It's always a bit strange heading home after a long vacation. You're always filled with various emotions. Sadness that your vacation that you planned for quite some time and looked forward to for even longer is coming to an end. Nervousness, at least for me, about a long travel day ahead with taxi connections, 3 different flights, and long hours sitting in an airplane seat and dreaming about what it might feel like to stretch out and actually lie down. The worst part must be when they lead you through the first class area as you exit the airplane and you get to see those seats that stretch out flat. Man, what you would have given to be able to do that after the 8th hour of the flight! Lastly, I also have the emotion of looking forward to getting home and seeing our kids, friends and family, and getting back to our life and routine again. All in all a weird kind of day.

All the flights went well, Air Canada the whole way. We did have a bit of excitement when we were in Montreal though after our flight from Rome. We were getting ready to sit down for a burger (yup, after a month of fabulous Italian food I had a craving for a good ole burger) when Beth realized she did not have her wallet with her. Oh - oh. Not only did it include her bank cards and drivers license (I had the passports luckily) but it also contained her sim card for her cell phone. We had bought a different one for using her phone in Europe ($30 for a whack of air-time and data). She couldn't acces her email, calendar, and more importantly - Facebook!. We found the Air Canada customer service desk and asked if they could find someone to search the plane, seat 42H. After about 30 nervous minutes we got the good news, found it. SIM cards were switched, Facebook was updated and all was good.

Finally we arrived in Victoria where Cameron picked us up and the luggage was crammed into the trunk of the Altima. We dropped off Keith and Gaye first and bid adieu to our travel companions. It will be weird not to see them every morning and plan out our day. Gaye got into a habit of preparing me a lovely breakfast every morning of yogurt, fruit and granola. Beth said she ain't gonna do it so it looks like I'm on my own! Soon we pulled into our driveway, were reunited with our cats and other son Ben. Hugs and stories were traded about our trip and also about how our 2 boys (well, young men really) faired on their own for a month. Not entirely sure they told us everything but the house was still intact and all is good. Exhausted we fell into bed and started our switch over from the 9 hour time difference.

So that's it, last entry on this blog. Thanks for following along. It's been fun recanting our stories and adventures each day. Thanks also for your comments. Arrivederci!