Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is a perfectly nice place and we enjoyed our time there. But cities aren't our favorite, and being catered to a level inside our comfort zone isn't our idea of 'experiencing local culture'. Menus written in English and shabby chic, whitewashed pallet decor is cute and everything, but I flew halfway around the world to see Thailand, give me bamboo and banana leaves and coconut shells.

After leaving our extremely luxurious digs in San Sai, just northeast of Chiang Mai city, we realized just how extremely luxurious we had it. We stayed at the Wangburapa Grand hotel, right on the mote road by Therapae Gate. A short walk takes you around the southeast quadrant of the city and all manner of restaurants, shops, walking streets and markets.

Wending our way through the little alleys inside the city, Mr. Go found a meticulous barber (we would later realize meticulous is part of the Thai way) and I found a storage-unit seamstress to make me a dress. (More on that later.)

We quickly came to realize that the shops selling elephant pants and brightly patterned dresses in one-size-fits-all style were all carrying the exact same things, imported from China for the European tourists who thought that was what an experience in Thailand meant: coming home with beaded bracelets and balloon pants. You know who I didn't see wearing elephant pants? Thai people.

I don't mean to run down on tourists, because I know that, while we strive to be respectful and blend in, we are also tourists. But as we made our way to some of the temples, we ran across Canadian tourists who, despite having been in Thailand for two weeks, were just learning how to say hello and thank you in Thai. We certainly didn't study Thai as much as we should have, or nearly as much as we practiced Spanish before our Spain adventure, but polite greetings were the first thing we learned, within our first two days in the country. The simple courtesy of saying arroy mak (very delicious) to our chefs has earned us respect (and one time, a plate of jackfruit, my new favorite food).

Anyway, in Chiang Mai, there are temples every 200 meters, all beautifully gilded in gold and carved with curving serpents. (And crawling with tourists.) Being properly dressed for Thai culture, but especially for visiting temples, means ladies cover their knees and shoulders, meaning I was sweltering uncomfortably for many days. But it's a small price to pay and as I mentioned, we do our best to blend in. We spotted tourists wearing shorts so short their butts were hanging out the bottom, not even trying.

We found the Buak Hard park on the southwest corner of the city, and an even quieter park just on the other side of the mote from it, and let Babs play there for a while before wandering around.

Trying to find restaurants on Google Maps only ended in frustration most of the time. Places that have a presence on Google often cater to Westerners, and reviews can be deceiving. Westerners are the ones who tend to write reviews, and "no English speaking staff" is often a reason to knock off stars for them, while for us it would be an indication of authenticity.

The big, once a week walking streets proved far too crowded for our tastes. (Walking Streets are essentially closed-off streets with pop-up vendor stalls selling food, clothes and other random souvenirs.) The Wua Lai Walking street was impossible to navigate. Being herded like cattle through stalls is not conducive to stopping to peruse the odd table here and there with unique wares worth perusing. Same for the Tha Pae walking street, though the earlier you go the better it is (though some stalls may not yet be open). It gets more crowded later on.

Chiang Mai seems to be a backpacker's party town. The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar area hosted mostly seedy-looking bars. We didn't spend much time there. In general, anything right on the mote road seems to be more expensive and more apt to cater to Westerners.

One of the most fun dinners we had was after we bailed on the walking street and wandered around to find dinner. It was going to rain, so when we saw a hunchbacked old lady whipping things around in a wok with three tables set up behind her, we ducked in. No English on the menu. Perfect.

We pointed at some pictures on the wall and the lady's husband got us some beers (Singha, the best Thai beer). He apologized for the slowness of the service, but we were like that's cool, don't rush the lady, she's old. Babs ordered herself a gai pad thai (rice noodles with chicken, egg and bean sprouts), while I had pad see-ew (fat rice noodles with veggies) and Mr. Go ordered the old standard pad gaprao (basil and pork with a side of rice).

The rain came down in buckets and the "restaurant" such as it was filled up to standing room only, with people hanging out waiting for the old lady to box up their takeaway. A sliding glass door partitioned the eating area from the living area of their home. The food was amazing and cost us a whole 1.50 USD per dish.

