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Sorry that this is a bit after the fact, but it just shows that there is lots to do around here even without a job.

After 13 months and 13 days away from home, we returned to SFO international airport on November 18th. One of the things we most looked forward to towards the end of our travels was coming home to see our friends and family that we missed while we were gone. Lucky for us we weren’t coming home to jobs or much responsibility of any kind so it wasn’t too hard to make reunions happen upon our return.

Even before we made it to California we planned a 22 hour lay-over in Seattle to see our good friend Rob in his town. Rob showed us Seattle from a local’s perspective starting with another thing that was hard to come by outside of the US – a big tasty breakfast- smoked salmon eggs Benedict with organic salad. In Argentina good luck getting more than toast with jam for breakfast. In Asia, how does chicken noodle soup sound? If we get one thing right in the states, breakfast might be it. We had a good time with Rob even if we were only half-awake most of the time. After that, it was back to good old 366 (where I grew up in Tam Valley, CA).

hot breakfast on a cold morning with a good friend

It was a little strange to be back, mostly because nothing had changed. Everything and everyone looked just the way we had left them, almost like we had never left. Other than that weird sensation, it was great to be back seeing all of the people we had missed. Brunches, dinners, hikes, baby meeting, road trips, birthdays, holidays and a big homecoming party have filled up our time at home. It’s been spectacular. Here are lots of pictures from our time home:

bolinas ridge with a baby

fasih flying at sunset on sarah’s birthday knoll

ken showing one of his parenting techniques

Also, we wanted to say thank you to everyone for following us around on our big trip. It was fun to have a place to share our experiences with our good friends. We’ll probably continue to write in here from time to time, but of course feel free to unsubscribe or never look again as it may not be so interesting when it’s Lake Tahoe instead of Sangalaki or Muang Ngoi. And please please please please feel free to contact us with questions when you get ready for your big adventure.

Some numbers from our trip:

days away from home: 414

babies born by close friends while we were gone: 8

countries: 13

beds slept in: 96 + 5 plane nights + 9 bus nights + 6 train nights + 1 night on the ground in the Jakarta Airport parking lot

plane rides: 25

train rides (not including subway-type trains):  10

boat rides: 63

bus rides: more than 300

islands: 22

most consecutive days with no internet: 23

hospital visits: 3 (2 for Haley 1 for Gabe)

consecutive days with no more than 3 hours apart from each other during any given day: 301

post cards sent: 5

cheapest room: $3.25 (Muang Ngoi, Laos)

blog posts: 63 (including this one)