12 hours, 4 Cities, 3 Flights

After spending a week with Zana, Ryan, and Mom in Sacramento I toured the western seaboard airports. First with a flight to Portland were I missed a flight to Denver by 20 minutes because they said they would be an hour because of the Denver flight control. Off to Seattle I went, on the most delightful 40-minute flight! It was a sweet two hours to be in Washington again, I know that most people would be mad about missing a flight and having to take two extra flights to get to their destination, but I’m relishing it for some odd reason. I guess its because it’ll be the last time I’ll be in these airports for a least a year, which I makes me sad to think I wont be in Seattle for that long. Spending time in the airport lets me have the forced quite time, people watching, and all the opportunities of getting lost that I could crave.

I have five days till I leave! I want to see everyone in Denver before then, and take my parents out to eat Korean. My dad has never been, so it’ll be a fun experience.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve done a lot of things that I’ve wanted to do for a while. First, when Yoko came and visited me in the second week of January! It was so fun to have a visitor from the west coast (#1), and to be able to see Denver through new eyes. We went to the stock show, Breckenridge with Hyo-Jung and Kee Bea, and out on the 16th street mall in Denver. So much fun! Thanks Yoko! Then Mark came from Seattle and we went to the Denver Art Museum (#2), where much to his dismay, I started jumping up and down when we got to the Asian room. It was great to see some examples of Asian history, and it made my heart beat faster when I got to think that I was going to get the opportunity to live there. Amazing! Then Adrienne came out and we go to go snowshoeing (#3) (I’ve wanted to go for years!!) in Empire, CO. And went to delicious Italian pizza with the parents, and went to Garden of the Gods (#4) in Colorado Springs and ‘hiked’ around the beautiful red boulders with Hyo-Jung and Kee-Bea.
After a crazy weekend, I got on a plane to Sacramento and the next day was picked up by Aubrey and went sightseeing in Napa/Calstioga. That area is good for the soul, one day I’ll spend more time in the valley, and really absorb the goodness of it (and all the great wine!) We got to go the hot springs (#5) with her boyfriend, Neil. Zana picked me up and we drove to San Francisco, and went to Colt Tower (#6), where the light rain, smell of eucalyptus trees, with their peeling bark, and the Bay, brought me back to my time at MBA. It feels so long ago, but in reality it was only 5 years since I left Monterey Bay. ☹ I drove around San Fran for a bit, which I plan on not doing for a long time! My new plan for when I get back from Korea is to get a masters at a school in the Bay area, its so beautiful around there! I still want to go to Alcatraz Island, but only in the summer time. And now I’ve been to 4 cities in one day, and on 3 airplanes. Not that I’ve wanted todo this, but it’s a fun way to spend the day.