On every Chiang Mai block is an office with signs advertising elephant experiences, which cost upwards of 1,000THB/person. After our discussion with our pet-sit people, we opted to wait on the elephant experience for a different area.

New Year's in Chiang Mai, we stayed out until midnight. Front-desk staff said the 'fireworks' would start at 7pm. We were confused, but when we started seeing specks of orange light floating up into the sky, we realized 'fireworks' meant Chinese lanterns. People bought them and set them off, but companies were also setting them off, so a steady stream of lights bobbed against the stars all evening.

We wandered down into a Thai NYE festival, with the obligatory food stalls, but also a stage where young girls performed traditional Thai dance, a Thai band sang traditional songs, then a jazz band performed some covers of Strumbellas and The Beatles before going into original material. We sat and enjoyed for a while, then wandered through the market back to the mote, where at midnight, some small fireworks were lit off from several places.

January 1, 2020, we would take a bus south to Lampang, begin escaping the tourists for more rural areas and some of our best adventures to date.

Pet Sitting in Thailand

We took an early flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand and by pure luck found the airport bus that took us (for 30 baht/adult, kids under 6 free) to the Nimman neighborhood, closeish to our Airbnb villa. I showed the driver my google maps, with much pointing, nodding and smiling. When we arrived at the closest stop, he motioned, smiling, that we were to disembark. It was a good start and a sign of the friendliness to come.

Mr. Go wanted to move to Thailand immediately when we realized how many places require you to remove your shoes before you enter. What a good idea! It should be universal! Shoes are disgusting!

We walked down to the Old City, heading toward a park and thought a TukTuk drive around the mote would be cool.

Hot Take: tuktuks on busy roads aren't cool. Getting blasted in the face by songthaew exhaust made me realize why so many people wear those surgical masks. Turns out, the air quality in Chiang Mai is not great.

We were tired, so we ate at a well-rated Mexican restaurant (it was really good). I went out for coffee the next morning, as packets of sugary cappuccino mix and dried tea without bags (how do?) were all that was offered by our villa.

House/Pet Sitting

Our house sit (again through TrustedHouseSitters.com, more on that in this post) began the next morning. The lovely American couple offered to make us breakfast, so we Grabbed out there. They really were the loveliest people, and they and their two sons made us feel welcome. Their two dogs were the sweetest and their house was amazing. It felt like a luxury palace after the cramped, sketchy digs of the last week.

TIP: Our people told me about this Chiang Mai House/ Pet Sitting Facebook group, a private group where you can find other house sits as well.

Mark took us for a tour around the neighborhood, pointing out good restaurants, where the markets were on which days (hard to keep straight at first-- every day here, only sunday here, only tuesday here).

The next 9 days were infinitely relaxing, and a great place for Babs to get sick, which she did. A high temp and a cough, though that didn't slow us down much.

Our hosts told us we would get odd looks for walking around the neighborhood, and we did. Everyone takes motorbikes or drives. The odd pedal bike here and there. But despite feeling a little fish-out-of-water, everyone we met was super friendly.

We got Thai massages from a Muay Thai boxer, a woman named Pon (Pawn) who was friendly and extremely strong. She graciously gave me the option of soft, medium or hard. I chose medium and shudder to think what the hard option would have felt like. "I hurt you, you tell me," she kindly offered and I nearly took her up on that. I was sore for days. Mr. Go said he felt like he'd just had a big cup of coffee afterward, jittery from increased blood flow.

Chiang Mai Zoo

The Chiang Mai Zoo was pretty neat. You could get closer to the animals than in American zoos, and their enclosures did NOT seem as secure. Going by the tiger, pacing in his enclosure, all that separated him and us is what amounts to a ditch that is definitely NOT wide enough to stop him if he really wanted to get to us. His eyes followed us as we passed. We walked a little faster.

We paid for a panda ticket, too. The panda enclosure is just one building with two separate spots for pandas. We got to see a panda munching on some bamboo. We'd never seen one before so it was something new, but I couldn't help but think, "Is that it? That's what we paid for?"

After the zoo, we walked the 500m to Huay Kaew waterfall. It was pretty. Probably a nice place to sit in the shade and enjoy the sounds of nature, but we didn't stay too long.

