AdventureDad

There's nothing like a little adventure to spice up a vacation.  First we had our 24 hour travel adventure over here, then we're spending plenty of time in the worlds largest city with the children (more on that in the following posts), and now we've got earthquakes. After the initial 6.2 quake just before 1 Am I stayed up for a couple  hours to check for signs of a tsunami wave.  That might have been overly cautious but I clearly remember the 2004 tsunami in Asia and don't want to make the same mistakes many people did back then.  I can personally run fast from a tsunami but add two small children and I'm not that fast.

At 3 am I finally went to sleep and was awaken shortly thereafter by a fairly strong aftershock, 5.3 on the scale, that got everyone out of bed.  It finally seems like earthquakes are getting the respect they deserve, people are being cautious and  seem aware of the tremendous natural powers at work. 

I see lots of tired faces this morning at our resort.  When I walked down to the lobby with Annika in the carriage for her first daily nap, I saw many people with mattresses right by the entrance.  They had chosen no to stay in their rooms and instead crashed down by the reception area.  I feel kind of bad, maybe we should have done that as well.

Whenever I feel it a bit unsafe I usually rely on some simple statistics to calm me down.  After the first earthquake I thought to myself, what are the odds that I'm in that particular spot on earth right at the moment of a huge earthquake that kills thousands of people?  The chances are of course ridiculously low.  Kind of like winning the lottery three weeks in a row. It's far more dangerous to cross the street anywhere in the world.  A simple comparison like that calms me down and I realize  the chances for something disastrous to happen are extremely low.

Wife wanted to fly out of here early today instead of our scheduled departure tomorrow.  She felt worried staying on a large hotel right on the beach during an earthquake.  I don't blame her.  But we're staying until tomorrow and hoping for a good nights sleep.  And no more earthquakes.