The End...until next time!

I really did intend to finish off this blog with some sort of final entry, but once we got back it seems like "real life" just washed over all of us. So today I decided to really think back on the trip and come up with some conclusions. When we decided to come home after only seven months of travel I truly felt defeated and could not stop thinking of it as a failure. But now I see it as "Seven Whole Months of Travel" and I have come to the realization that it wasn't a failure at all. I am extraordinarily proud of what we did and even though I may have waffled a bit at first when people asked, "Was it worth it?" I have no hesitiation now when I say, "Absolutely!" Personally I actually feel different, as if all that cultural exposure actually did change me in a few ways. And when my wonderful daughter, who is about to turn 13, says that there is nothing she wants for her upcoming birthday because she feels "totally and completely happy with everything in her life" I have to believe that seeing the world has had an effect on her too.

Everyone has asked us, "What was your favorite place?" And I really did think that the final entry would be a list of favorites from each of us. That would have been pretty easy to do (Nicest people: Turkey, Most beautiful: Thailand, Favorite food...etc.), but since we have been home I think our reflections are actually a little more complicated than that. The place we talk about the most, by far, is India. It clearly made the biggest impression on all of us and is the source of most of our travel stories. Not one of us would have put anything about our three weeks there on a list of favorites! But looking back, I am so thankful that we went there and took on the challenge of really travelling in that most bizarre and foreign place. In retrospect, Europe was nice...but India was intense! Of course we loved Thailand, but to be honest Thailand is so easy you really can't brag about surviving three weeks or even three months in Thailand...it's paradise after all.

There is something very different about long term travel and I can't wait to do more. Of course it's a different perspective from your regular life at home, and it is also a very different perspective from a one-week vacation or an organized tour. We loved it and even though we came home broke and essentially homeless (at least until we can get back into our house in July!) it was the most valuable experience of our lives and worth every sacrifice.

See you right back here on this site just as soon as I can figure out a way to take off for South America!