We walked down a dirt alley to find the restaurant I'd flagged on Maps which was more expensive than I thought. Without knowing any better, we ordered two papaya salads. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the spiciest thing I've ever had in my life. It was painful. Neither of us could eat much of it. Luckily Babs was smart and ordered gai pad thai and we split that.

Pro Tip: Order dishes mai pet (not spicy) pet ni noy (little bit spicy) or request only neung phrik (one chili).

Wat Phra Lat & The Monk's Trail

The Monk's Trail was a highlight. A 3km or so hike through a jungle trail to a secluded temple with beautiful rolling hill views. Go as early as you can. By 10am it was beginning to get crowded. Apparently there are some waterfall offshoots, but we must have missed the trails.

Make sure to tell your driver you want to go to the Monk's Trail and start at the bottom of the hill. If you say Wat Phra Lat they'll take you to the parking lot in front of the temple, as we saw one poor backpacker arguing ineffectively to his driver as we left.

Doi Suthep

Since we were on that side of the city, we decided to grab our very first songtaew (Thai taxi-- a red truck with benches in the open back) up to Doi Suthep, a main temple attraction.

The drive up nearly made me hurl, wending around mountain switchbacks far too fast with no seatbelt as the tropical air heated up to midday. Trying to look out the front windshield instead of the back or sides helped a bit. At the top, Mr. Go bought me some strawberries and we started the climb up the steps.

Foreigners have to pay 30 baht/adult for admittance to the temple, then we had to shuffle around all the other tourists snapping pictures. It was beautiful, all ornate gold sculptures and I appreciated its significance, but I just kept thinking about how we were contributing to the degradation of its secluded charm by touring it. How could anyone meditate their way to nirvana with tourists who can't read the "don't push bells" sign ringing the ancient chimes?

We got crammed into a songtaew with more and more and more people for the ride down (including a nice couple from Toronto & Sault Ste. Marie, MI). Mr. Go made fun of me to the other riders re: my motion sickness, then we hopped off at the zoo at the bottom of the hill to hit up the restaurant we saw the day before and regretted not eating at. We got laughed at for trying to speak Thai, but in a nice way.

Thai Farm Cooking School

I took a solo Grab (thrilling) to the nearby Ruamchok market (an excellent open-air supermarket with veggies, fruits & fried foods) and met the Thai Farm Cooking School people, who'd already collected the other 9 participants (All american and 2 british) from their hotels. We drove about 15km north to a farm where we learned about the ingredients and made 6 dishes. The day cost me 1500 THB, or about 50 USD.

There are plenty of Cooking School experiences in Chiang Mai, and I can't attest to them, but I loved my experience. I would recommend doing the full rather than half day.

I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate the dishes successfully, without access to the incredible fresh sweet coconut milk, Thai basil and green chilis. But I'll surely try. I brought a small bag of leftovers home for the fam. Babs is still not doing great with the amount of heat in even the most mai pet of dishes, but here's hoping her tolerance will improve. A girl can't live on rice alone.

Huay Tong Tao Reservoir

It costs foreigners 50 baht each to enter (6 & under free). We strolled around the reservoir, stopping to chill on a towel and let Mr. Go fish for an hour. There's a weird park with hay sculptures of gorillas that was fun, if overrun with tourists. We had lunch on a bamboo raft just off the shore and appreciated the misty rolling hills and cool breeze, and also the fact that we have such easy access to that kind of lake experience at home in Michigan.

In the afternoon, it starts to get hot and crowded and loses a bit of its charm.

After 9 days, our pet sit came to an end. We left the enormous, spotless house with the playroom of Legos and went on to adventure in Chiang Mai city.

One Week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Last time we made an oversea flight it was on a budget airline, so the fact that United fed us so well blew my mind.

When booking our flight, we chose the gluten-free meal options. The "special" meals were served first, so even though we were sitting pretty far back in the plane, we got our dinner first. Highly recommend ordering a "special" meal (kid's/vegetarian/etc/) for that fact alone.

Our plane from L.A. departed at around 9pm, pretty late even for East Coast standards. We then had a changeover at San Fran, so we didn't get on our big leg until about midnight. Babs fell asleep as soon as we were airborne, but they were serving food, so we woke her to eat. They then handed out ice cream and sandwiches for later, then we didn't see a stewardess again for the next 8 hours (bad for thirsty people who can't sleep).

