Aaand..... it's a wrap

And here we are back in Pittsburgh!  Besides me having a fight with a cactus* our last day was pretty uneventful.  We got packed up, cleaned the apartment and passed inspection for our deposit, had lunch at J's favorite sushi place, and headed for the airport.

The girls both tried to watch as many movies as possible on the flight home--rather than sleeping--so they were both exhausted for the first day or so we were back.  Oh, I guess one other weird thing happened on our flight:  on the approach into Atlanta we were just a few feet from touching down when the plane just took off again and started ascending again.  After a minute or two the captain came on with a lengthy explanation about how we had gotten some strange turbulence due to the aircraft that had landed just before us, and-- having safety in mind first--they were going to return to the pattern and make another go of it, etc. etc.  After the 2 or 3 minute debriefing in English, the Spanish-speaking flight attendant came on and said (in Spanish), "We are now flying over Atlanta and will be on the ground in 10 minutes."  Ummm, apparently if you speak Spanish you don't deserve a proper explanation?  WTH?

At any rate, it feels like we've hit the ground here at home at about 80 mph and haven't slowed down.  In other words: we're back to our normal life of school, rehearsals, playdates, teaching, doctor appts, concerts, homework, practicing, jigsaw puzzling, etc.   I did get a little thrill this morning walking up to the local Giant Eagle and packing my groceries home in my nifty little red pull-cart.

J, on the other hand, left again today and will be in Greece for a week.  Maybe he'll grace the blog with some pictures when he returns.  Aside from that, I'm signing off until our next adventure: a gargantuan US roadtrip this summer.  The goal is to hit as many National Parks as possible while on a grand loop to see family in California and the NW.  Yeah!  I'm already getting excited!



*I slipped on my hike and got a bit too intimate with one of those beauties lining the trail, gashing the palm of my hand in about five places.  It looked pretty gnarly, but now after four days it's mostly healed up.