Vacation Thyme
Ahh China. Beautiful women, great food and lots of messes all over the countryside. The view from our vacation home is pretty good too. It's almost worth the amount of time it took to get here.
[ricanote: 30 minute loading screen!]
Everyone in the house came on this one except for Sage. He said there was no way he was leaving his garden to die while we all floundered around somewhere else for 27 days. Mint and Jessica immediately went up to the art room and started doing their thing. We tried to talk Mint into just relaxing but he said it felt weird not to be creating something.
All the other elderly in the house crowded into the living area to do what they love to do. Why come to another country to do what you did at home? Betty cleaned up after everyone and then joined them.
Me? What was I doing? Well I just couldn't sit around all day. I like my family, sure, but I couldn't stay inside with them all the time. I put down my guitar and decided to try my hand at an old pastime. Of course, when the first thing I caught happened to be a goldfish. I was a little disappointed.
One exciting thing that did happen here was we actually had a burglar show up. I guess the ones back home know better since Gramps has been a cop forever until recently. They obviously didn't know that here. It was actually really strange for me. It was like the moment the burglar stepped onto the property. I somehow knew. So did Dad. I was closer to the stairs so I got to her first. She hadn't even made it into the house when I tackled her. It was so totally awesome. She fought me a little bit but I still won. I didn't even know I had that in me. It was like.. I was Superman.
Eventually Jessica kicked Mint out of the art room once she got to the ice stage of her sculpting. She became an ice sculpting machine. Betty was constantly complaining about having to clean up puddles in the room from all the ice chips.
One of the locals in town said something about a dragon shrine way back in the hills. I grabbed the tent and some supplies and went to check it out. When I told Gramps where I was headed, he said that at one time Sage's best friend Chris had come to the same spot to catch Koi and Dragon Fish. Told me good luck and then laughed his way down to the game system. I'm not sure what to make of that.
After trekking around the hills all day, I finally found the spot I was looking for. It was beautiful. So many fish to catch, so little time. I went to work right away. I was always told the fish were bigger at night anyway.
Of course fish isn't all you find when you're out there. I got a couple old school guitars and some escape dust. The catch that got me level 10? A skeleton key. Not sure what it does but it's awesome right?
After maxing out my level, I made the trek back home to do the same with my guitar skills. A rock star can't become a rock star based on his fishing skill you know. Jessica was still working on those 25 ice sculptures she needed.
While I was out fishing up more than my share of the native koi. Mom and Betty went to the local academy for a little fun. I wish I had been there to watch them smack at those training dummies.
I went to check on Jessica for dinner one night when I came across her cheering and clapping all by herself. She had just finished her last ice sculpture. I'm not going to say what I said when I noticed it was a john. However, I will mention that Jessica packs a mean punch for such a little hand.
Since we were all together for dinner and Jessica was running to eat it upstairs in the art room, Mom gave that look she gets when she's serious and said it was family time. So I joined Dad and Gramps with a little gaming while everyone else watched. We all just chilled for the rest of the night. It wasn't so bad. You could definitely tell that it had been a while since some of us talked. Both Mom and Betty told us about their training down at the academy every day. They've both gotten close to the point where they can attempt to break their hands on space rocks. I don't know why they would want to do that really. This is also when they broke down and told Jess about the dynasty. Betty said she wanted to be the one to tell her just in case there were any questions that only she could answer. Of course, Betty started it off by telling Jess that she didn't have to marry me. That got my attention. I've been with Josephine since high school and had no idea I was expected to marry anyone. Jess told her mother that she was crazy because there was no way she would marry me. I'm still not sure if I should be offended or not.
The next day we all went for a trip down into the chinese catacombs. Who knew there were so many bears native to China graveyards.
After a shower, I went back to the graveyard to do a little fishing in the wee hours of the morning. I got my first deathfish right there. The one I got here was not as cute and small as the ones we feed in the fish tank back home. Makes you wonder.
I spent the last week we were there just trying to fish as much as possible. Jessica worked on various types of sculptures for some challenges Mint told her about. And she actually got some painting time in. Of course, the best part about her not working on ice anymore was the accident. I doubt she would see it that way. It was day 26 out of 27 and Mint says at breakfast. "You know Jessica has been really lucky working with metal sculptures. She's almost got her five without having caught anything on fire." It was less than an hour when we heard her squeal and scream.
Mom and Dad spent the last two days just being all lovey dovey gooey yucky with each other. She's around 99 and doesn't think she's going to get very many more days so they're cherishing every moment that's left. Gramps made sure all of us gave them room to be alone. He remembers the last days he spent with Gramma. It kind of made me realize that one day this will be me.
Finally the end of day 27 came and went. We packed up everything, made sure the house was clean and vamoosed it back to Sunset Valley. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be back in modern civilization. While I feel closer to my family in general, I have to say I think Gramps, Mint and Betty came out the closest.
[Ricanote: Your sims ever do something that just makes you wonder about them?
Yeah.. Thyme just jumped on in with his parents. Weirdo.
It was kind of awesome that Thyme and Coriander got up to beat down the burglar. I guess since he's a doctor now - Pepper couldn't be bothered but his grandson took care of it for him.
So they survived 27 days in China and so did I! Whoo! Jessica completely supermaxed her sculpting and got to I think lvl 6 on painting. So Mint's replacement is almost in place. It's sad to think of it that way but part of me has to in order to keep going. You know? Thyme managed to max guitar and fishing plus catch about 300 fish. So he's about 50 fish and a couple of species away from supermaxing fishing.
The day they got back - Yusun was 99, Mint was 96 and Betty was 92. So I can't promise a happy update next time around. Until then Happy Simming!]