We watched a few movies, then got as much sleep as one can while squished between a spread-eagle child and a large stranger.

Upon landing in Kuala Lumpur, we took the KLIA Ekspress, with direct service to KL Sentral, the central train/bus station. I suspect we could've taken the KLIA Transit, which makes a couple stops on the way to KL Sentral, for cheaper.

Exiting the train station into a blast of tropical heat while jetlagged wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever experienced. But I specifically booked an Airbnb for the first 4 nights at a condo a short walk from the station.

We would later come to realize KL is not friendly for walking. Everyone rides motorcycles or takes Grabs (the Uber of SEA). Every condo we stayed at in KL had security guards at the door. This was a perfectly nice place, except that the surrounding 2 blocks were filled with rotting refuse, including the occasional flattened rat.

We were in Brickfields, right next to Little India, and the meal we had on the way to our Airbnb, hot, tired and confused, was one of the best Indian meals I'd had up to that point. Spicy as hell and once we took a good look around we were sure it was going to make us sick, but we'd later come to realize this was par for the course. The open-air kitchen, lack of utensils and napkins, and the handwashing station at the back.

For the first few days, we tried to go out and explore in the mornings. Waking up at 1:30am, waiting 6 hours for a breakfast joint to open, then getting tuckered out by 2pm. Afternoon naps, even though we always desperately wanted to, were a bad idea, as Babs would sleep through dinner and the cycle would repeat. We had to force ourselves to stay awake to get our bodies on the right time zone. It took 5 days or so for Babs, a bit longer for the adults, who are early-risers anyway.

We were blessed with some cloudy days our first week, which made exploring infinitely easier. Our trek about Chinatown concluded with us choosing the very shadiest back-alley noodle cart for some egg-noodle soup, thinking egg noodles were gluten free, which they aren't. Stomachaches resulted.

Side Note: This article has great info on what is/isn't gluten free in Malaysia.

The KLCC park by the Petronas towers was lovely, especially since we were there at 7:30a.m. before it got too hot.

Cities aren't our thing. In KL, shopping malls were the main attraction. Even one of our Grab drivers said there's not much to do here but shop and eat. Malls are a good way to escape the heat and no one seems to mind mall food.

We planned a trip to the Twin Towers Medical Centre in the Petronas Towers to get a Japanese Encephalitis shot, but the doctor we spoke to said it was unnecessary unless we were planning on hanging out in rural areas where there were pig farms. (JE is transmitted by mosquitoes who have had contact with pigs I guess??)

He pushed the malaria tablets pretty hard and told us we'd have to go to a different hospital (Gleneagles) to get the child dose. We fully intended to do so, but after some more research, we simply decided to use all the preventative measures and avoid high-risk areas.

The biggest culture shock for me was going into a bathroom stall at the mall and finding a toilet sunk into the floor. I call them squatty potties, and they're very common in Asia. If there's toilet paper at all, it's usually outside the stalls and doubles as paper towel to dry your hands. The "hose" located next to the toilet is a public bidet and I have never touched one, nor will I ever. I'm sure it's as hygenic as us Europeans sitting on the same toilet seat as innumerable other humans, but I just can't. Perhaps it's only the fear of the unknown.

Our favorite thing in KL was the Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple. We walked into the office to make sure we were allowed to walk around and the monks there said, "Yes, of course. Come in, have some breakfast." Unfortunately we had just eaten (at the sketchiest restaurant I've ever been to in my life (until a little bit later)). But we spoke with the monk, Hemaloka, for almost half an hour as he showed us around the place. It was a humble temple, but getting to chat with Hema, who is from Sri Lanka, and definitely invited us to stay with him there, was beyond lovely.

He asked us to share the pictures of us together with him, and had us add him to Whatsapp on the spot. He messaged us later to thank us and to invite us back (they were having a festival the next day bu unfortunately we had travel plans).

Our second location in KL was up in Batu Caves, the neighborhood, not to be confused with the actual tourist attraction. Once safely locked in our Airbnb condo, I cried in a corner of the kitchen until Mr. Go comforted me. The area looked like a slum, the building's hallways were dark and creepy and I'd failed to realize before booking that there was no wifi.

