We touched back down in the United States for Thanksgiving in Sunnyvale, California. My oldest brother Sam and his wife AC live there. We also saw our niece, Nell, a junior at UC Santa Cruz, and we met our long-lost cousin Dan, also a student at UC Santa Cruz. We enjoyed spending time with them. It was the perfect spot to land, recover from jet lag, and spend time with family.


Being back in the U.S. carries with it some reverse culture shock. We can get lost in the aisle full of salad dressings and sauces at the grocery store. The pace of things in the U.S. is also much faster than most places we visited in Asia.
Lucas and Henry enjoyed playing lawn games with Sam and board games with Nell and her friends. We shopped at Goodwill to buy clothes for the cold weather. I enjoyed cooking with AC in her fully-stocked kitchen. We had a feast for Thanksgiving and had a rap battle with our family on the East Coast.
Sam took us to the Google headquarters for lunch. Lucas and Henry were amazed by the perks offered by the company. Nell took us on a tour of U.C. Santa Cruz. It is a beautiful campus in a redwood forest overlooking Monterey Bay. Sam also took us on a hike through a redwood forest. We even saw some banana slugs (the mascot of U.C. Santa Cruz). Pickleball was also on the agenda.