The first temple (Wat) we visited had a massive reclining buddha in the front of the building. This temple was fairly new compared to a lot of temples in Thailand - this one was only thirty years old, but still very beautiful with very ornate details.
We then went to another temple with a group of Natie's family to do a traditional Thai blessing in honor of the deceased family and other family members that were unable to join us on this day. We gave gifts of food, water, and money to the monks as part of this blessing. Afterwards, we went to a small restaurant in town whose owned by a friend of the family. We had a delicious lunch of egg wrapped Pad Thai, Lad Na, and other yummy dishes.
After lunch, we headed to visit two Great-Aunts who were extremely excited to see us. At 83 they are both still energetic and lively! They kept joking that Natie looks like a foreigner (Natie apparently does not look Thai - his skin is very light compared to most Thais).
We then visited two historic homes where former leaders of Phrae resided. Both homes are popular tourist attractions in Phrae and offer unique history of the area. Nearby is also the school where Mamma Limpawuchara and her sisters all attended.
Afterwards, we visited one more Wat that had 94 stairs we had to climb to get to the top. This temple is also very popular tourist destination in Phrae. I've heard people say that once you have seen one temple, you've seen them all, but I've enjoyed seeing the different temples so far and think that each have unique qualities and have so much to look at.
Finally, we had a big family reunion dinner at Ba Nai's home. A lot of the family spent most of the day preparing and cooking this meal and it was incredible. So many tasty dishes, many of which I had not had before, but enjoyed them all! No Thai family reunion would be complete without some karaoke!! I did not get away unscathed and sang two songs - thankfully, Cherry (Natie's second cousin) sang with me, so it helped with the nerves (and probably the audience's ears)! It was so much fun to be together with everyone - I feel very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful family.