It turned out wonderfully. Everyone we met in the apartment building was super kind, smiling and saying hello to Babs (she makes us so much more approachable). That area doesn't see many white faces and we attracted a LOT of attention, but it was all curious and friendly. We ate at a few Chinese restaurants that were close by, the waitress would try to speak English with us then go back to the open kitchen and giggle with the rest of the staff. There was a rat scurrying around under the tables and a stray cat begging food off us.

Afternoon thunderstorms are common, and we always packed our rainjackets in our backpack.

The Batu Caves was neat to visit, but packed with Chinese tourists. With all the other Buddhist and Hindu temples in Malaysia, we decided we probably could have skipped that one.

To escape the heat and to keep Babs fully entertained, we took a bus (from the Gombak station) up to the Genting Highlands. From the Premium Outlets, you take a gondola the rest of the way up to essentially Malaysian Disney World (though it's on a smaller scale).

Filled with amusement parks of various kinds, it was a full-day adventure. All-day ride wristbands were 60 ringgits, or $15 USD. We were there when it opened at 10am and left in the early afternoon when lines for rides grew to a 45-minute wait.

You can step off the Gondola at the Chin Swee Caves Temple for free. This is tricky because if you're going down, getting back on the Gondola is dependent upon someone getting out of a car, and at 4pm when everyone is trying to get home that can take a while.

The drive down the mountain in our Grab was the scariest car ride I've ever had, and the only 1-star review we've left for our dozens of Grab drivers so far.

The food in Malaysia was very good, but every dish is based around rice. Nasi lemak is a dish every restaurant has and is a fried chicken chunk with rice, hot chili sauce on the side, peanuts, half a hard boiled egg and a handful of dried, salted sardines. It's a safe choice if you don't know what anything else is, but at the end of the week all I wanted was a plate full of fresh greens.

We got ourselves (via bus and Grab) near the airport, to catch an early flight to Thailand the next day. All I will say about that is: whatever you do, avoid the Night Queen Motel. It is unfit to shower in.

More on Thailand next.

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Traveling to Malaysia with Kids - Prep

This year, to make it a real challenge for ourselves, we decided to go to the other side of the world. My initial plan was Thailand, but the tourist visa process after 30 days can get a little complicated. So to avoid that completely, we decided to shift our focus a little further south. U.S. citizens can travel to Malaysia visa-free for up to 90 days.

We secured a house-sit for an expat couple in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for 9 days, so we'll get our jaunt up into Thailand for about 2 weeks before heading back to Malaysia.

More on House Sitting abroad Here.

Vaccines
The BIGGEST drag in prepping for this trip has been figuring out vaccination needs.

Yellow Fever is a concern if you're traveling from (or have 12+ hour layovers in) a country with associated risk, as of now that's parts of South America and Africa. So this wasn't a concern for us.

Typhoid: 1 injection or a 4-series oral, Typhoid will run anywhere from $70-$160 and that's not including the travel clinic's consultation fee. Many Walgreens carry this one and if they don't, many can order it and have it in next day for you.

Japanese Encephalitis: I'm so tired of saying this word. A 2-series, each shot costing between $241 and $322, the JE vax was about to run my family $1500. I called 5  clinics, made and cancelled a bunch of appointments and annoyed my family doctor with questions. Then Mr. Go had a brainstorm: What if we waited and got the JE vax when we GOT to Malaysia? It's bound to be cheaper, right? RIGHT!

The Twin Towers Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur offers all the vaccines for a fraction of the price (170 MYR = $41 USD). I emailed them some questions and got prompt answers. No appointment is necessary, but if I Whatsapp message them before coming in, it can cut down on wait time. Also bonus: for reasons beyond my understanding, at the TTMC the JE vax is only 1 shot, not two. Babs was suuuuuuper happy about that. I'll post about that experience in a couple weeks!

We decided to get Typhoid in the states, because it's transmitted by improperly handled food and that's something we want to be ready for the moment we land. We figured we could wait on the JE vax, since JE is transmitted by mosquitoes and in the heart of KL they're not as big of an issue as the more rural areas. The skeeters that transmit JE bite at dark, so we'll employ more caution at dusk until the vaccine takes full effect (about 1 week after receipt).

