What Next?

We've been back for over two weeks now, and one of the most frequently asked questions (after "What was your favorite place"....which, by the way, is unanswerable) is, "So now what are you going to do?". Great question. We're still working out the answer to that one. Yes, we have a little bit of money left that would give us about 4-6 months of budget travel in Central and South America, so we're pondering. It also sounds kind of nice to start looking for a new home and settling down. What? Really? Is that normal? We're leaning toward the travel thing as this is the last opportunity to do something of that kind (again), and the hardest part about leaving (besides kissing our beautifully remodeled bathroom and deck goodbye) was quitting our jobs. So as not to have to go through all that pain again, we will likely explore a little bit of one more continent. We'll see how we feel over the next month or so.

In the meantime we've spent the last two weeks based at my folks place in Gig Harbor, and visiting friends in the area boring them to tears with our travel stories and our 500 picture highlight reel. I love the glazed looks as we get to picture #262 and people realize what they have gotten themselves into....hey, you asked to see them! We warned you!

Here I am meeting my dog again after one year. Does she remember us? Hard to say. She is a golden, and you know how they love everyone, but I like to think she has fallen back into her old habits with us rather quickly and that we got a warmer than normal greeting. At least it makes me feel better to think that!


We like to stay busy, so we've put ourselves to work at my folks' place first off with making some homemade apple cider and then heading out to their little lake cabin and pushing a bunch of dirt around. Keith's dream come true....driving a bobcat. You can hardly call that work for him. The Indian Summer continues here, and we also got in a day of sea kayaking around the harbor as well of some nice walks around the homestead.

Running the cider press at my folks' place:


After a hard day's work of Bobcat driving:


After a sweet welcome-home party put together for us by Amy and Zack, we headed further north to Bellevue and east to Cle Elm for more quick visits. I tell you, there were a lot of babies born or conceived since we've left, and the reality of a year really sets in when you look at how much those kids (or the mom's bellies) have grown. Thank you everyone for your hospitality. This is the life. You go away and be totally delinquent for a year, and what do you get? Lovely dinners each night cooked by your mom, parties thrown in your favor, and free room and board wherever you show up. A well thought out strategy if I do say so myself.

My friend, Sarah's property out in Cle Elm. What a beautiful day and what a beautiful family.


Keith and Sarah's son, Kaden. He looks like an angel up there, but don't let him fool you! :)


Yesterday was one more round of apple cider and now we are in Coos Bay where Keith finally gets to see his own parents. That probably wasn't too fair for us to stay up north for so long, visiting friends that got to see Keith before his folks did! But now they have him back, and boy are they happy.

Being home has been very nice, and at times we can hardly believe we even went on a trip at all. It sinks in more each day, the immensity of what we did and the fact that it is over. It is a sobering thought. I don't know if people will be following this blog anymore or not. And I'm not sure how frequently I will post to it. We will start using our flickr account more to post our pictures of day to day life, so if you are curious, you might check there instead if it seems this blog is drying up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emkeith/

The next couple of months will see us actually split up for a while. Yes, after 365 days and 24 hours a day together, we are still happily married, but are going to spend some time apart. After a longer visit to Eugene, Keith will return to Coos Bay and I will go back to Gig Harbor where we will give each of our parents some quality time and try to pay them back for all the help they have given us before and during our trip. Then it will be Thanksgiving in Coos Bay and Christmas at a to be determined location followed by a New Year's outside of Las Vegas and then my brother's wedding in California. Good times ahead! If anything interesting happens, maybe I'll post a blog.

In the meantime, I will end with a list I started as our days were winding down in Africa:

Things We Will NOT Miss About Traveling:

• Crap pillows & mattresses
• Fumbling through our clothes bags
• Wearing the same, tired, unflattering outfit over and over...
• "Gimmee money! Gimmee food! Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee!"
• Sticking out like a sore thumb
• Riding public transport
• Reading guide books
• Wondering if you've been ripped off with every single purchase you make
• Telling people where we are headed and where we've been
• Packing and unpacking backpacks
• Figuring out which knob is really the hot water
• Crap shower faucets
• Travelers diarrhea (sorry, had to be said)

Things we WILL miss about traveling:

• Buying food out of bus windows
• Trying to learn new languages
• Riding motorbikes to new and remote places (truly some of our best times)
• Seeing something new everyday
• Not knowing where you will be tomorrow
• Waking up whenever the heck you want!
• Riding public transport (yes, really - some of the best and worst times)
• Figuring out public transport (a challenge, but always an interesting one)
• Meeting interesting, annoying, weird, funny, etc. people
• Trying new foods
• Eating at local food joints where no other Westerners are or would dare to go
• Bargaining
• Asian markets
• Having amazing experiences like swimming with monks. Wow.
• Feeling like the center of attention everywhere you go