We have had a gigantic change of plans today. Our trip to visit family and friends here in Northern California was set to end with our return flight to Tokyo in a week and a half. I was mentally and emotionally preparing for the good-byes, I was ready, but it looks like we will be here an extra week here in California. Then we are headed over to cold old London ( yes, the one in ENGLAND)!
This is such an answer to prayer as there have been a few things that have made us feel like the timing of our leaving the States didn’t seem quite right.
For one thing, I was neglectful on the planning (or non-planning I guess I should say) to check if there was a Thai embassy near our hometown here in California. Guess what, our assumption that there was an Thai embassy in San Francisco, CA. was very wrong. That old saying about assuming is always so true, but it gets me every time. There are three Thailand embassies here in America: Washington, DC., Los Angeles, CA., and Chicago, IL.. We couldn’t make it to any of those embassies in order to get the tourist visa that we need for Thailand, so we were going to have to pay MUCHO money to get our visas expedited through a service. Now we don’t have to, because there is actually an embassy in London (I did the research this time).
The other thing that was weighing heavily on me, was our flight back to our home in Phuket, Thailand. It was the flight from hell, or it felt like it might be. Our flight was to leave from Sonoma County Airport to land in San Diego, CA for a whole night layover. The next morning we were to fly to Honolulu, Hawaii for another layover of 6 hours. Then we were flying to Tokyo, Japan for a couple of days to break up the arduous journey. Our itinerary was to then fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for another 6 hour layover and finally home to Phuket. Just trying to write this so that it makes sense makes my eyes bleed and my heart quicken with anxiety. I have been on thirty-something flights in the last year, but these sounded like the most exhausting. We had to plan the flights this way so that we could utilize our American Airlines Advantage Miles, but now that we have a free flight to London, it opens a ton more doors to find a better flight to use our miles on.
The last thing that was really weighing on me was that I felt like I had not done much here yet. I needed more time in my old stomping grounds. Don’t get me wrong, I have been running non-stop since we’ve arrived, but it has been mostly getting the errands out the way. Now I can settle down and truly just enjoy the people I love and places to see. What a blessing indeed!
The only negative to the AWESOME trip to London is that we will not be taking our last little jaunt through Tokyo. But Tokyo will still be there and we will have to plan a bigger trip there in the future, and I’m sorry… An impromptu trip to see the capitol of England… YES PLEASE!
With my new and improved (well, really just old and forgotten) planning personality in full swing, I am already starting to make a list of what to see and do in England (and possibly Scotland and/or Ireland). If you have any suggestions, or posts you would like to share, please leave a comment.
***One Last Thing –I have been really struggling to get my posts done in a timely matter with all that is going on during my “vacation” to visit my family and friends. I may be cutting down on the amount of posts I do a week until I start traveling again in a few weeks (then posts will continue on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to see what we are doing here in beautiful Northern California!*****
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