But finding a clinic to give my 5-year-old a typhoid vax was easier said than done. Walgreens won't vaccinate kids under 7 and the oral typhoid vax is for kids 6 and older. The closest clinic was a 500-mile round trip overnight jaunt. The International Society for Travel Medicine has a directory of clinics, but a Google Maps search of "Travel Vaccine Clinic" will turn up some facilities not on the ISTM list.

Weather
Malaysia is pretty much right on the equator, meaning the temperature doesn't change much during the year. Highs will hover around the mid- to high-80s while lows plummet to about 70 Farenheit at night. Oh and being a peninsula on the ocean, it's super humid! That, combined with the cultural restrictions below, means things might get sweaty.

Culture
Malaysia is a fairly conservative culture. Metro areas like Kuala Lumpur have fewer implied restrictions, but if you don't want to get stared at in rural areas, women should cover their knees and shoulders. Especially in religious temples.

I plan on bringing a scarf to cover my shoulders and leggings to go under my dress and shorts. Time will tell if that will be enough, but it will be easy to buy clothes, especially in the 32-million-population Kuala Lumpur, once I poke around and figure out from the locals what's appropriate.

Packing
I'm in the process of making a spreadsheet, but this blog post has been super helpful and informative. There are plenty of things I'll be waiting to buy until we get there, which is both freeing and stressful. I do like having everything I might possibly need at my fingertips at any given moment, but when restricted to 2 bags, that's not possible.

20 days until we leave from LA on this new adventure!! 😬


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Pressure Canning Fish (and other foraged foods)

Welcome to my TED Talk: Homesteading 101. While I'm nowhere near my grandma's skills, putting an armful of jars on a shelf satisfies the part of me that acknowledges the U.P. winter is coming. It's alWAYS COMING.

Pressure Canning or Water Bath Canning

Asparagus - After foraging literally 30 pounds of the fibrous vegetable last year, I fridge-pickled 9 quarts (a bad idea--took up so much fridge space), then bought my pressure canner because I couldn't eat another spear for the next two months.

Pressure canning is a great option for this because it breaks down the tough fibrous parts to make them smushy soft and great for pureeing into a creamy soup.

Fish - The process is the same for most fish (except tuna) and is so easy! No liquid required, just jam the fish in the jar with some salt and a clove of garlic if you're feeling fancy. The only downside is the processing time is 100 minutes. That's right: 1 hour and 40 minutes of watching the pressure gauge to be sure it doesn't dip below 11 PSI because you REALLY don't want to have to start over again.

It's totally worth it, though. Instead of having to fillet out the Y bone in Pike, canning cooks the living daylights out of it and the bones just dissolve! (Plus it makes a killer fish dip with cream cheese and fresh garden dill.)

Blueberries & Blackberries - Hot Tip: Use your blackberries to make wine. Canning them just turns them to mush. The blueberries hold up a little bit better, but tend to turn your muffin/bread batter a bit purplish when you mix them in.

Apples - Hot Tip: Canning apples makes them pretty mushy anyway, so save yourself a step and just can them as applesauce. You don't even have to peel them. Chunk them, cook them down with some cinnamon and ladle them into jars.

Venison - The same process as for fish, but only 75 minutes at 11 PSI. That's right, chunk up all the subpar cuts for canning. They will become soft and moist.

Beets - I use my Instant Pot to pre-cook them to tender-crispness, then either hot water bath or pressure process pints for 30 minutes. Use a pickling brine instead of plain water for a snappy snack.

Radishes - Can them in a pickling brine. It's great on salads for a vinegar/salty flavor that's totally unique.

Carrots - Chunk them, ladle boiling water, add 1 tsp salt and process for 30 minutes for quarts. Garden-fresh carrots for your hearty winter soups? Nothing could be better.

Tomatoes - Blanch, peel and chop them with green peppers, onions and vinegar for salsa. (I hybridized these two recipes.) Then when you're full up on salsa and STILL have 45 pounds of tomatoes, can stewed tomatoes with a couple basil leaves. Use in lieu of tomato sauce in chili and pasta dishes. So flavorful!

