California

I had a variety of options of how I wanted to wrap up my year away from home:  1.  Join Jen on her trip to Cambodia and Vietnam 2.  Meet my sister and friend for a 10-day trip throughout California or 3.  Go straight home.  A lot of people take advantage of traveling around Asia at the end of their contracts and even though that is a great idea (and even though I considered it for a minute), I just knew that I would get too anxious and stressed out having to completely ship all my things home and leave Korea before heading out on another adventure abroad.  Might sound silly but it’s completely true.  But that also meant I missed out on another trip with my travel buddy.  I didn’t go for heading straight home either, even though as I was getting things ready for California, I kind of wished I was going straight home simply because of the fact that I already was tired of dealing with all of my luggage.  I pretty much had my whole life with me!  I had never been to California and neither had my sister or friend Ellie, so stopping there on the way home was such a great idea.

We all flew to LAX and spent the first five days around the LA area.  Then we drove along Highway 1 to San Francisco for another five days.  We never stopped and I'm not quite sure how I did it with the jet lag I had.  By 7-8 almost every night, I was so exhausted, while Morgan and Ellie were still wide awake for the most part.  We had an amazing time though. I can't believe everything we did!  Here are the highlights:

Our first full day, we met with my friend Cambria and spent the day with her.  Cambria and I met in the airport on our way to our semester in England and she was one of my closest friends there.  Not only was it wonderful getting to see her again, but she spent a year in Korea just before I did.  Missed each other by just a few months!  She was such a great support before I left, while I was in Korea, and still is now that I'm home.  I am so glad we were able to get together.

Then we were off to Laguna Beach and spent the day with our cousin Kyle, his wife Traci, and their daughter Sydney.  I missed their wedding while I was in Korea, so it was great to get to see them there!

We spent a day exploring Hollywood.  The sign, The Grove, Walk of Fame, etc.

Amazing time at The Ellen Show!  Before going in the studio, I was sent to another room with a group of 10ish people and they talked to us about what to do if our names were called on the show (one of the other girls won the gift bag from the Oscars!), Morgan danced right by Ellen, and Ellie danced in the aisle in the dancing contest during a break.  Sarah Jessica Parker and Theresa Caputo were there and we were on TV quite a lot according to all the pictures our friends sent us of their TVs!

Road trip to San Francisco along Highway 1.

We got to stay with my dad's cousin, MaryK.  It was so nice to spend time with her.  There was a little surprise when we got there too…our great aunt and uncle were visiting from Ohio the same time as us!

Redwoods!  Loved walking through there.

Explored San Francisco for the day.  Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, Chinatown, the 'Full House' house!

Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge!

Lovely day in Napa Valley with MaryK.

And if we hadn't done enough already, we ended our trip with a whale watching tour.  We saw so many gray whales.  Pretty awesome!

I never knew how much I was going to love California, but I definitely want to go back sooner rather than later.  We had an amazing time and it was the perfect end to my year away.  I'm glad I got to spend it with my sister and one of my best friends, along with getting to see so many friends and family along the way. This year has been life-changing and now that I'm home and writing this from Ohio, one last post is coming soon about the things I'll miss the most in Korea.