First I left Chiang Mai and hopped a 5 hour flight to Seoul, Korea. After exchanging money and briefly thinking I was rich, I went to get coffee which was first priority. In Thai time, it was supposed to be the wee hours of the morning so I was quite tired. My realization that I wasn't rich happened when I looked at the cheapest size mocha and discovered that the prices were all in the thousands for Korean Won($$). I had exchanged the equivalent of 500B and now had about 17000 won, 4,000 of which were quickly spent on that much needed mocha. Then I started walking around the airport looking to see what they had. Since it was before 8am their time, there wasn't much. I found a cart for my carryon which was getting heavier by the minute and started looking for a place to plug in my computer. I discovered that their plugs while the same voltage as Thailand, did not have 3 prongs like my computer. So I went hunting for an electric store which I quickly found. They had an adapter which was nice and so I was able to get that and return to where I saw a plug.
Now with coffee in hand and a plug, I could hunker down in a random quiet waiting room and use the internet and watch some episodes of 24 which I had uploaded to my computer. I was able to kill a few hrs just doing that. After that, I went to look for lunch. I found lunch at this place that served multiple cuisines. I decided to be simple and get a salad which I was sent upstairs to the tables to retrieve. After watch the numbers after mine start to show up, I inquired about my lunch. The cafeteria people pointed to the other end of the floor and told me to get my lunch there. I headed to the other end of the floor and couldn't figure out what counter they were talking about so I asked. The person at the new counter sent me back to the original food pick up. That person sent me again to the other end. I tried again to figure where on earth I was supposed to be since there didn't appear to be a pick up counter. I ended up giving up and asking for help which sent me back to the original counter again. By this time I was frustrated. Finally another worker decided to be more helpful and went and retrieved my lunch. I made a mental note to choose someplace less complicated next time I eat in the airport.
I did finally board a plane approx. 8 hrs after I arrived in Seoul, and headed for SFO. Approximately 10 hrs late we hit San Franscico airspace. We were supposed to land but ended up in a holding pattern for nearly 45 minutes. A holding pattern that was otherwise known as slow figure 8's in the sky. When we finally landed, I was grateful to be an American in my home country for immigration as our line was quite short and fast. After retrieving my luggage and locating mom who apparently didn't want to park so she drove around for over an hr waiting for me. She didn't know of the delay because she never came in to the airport. We finally headed north for Arcata. But not before we missed our turnoff and attempted and succeeded to find another way around through the city so we could rejoin 101.
I spent a little over 2 days in Arcata and then I flew on flight #2 to Sacramento. That flight was quite delayed and when we arrived I was surprised to see my luggage already waiting for me. Made me wonder which flight it was on. Then my aunt who picked me up, drove me to Jackson for a little over a day visit with her and my grandpa. After remembering that I knew a friend in Sacramento, I made plans to meet with Selima who I know from early Coastland days. I had lunch with her and her husband and 14 month old son. She drove me to my sister's new home since my sister had moved the day before and we were close by. I was able to spend a day and a half with my sister and her husband and 4 year old son.
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