Today was our last brutally early wake up for the foreseeable future. Nick’s alarm went off at 3AM and we walked out to our prearranged taxi at 4AM. Our energy was high and we had a broken-Spanish conversation with our driver. “¿Vuelas a casa?” This is a common question any time we’re on the way to an airport, and today we could finally answer “Sí, vamos a casa.” Yes, we’re flying home.

We got to the airport too early, before anyone was in the security line and before we could order coffee. We let Millie watch a movie at the gate, even though we usually make her wait until we’ve boarded. The first flight was quick and we landed in Mexico City. We dragged ourselves through the airport to our next gate. It felt thrilling to see “Austin” on the sign.

This flight was a bit longer, but uneventful. As we started descending, Millie ripped off her headphones and was practically shaking with excitement. “Are we in Austin right now?!”

I looked out of the window, as I have on every flight we have taken this year. I always look at the houses and farm land and imagine the people that live there, what their daily lives are like, and how things got to be how they are. But today it was different. I’ve driven these roads, I am these people.

When we deboarded, Millie practically sprinted ahead of us to immigration. Their airport smell was nostalgic and reminded me of the many work trips I’ve taken in and out of AUS.

We walked through thanks to Global Entry, and before we knew it we were waiting for my dad to pick us up. The sweet warm air felt familiar. A guy walked past with a Radio Coffee cup and I reacted to the logo on the cardboard as if I had just seen a movie star. Nick commented on how all the cars in the pickup line looked new, something I never would have noticed before.

My dad arrived and we all hugged and set off for my parent’s house. We’ll be staying here for a week or two while we wait for our tenants to move out. When we arrived, we recreated the photo we took the day we left. Millie is taller, we are wrinklier, and we all have longer hair, but otherwise everything is the same.

We had some lunch. Freshly picked tomatoes from my dad’s garden and a big hunk of buratta on good bread. And a slice of my mom’s chocolate cake. Why did we leave again? On that note, why did I ever move out of their house?

Then we split up. Millie painted and swam with my mom. Nick went to get a new battery for his truck. And I sat silently alone in a room.

When the truck was fixed, Nick suggested we take a drive to our house to see the garden. I texted our tenants to ask them to put our mail outside, and they generously offered to catch up. We drove over there and spent about 30 minutes with them, meeting their new baby and hearing how the house and neighborhood had treated them for the last year. It could have been weird to visit other people in our house of 15 years, but it wasn’t. We’ve gotten so lucky with these tenants. We drove around the neighborhood and pointed out what was different, though almost everything is exactly the same.

We got some errands done. Nick washed his truck and got it inspected. We picked up a prescription. And then we decided, since it was our first time alone and without a child within 15ft of us, to go on a quick date.

As we ordered our beers, the bartender tried to make small talk. “How’s your day going?” She asked. We answered “really good, great actually.” “Oh yeah, why?” “We just got home from a trip. It feels good to be back.” “Where’d you go?”

All I could muster was “well we were gone for a long time, over a year”. How do we begin to explain this year?

We sat in the sun and talked about the future; what we want to do for work, how we’ll maintain this energy and gratitude for home, what type of travel we want to do when we’re ready to travel again, and our lifestyle goals. I want to take the energy and momentum I’ve put into the blog and put it towards a daily workout regimen. We’ve agreed to go on weekly dates.

We drove back to my parents’ house and had delicious homemade spaghetti bolognese, Millie’s request for her homecoming meal. After Millie went to bed we stayed up for a while talking amongst adults, even as the waves of tiredness kept hitting me.

It feels so familiar to be back in Austin and back at my parent’s house. I keep feeling like: did that really happen? Did we really do that? And then I have to remind myself, yes we did. We stuck to it, even when we wanted to throw in the towel. We didn’t half ass a single part of it. We got exceptionally lucky the whole way through, no major travel snafus, no injuries, no severe illnesses, no emergencies at home, nothing beyond the typical travel annoyances. We worked hard, and worked together, but mostly we just got so lucky.

And so that’s that! My last daily blog post. For anyone who’s been following along, thank you for coming on this journey with us. I’ll write a few wrap-up posts in the coming days, but for the most part, that’s all folks. 🩷