This.Is.It.

We cant' believe it's already been 5 months - it's seams like yesterday that we landed in Buenos Aires with 5 months of nothing but travelling ahead of us.

We have experienced and seen so much - and now it's time to go home - but not before our last blog post.

I left of in Paso Robles - another wine country in California where we spent 2 relaxing days by the pool just chilling and enjoying life and of course drinking wine. It's so much warmer in-land so we were not surprised when we arrived back at the ocean at Pismo Beach that even though the sun was shining sweaters and long pants were necessary. Pismo beach is a small little tourist beach town 5 hours north of LA and from now on we were going along the coast on highway 1 until we got to LA - our first and our final destination in the US.

After a long walk on the beach to a beautiful sunset and morning yoga we headed south to Santa Barbara. We made a short stop in Solvang - the Danish colony established by Danish teachers in 1911. It was really weird and funny to see the Danish language and flag again and to visit the HC Andersen museum - a small bag of "skolekridt" candy was 10USD though so we decided we could wait until we were back home.

As we kind of decided that we were done hiking after Yosemite (Andreas decided mostly - but I agreed) we spent most of our time in Santa Barbara shopping and eating - just like on a normal vacation.

After Santa Barbara our next stop was Ventura (1,5 hours South of SB) to stay with our friend Kit's family - again Americans are just awesome about the concept of extended family.

We arrived in Ventura in the early evening and were greeted by the loveliest couple Henning and Linda Ottsen with warm quesadillas and a glass of wine - pure luxury. They had arranged for us to go see their son play guitar in a jazz trio in the local art center - so of we went. We are not really jazz people but it was fun to see an amateur band in local surroundings and we learned a lot about music during our stay with the Ottsen as they are all very enthusiastic musicians, but more about that later.

The next day we went to the very famous outlet shopping center in Camarillo close to Ventura and bought all the final stuff we needed (we didn't really need anything but you know what I mean). I am a sucker for a good deal so every time we went in to a shop to buy something for Andreas I ended up with a purchase of my own - doh). In the evening we headed back to Santa Barbara to have dinner with a family we met in 2013 in Mexico - always fun to meet up with people you encountered on along the way.

Saturday we decided to join the Ottsen family for a barbecue birthday party in the park for Shea - Henning and Linda's 2 year old grandson. We loved meeting the entire family and felt so welcomed - thanks Kit for putting us in touch.

Linda is a singing teacher and used to be a professional singer so she invited us to a "home concert" at one of her student's homes which included a mini concert and dinner - so of course we went. And we really enjoyed it too. It is a bit hard to explain how it works but I will give it a try. We were welcomed with GTs and a "music agenda" and sat down in the living room. Four performers sang a variety of songs including opera aria and pieces from musicals while we just sat and listened - it was impressive what they could do with their voices. Especially the hostess hit notes in her aria that I though only Mariah Carey could. Well, anyway after the 1-hour concert we all sat down for a nice Italian dinner and mingled. This concept should definitely be introduced in DK - we just don't know any opera singers….

Sunday we said our goodbyes and drove to LA - again staying with extended family. Sari and Barry and their 2-year-old son Mickey. Sari is the daughter of Debbie's brother Larry who we stayed with in Lake Tahoe. They have this cool townhouse with a rooftop terrace in Hollywood very close to the Hollywood sign where we stayed for 3 nights. We loved staying with the small family but we've decided that we don't love LA. Everyone always jams on about the traffic - for a reason! It's horrible! And LA is huge so you need a car to get around. We liked Santa Monica and Venice beach very much (Muscle beach where have you bean all my life LOL) and of course it was fun to see Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood stars but we spent way too much time in the car. We also went to Malibu for some star sightseeing and we saw…. Absolutely no famous people. Damn it! Oh well next time I guess.

After three eventful days in LA we packed up all our stuff, drove past a church to donate the stuff that wouldn't fit in our suitcases, dropped our suitcases at the Airbnb place that we were going to spend our last 2 days of the trip in and drove to the airport where we handed in our beloved car which had proven a true companion throughout the trip - we will miss you Nissan Maxima with a sunroof.

We were now on our way to Atlanta, Georgia with Delta airlines. Why Atlanta you ask? Because Andreas' brother Thomas and his lovely wife Ashley live there and they just bought a new home so even though it is a 4 hour flight it still made sense to visit them now that we were "in the area". Everything went very smooth and we arrived Wednesday evening in there amazing (huuuuuuuuge - 600m2) home. The house is right next to a golf course and we had access to a swimming pool and tennis courts - awesome!! It was Andreas' nephews' 2 year old birthday the next day (come to think of it we had been spending a lot of time with 2 year olds the last 10 days) which we celebrated with a trip to the aquarium and a whole lot of delicious junk food. Friday Andreas and Thomas went golfing while Ashley and I had our nails and feet done - absolute cliché I know but we were all very happy about the arrangement.

In the evening we barbecued and went to bed early as we all had to get plenty of sleep before the big family weekend. 17 family members and friends came over to celebrate baby Logan so the house was packed with screaming kids and happy exhausted parents - and Logan had the time of his life. Most of the family spent the night so Sunday we again ate a lot and then hung out at the pool - until a summer storm decided that it was time to go inside. The house was quiet again Sunday evening so we had a great farewell dinner with Ashley, Thomas and Logan. What a crazy, fun, loving, eventful weekend! We will be back for more J

Monday morning our flight back to LA left at 7.25AM so poor Ashley got up with us at 5AM and drove us to the airport.

We know that it sounds a bit stupid to fly 4 hours east and then fly 4 hours back west so that we 2 days later can fly east again (this time for 10 hours) to go back home - on top of that our bodies are a bit confused about the jetlag. But this way we get to see family and still have 2 days of pure relaxation at the beach and to get some serious sun tanning done.

So here we are, back where we started, in Manhattan Beach our favorite part of LA (maybe even of the entire California coast) staying in this amazing airbnb apartment with 15 minute walk from the beach.

Just as we planned we spent all day on the beach just taking it all in and had a great dinner at Mama D's. Our last full day on this trip we also spent on the beach and topped it all off by going to the same restaurant where we started our USA road trip 3 months ago - circle complete.

Today we go home. We are relaxed, we are excited, we are tanned and we are ready.

See you soon Denmark

Some final reflections:

Looking back there is nothing we would have done differently as we've truly realized that everything will work out in it's own way. You can't plan for everything and whatever happens happens - you just have to go with the flow (which was not always easy for me). As a couple we have definitely grown closer and learned a lot about being a team - we've been in this together and every memory we have made we will be able to share with each other for the rest of our lives and that is sincerely a gift (and will save us tons of money on couple therapy in years to come). This chapter of our lives is coming to an end but only for a new chapter to begin - this time in Denmark together with our family and friends who we've missed very much throughout this entire adventure.

Also we are very happy and honored to have met so many giving people a long the way - strangers that have become friends and opened their homes to us. This will forever impact how we will welcome travellers to Denmark and hopefully we will be able to give back some of the generosity that has been shown to us.

Everything happens for a reason and even though we did not end up moving to California it kick-started this entire adventure and made us leave our comfort zone and travel the world. This is not our last longer trip - of that I am sure, but for now we can't wait to be back - back home.