Back in the U.S.A

We've been back in the U.S. for almost a week now. It's amazing how fast you just fall into the old routine. The kids are happy to be back at school and it doesn't hurt that they were met with excitement by all of their friends.










If you've been following our blog you will notice that every time we need to catch a train or a plane we barely make it. We didn't want to miss the plane back so our goal was to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight was to leave. It doesn't seem to matter how early we aim to be there, there is always a mad scramble to board at the last minute and this time was no different. First, the metro ticket stand was closed and we had to find another one, then we found out that the terminals are separate and we had no idea which one was ours. After that, those meddling customs agents noticed that we had overstayed our visa by one day and that took some sorting out. Finally, to top it off I was randomly chosen for a search in a private room. Eventually I was released and had to push past the airport workers preparing to move the loading platform away from the plane to be the last one on board.





We were all excited to be heading home after 3 months away. In spite of that, it's still a little sad to see the coastline of Europe fading away and knowing that our trip of a lifetime is ending. When Noelle stepped off the plane in Europe she breathed in deeply and proclaimed, "It smells like America!" I asked her what America smells like and she immediately listed some of her favorite things, "Hot showers, my stuffed animals, Grandma and Grandpa, and good breakfasts." She then followed up with, "Americans take breakfast seriously." We landed in San Francisco late on Thanksgiving and our first order of business the following day was to secure some serious breakfast.

Thanks for following our European adventures. We will be continuing the blog so check back from time to time.

Mark, Jolene, Allie and Noelle.