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Let your jars cool gradually under a couple towels for insulation. Once cool, REMOVE THE BANDS. Tug gently on the lids to be sure they're sealed. If any didn't seal, store in the fridge and use them within a couple days.

Once you get past the fear of blowing up your kitchen (read and understand the instruction manual first and you'll be perfectly safe), canning is super fun. The more you do it, the easier and less messy it gets. And sending friends home with a jar of home-canned salsa (especially when using home-grown tomatoes and cilantro) is super satisfying.

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Ariel The Little Mermaid Bedtime Story for Kids

Don't miss these other stories!
Beauty and the Beast
Frozen
Moana
Cinderella
Rapunzel
Mulan


Once upon a time, there lived a little mermaid named Ariel. Her father, King Triton, told all the merfolk they were never to go up to the surface, because he thought humans were dangerous. But Ariel was fascinated by humans. She loved exploring the old shipwrecks on the sea floor, even if she had to get past sharks to do it!

One day, while Sebastian the crab was trying to tell Ariel to keep her head in the water where it belonged, she saw a ship pass by overhead. She went up to the surface to get a closer look. She peeked over the side of the boat and saw a man playing with his dog. It was Prince Eric and his dog Max. As Ariel watched, Prince Eric's man Grimsby gave him a birthday gift: a statue carved to look like Prince Eric.

Just then, a big storm blew in. Lightning cracked and lit the ship on fire! Eric was thrown overboard and hit his head. He was sinking, but Ariel swam down and scooped him up. She brought him back to shore and sang to comfort him. He woke just enough to hear her voice, but didn't see her face. When Grimsby found him, Prince Eric vowed to search the kingdom and find the girl and marry her! He searched and searched, but didn't find her. Because she wasn't in the kingdom. She was under the sea.

Ariel swam about, humming, in a daze. King Triton noticed. He asked Sebastian who was the lucky merman Ariel had fallen in love with. Sebastian accidentally let it slip that Ariel had been going up to the surface.

Meanwhile, Flounder surprised Ariel by bringing the statue of Prince Eric that had sunk with the ship to her cave of human treasures. Ariel was delighted! But then, King Triton appeared. He only wanted to protect her, so he decided he'd have to crush her attachment to humans. He used his magic trident and smashed all of her human treasures to pieces.

Afterward, the eels Flotsam and Jetsam came and whispered to her. "Poor, lonely little mermaid. No one understands. Ursula can help you."

Ariel went with them to meet the sea witch, who said she could turn Ariel into a human for three days. She had to get Prince Eric to kiss her by the end of the third day. If she did, she'd remain a human. If she didn't, she would wither away and become part of Ursula's collection. To pay for the spell, Ursula took Ariel's voice. While Ariel sang, Ursula captured Ariel's voice in the magic shell she wore around her neck.

Ursula worked her magic and Ariel's fin turned into legs! Sebastian and Flounder helped her up to the shore. Ariel loved her new legs, but she had to learn how to use them! Scuttle the seagull came by and dressed her up in the tattered old sail from a wrecked ship.

Just then, Max came bounding down the shore and greeted Ariel. Prince Eric followed. When he saw Ariel, he exclaimed, "It's you!"

Ariel nodded, but when Prince Eric realized she couldn't speak, he said, "Oh, nevermind. You couldn't be the girl I'm looking for." But he brought her back to his castle anyway because he thought she'd been in a shipwreck and wanted to help her.

The castle servants gave her a bath and a new dress and she was invited to have dinner with the Prince. Sebastian almost got cooked up and served on the platter, but he escaped with Ariel's help.

The next day, Ariel and Eric took a carriage ride. Ariel was fascinated by everything and curious to know how it all worked. At the end of the day, Eric took Ariel out on a rowboat in a lagoon. With Sebastian's help, he guessed her name. He allllllmost kissed her, but Flotsam and Jetsam were watching and they tipped the boat over!

Ursula had been watching in her crystal ball. "Drat!" she said. "At this rate he'll kiss her by tomorrow and my plan will fail!" So Ursula turned herself into a beautiful young human named Vanessa and cast a spell on Prince Eric to make him think he was in love with her.

The next morning Ariel went downstairs, but saw Prince Eric together with Vanessa. He announced that he and Vanessa were going to be married on their wedding ship that very evening! This was terrible! Poor Ariel was going to lose her family and Prince Eric, too.

