Rather than spend another break doing college tours, we opted for more international travel. It has been 11 years since our last visit. Olivia and Lucas don’t remember anything from that trip, so this is effectively their first time. We left on Friday and arrived on Sunday. This wrinkle in the space-time continuum caused me to break my Wordle streak and I’m still not over it.

We arrived at the hotel a little after 5am and though our rooms were not ready, they kindly gave us one to relax in. Breakfast opened at 6:30am and that’s when we started eating … non-stop. Last time we stayed in Gangnam, but our hotel this time was in Gwanghwamun, near City Hall and Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was also very close to the Cheonggyecheon Stream, which was the first touristy thing we did.

My mom and aunt were already in Korea, which was part of the reason we wanted to come. We just missed my uncle’s 90th birthday the day before our arrival. In the afternoon, we went to his home in Ilsan to see him.

My mom’s oldest brother is the one I spent the most time with growing up because he lived with us for about a year in the 1970s. My aunt asked him if he remembered that we fought a lot and he didn’t, which is probably for the best. We were both strong-willed and had different ideas for after-school programming on the one tv we shared. It was so nice to see him and my aunt, who took us all to lunch.

After two meals on day one, I was done eating for the week. We did our best to adjust to the time but the kids crashed out early. My favorite Canadian, Joe, was also in Korea and came by to catch up. We had a great first day in Korea.

The kids had another day off from school, so we used it for a quick trip to LA to check some schools off the list. While I think both kids are very open to going “away” for school, I sense a new appreciation for life in California.

We only had time to see the big schools. Both of them loved USC, but Liv was especially excited to learn about all the sites that stood in for fake-Yale in Gilmore Girls. It’s ironic that UCLA is coming at the end of our travels as the LA grandparents have lived and worked on campus for decades. Both campuses are beautiful and sell themselves.

We actually spent the most time at Century City, though Lucas and I were not much help for prom-dress shopping. Most importantly, we had a nice dinner with Dave and LA grandma and grandpa. Sometimes an overnight is just the right amount of time for a trip.