood to just about make me an expat.

Now we are going to relax for a while. Catch up on email, check flights (well, I am, anyway), and enjoy our last few days together. I'm also going to try to snag a few souvenirs, not all of which, believe it or not, will be alcoholic.

It'll be good to head back to Oregon, but hard to leave Asia and Claudia.

I'm just glad to have taken this trip — it's been 3 of the most incredible months of my life, and here's to making a good last few days.