American Excursion

I calculated this week that it had been nearly 600 days since I'd last seen my parents. That's a mighty long time for me, a girl who left home moments after high school graduation, never to return (to live with them, that is), but always found a way to visit at least once a month despite living a four hour drive away. Since we last left America, they up and moved from their home on California's Central Coast down to the Gulf Coast nearish to New Orleans. We have never seen their new home, but that's about to change!


The last day I saw my Mom and Dad, our farewell to America party!
My Mom is next to me in the maroon jacket and my Dad is in the grey tee with hat.
The rest of the people in the photo are my cousins from my Mom's side of the family.

We depart China on Tuesday evening, and thanks to the International Date Line actually go back in time, arriving in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. We'll be in America for two weeks and woo boy, this is not a vacation! We are making up for nearly two years' worth of lost time with friends and relatives, and hitting all the American Disney theme parks coast to coast as we go. In fact, we're not wasting any time, we're going to Disneyland the day after we arrive!

We'll be in Los Angeles until Friday, when we fly to my parents' house for the weekend. Then all six of us will load up into a rented van for a road trip to Orlando, FL (Mapquest says it's a ten hour trip. The four of us haven't been in many long car rides since leaving America. This might be very interesting). Michael's youngest sister and her daughters from Virginia will join us and we'll all be sharing a huge rental house and hitting all the Florida parks during that week. Then we'll fly back to Los Angeles where a friend is hosting a big open house the day we arrive, allowing us to see the maximum number of people in the short time we have. Another one of Michael's sisters and her family will be driving down from Utah to spend the holiday weekend together along with Michael's parents, oldest sister, and brother.

I'm already exhausted and we haven't even left yet.

However, since I know a lot of my L.A. friends read this, I wanted to let them know how to spend time with us if they want! First: come to Disneyland on Wednesday February 6th between 10 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. We'll be jet lagged but we'll push through with a little help from our friends. Second: join us at Miss Amy's house in Torrance on Friday February 15 between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. 

If you want to meet up with us on either of those dates (or both!), send me an email and I'll forward you the mobile phone numbers we'll be using in the States along with Miss Amy's address. (By the way, Miss Amy is an amazing friend. She's the same awesome lady who threw us the going away party for ~100 friends and family members when we moved to Macau. When I told her we'd be in town this month, she offered her home right up as a place to have some face time with friends!).

I know it's going to be a crazy whirlwind trip, but I'm pretty excited to see some of my favorite faces in the next two weeks!

That's Miss Amy's pretty face right between Michael and I.