Sunday, February 11, 2018

After four months of travel, we’re home!

After flying overnight Friday night, we returned home yesterday to wicked cold weather and snow. It’s a harsh adjustment...and a good reminder of why we leave for several months every winter. But for all the obvious inconveniences and the work that lies ahead (it will take us a week to feel things are somewhat under control, but we’re used to that by now), there is something innately comforting about home. 

In retrospect, we had one of our most fantastic winters ever, and everything- the cruise itineraries, the Golden Princess, the weather (mostly) and our stay in Hawaii- couldn’t have gone more smoothly, with bonus points for arriving home to not a single issue with the house. Our successful season should make us anxious to look ahead toward next year, and though we do have some very tentative plans in place, right now I just want to keep my mind in the now, and home and friends. (And getting through the mail and restocking the refrigerator and pantry!). But we know ourselves; by late March and April I’ll start putting together spreadsheets and laying out our options...and the countdown to next winter will begin. 

Thanks so much for again following along with our adventures, and for putting up with my grammatical and spelling errors, all around typing fails, photo-less posts and nightly rambles. It’s funny...when we begin our trips and I prepare those first few blog posts, I am always convinced I’ll never be able to keep it going for several months. But your encouraging emails get me past that initial hump, and once I get in the groove, it’s all good. And then, during the months we’re home, when I go back to re-read my posts with an eye toward correcting the most embarrassing errors, I am reminded, over and over again, of what a fantastic experience we had, and those memories are there to enjoy in large part because of you. Thank you!

And, as always, the biggest thanks goes to my husband. The opportunity and ability to travel is good fortune. To have a partner who wants to travel, too, is the best gift.

I am fortunate. I’ve been gifted. 

Life is good. :-)
Walt Whitman
 Song of the Open Road