Scuttle was flying over Eric's wedding ship when he looked into a porthole. He saw Vanessa getting ready for her wedding. But when she looked into the mirror, the mirror showed her true reflection and Scuttle saw that she was actually Ursula! He flew back to tell Ariel.

Sebastian swam down to tell King Triton. Flounder helped Ariel swim out to the ship while Scuttle told all the sea animals and birds to stop the wedding. Dolphins jumped up and squirted Vanessa, birds dove at her and starfish leaped up and stuck all over her.

When Ariel climbed over the rail of the ship, Scuttle pulled Vanessa's shell necklace off and it crashed at Ariel's feet. Ariel's voice floated back into her.

"Eric, it's me!" she said.

When the shell smashed, it broke the spell Ursula had over Eric. He ran to Ariel. "Ariel, it was you the whole time!" He went to kiss her, but the sun dipped below the horizon and Ariel turned back into a mermaid.

"You're too late!" Ursula cried as she turned back into her octopus form. She grabbed Ariel and dove into the water.

Eric grabbed a harpoon and went to jump in after her, telling Grimsby, "I lost her once, Grim, I'm not going to lose her again."

King Triton showed up to stop Ursula, but Ariel had signed a contract and King Triton knew he had no other choice. He offered himself in Ariel's place, which of course, was what Ursula wanted all along. King Triton withered away and Ursula got his crown and his trident.

She used its magic to make herself huge and swirled a whirlpool in the ocean, with Ariel at its center. She zapped at Ariel with the trident. But Prince Eric had a plan. The whirlpool had brought up all the old shipwrecks from the bottom of the ocean. Eric climbed aboard one of these and steered its jagged bow straight through Ursula's heart.

Ursula disappeared and all her bad magic was undone. King Triton, and all the other poor unfortunate souls Ursula had tricked were freed.

Prince Eric returned to his place on land, but as King Triton watched Ariel stare longingly at him on the beach, he said to Sebastian. "She really does love him. There's just one problem: How much I'm going to miss her."

He used the magic of his trident to turn Ariel human again. She ran out of the water to Prince Eric and he spun her around and kissed her. Soon after, they set sail on their own wedding ship. Ariel's friends and family gathered in the water around them. King Triton raised himself up on a wave to kiss his daughter.

Ariel would miss her family and friends, but she visited them at the water's edge. She got to live on land where she felt she belonged. And they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

V8 Soup from Tomato Juice

Don't throw out that tomato juice! Use the juice from your strained tomatoes to make a delicious, healthy, vegetable-based V8-inspired tomato drink.

From the big batch of salsa I made last week, I had this byproduct: tomato juice. Never one to waste, we peeped around the Internet for about 2 minutes and mashed a couple recipes together to fit our needs.

Add your homemade V8 to a cold beer on a hot summer day, or just eat it like tomato soup with grilled cheese in the winter.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Makes about 4 quarts

• About 3.5 quarts tomato liquid, strained of skins & seeds
• 5 small-medium beets, peeled & chunked
• 4 large carrots, chunked
• 1/8-1/4 red onion, diced
• 1 cup kale (fresh or frozen)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 TB honey
• 1 TB chipotle EVOO
• dash lemon juice*
• dash cinnamon*
• dash soy sauce/liquid aminos*
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 cucumbers, chunked
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup arugula

Combine everything except the last 4 ingredients. Simmer uncovered for 35-45 minutes or until carrot & beet chunks are fork-tender.

Add remaining ingredients. Blend using immersion blender.

*These ingredients I used in lieu of Worcestershire sauce one recipe called for. The cinnamon can be pretty overpowering, so measure out 1/8 tsp first and go up from there.

NOTE: If the acidic tang leaves a bittery-hot aftertaste, add 1/2 to 1 tsp baking soda. The chemical reaction will burn off some of the acid from the tomato juice, leaving the flavor but none of the harshness.

We drank some, froze some for later and to the rest I added some chicken broth, a can of venison, a can of black beans and a can of corn to create a Frankenstein-ed up chili that was awesome with sour cream, cheese & cilantro.

Blogging this mainly to save my recipe for later. But I hope someone else can enjoy it too!