The adventure is not quite over, but we landed at LAX on October 22nd and finally completed our circle around the globe. We left from this same airport on January 13th of this year to start a journey that took us through 29 countries, and all seven continents. Phil and Meredith were nice enough to make the trip to LA and welcome us back to the west coast. Fish tacos and craft beer rounded out our evening as we got caught with up the San Diegans. Now that we are back, we’ll be relaxing and enjoying more time with family – but also trying to plan the next part of our life.

Casa de Wiktor was quite full of Wiktors for a while. All three of the Wiktor kids, two wives and a boyfriend (Rick was an honorary Wiktor for the weekend) got a chance to spend time together. It’s been a long time since we’ve been lucky enough to have that happen. We checked out a couple of breweries, one being where Carolyn works, went to the pumpkin patch, and had good old brats and burgers.

Being back in a house with a real kitchen means we could do some cooking again. We’ve had some great homemade dinners including salmon on cedar board planks, steaks on the grill, Thai food, we even rolled our own sushi at home – with mild success. Breakfasts were equally amazing, not having anywhere to be gave us plenty of time to make breakfast every morning. It was great to have French Toast, omelettes, Huevos Rancheros, fresh muffins, and BACON! Yum, yum delicious. The best breakfasts in the world are right here at home.

We are certainly enjoying our slow re-introduction to the US. What is really standing out is the portion sizes of everything, we do live large here! Mike is excited to be back behind the wheel of the Jetta. We are both excited that ice is not considered a luxury item, both iced tea and lemonade are generally on the menu, and there is Dr. Pepper in the fridge. After drinking so many of mostly-the-same “beach lagers” from around the world, it has been great to finally be able to drink some real beer again.

In addition to all the wonderful food and beverages, we have also tried to enjoy other activities in the area. We went to a concert one evening with Carolyn and Rick, went hiking in the surrounding hills with Phil and Meredith, and visited the beach a couple times. Mike and Phil had a fun afternoon on base, they took a spin in the helicopter flight simulator and shot at some clay pigeons at the nearby shotgun range. The wives were in tow, and served as a good cheering section during the various manly exploits of the day. On the more domestic side of things, Halloween occurred this week. We got to carve pumpkins and hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. Finally, a bit of adult responsibility is starting to creep back into our lives. November 2nd was election day and we walked down the street to cast our ballots. The polling place was in a neighbors garage, very strange. In keeping with tradition, donuts and coffee were also an integral part of the morning.