On Sunday we made it the rest of the way back up to the Bay Area.

As usual John got up early. I’m not sure what time. He came back and got Tiger. About 7am or so they came back for Phil. Now Phil isn’t easy to get up. At this point I was sort of half awake. I knew they were there, but I was still dozing a bit. I think Tiger was trying to get Phil up, in that brotherly sort of way. Phil didn’t want to get up, so he was thrashing around — and managed to kick me right in the gut. I sat up immediately, just out of reflex. I think I scared Tiger because he ran back to his bed. I just laid back down and tried to get some sleep.

I eventually got up, and got a hot shower. I then went and met Elaine at her room and most of us went down to the lobby. Eventually everyone showed up and we checked out. We asked the concierge about directions to an IHOP about two hours away. They wanted to give us directions to one just around the block. The idea was we’d just munch on snacks in the morning then stop for a brunch or early lunch at IHOP.

We took off and the drive up to IHOP was pretty uneventful. John and his sons had already eaten breakfast, so they just ordered drinks. Elaine and I ordered a dish and split it. Well, mainly I ate. Elaine was very engrossed in teaching Phil sign language.

We switched drivers for the next leg. Elaine was driving, with me riding shotgun. Noel and Melissa ended up passing out in the back seat. It was nice because it gave Elaine and me some time to talk about the missions trip.

About 1pm or so John and the other vehicle stopped to get lunch (since John and his boys didn’t have brunch). The problem was they didn’t call us until they had already stopped. We were right behind them, but in traffic. So we didn’t see them get off, and they didn’t tell us where they went until we had passed the exit. So we stopped at the next exit and got gas. We spoke with Kristy and there was a lot of confusion as to if we were ahead of them or behind them. Somehow we decided they were still ahead of us. So we drove north until we hit 152. At that point, we knew we were ahead of them. So then we had to decide if we would just meet them at the gas station we stopped at, or go all the way back to where they were. Eventually, Melissa made the executive decision to go all the way back to them. That took a while because we had driven so far past them.

Anyway, John split off in his van to go home, and the rest of us drove the rest of the way to Kristy and Noel’s house. We unpacked everything out of the rental car that had to be returned that day. We originally thought we would go to a evening church service. But it was fairly out of the way for most of the people. So instead we just had a short worship and prayer time at Kristy and Noel’s house. Kristy and Noel agreed to take one of the rental cars back that day.

Elaine, Joy, Carol, Melissa, and I all piled into Elaine’s car. We dropped Melissa off at her parents house, then continued on to Casa Wong Ho Chao. We got everything unloaded. That’s when we found out that Carol’s car had been vandalized while we were gone. They smashed her driver’s side window.

Neither Elaine or I were very hungry yet, so we just went on over to her parent’s house. They were out for a walk when we got there. Elaine started nosing around for food, because we were getting a bit peckish. Her dad got back first, and we ended up talking about identity theft. He had clipped out an article about the veterans’ records being stolen. It was pretty interesting because it gave advice on what to do when your identity had been stolen. Her mom got home soon afterwards, and actually cooked up some stir fry for us. It was broccoli and some sort of fish product. It was really tasty. We also had some pot stickers. This gave me a chance to show off my mad chopstick skillz. Those skillz that make Asians say: “Are you physically handicapped?” We also had some watermelon. It was good, but Elaine didn’t want me spitting seeds at her. Spoilsport.

Her sister was there too. She’s definitely an extrovert. She was telling us about her visiting her boyfriend in Denmark. She had a funny story involving rubber and her trying to be friendly and polite. It was quite amusing.

We washed some clothes because I didn’t know how long it would be before I could sleep in my own bed (I had my keys stolen). After eating, Elaine and I watched most of a John Wayne movie. It was one of her dad’s favorites: Hamtaro. We didn’t make it all the way through though, because it got late and we were tired.

The bed they gave me was comfortable. I slept well.