Homeward Bound!

We have called so many places home over the last 10 months. Our journey began on August 17, 2019 when we left San Diego for places abroad. Before we returned to the States on May 21, 2020, we had traveled to 10 countries (France, United Kingdom, Italy, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal). If you're astute, you'll see one of those is a British Protectorate but for the sake of simplicity, I'm calling it a country. We traveled by plane, train, bus, and car. For fun we also rode a river ferry, Venetian gondola, horse-drawn carriage, camels, cable car and sailboat.

We enjoyed extended stays of several weeks in many cities: Edinburgh in Scotland, Menton in the south of France, Strasbourg in the east of France, Sevilla in Spain and lastly Mandeville-en-Bessin in the Normandy region of France. It became a running joke that when our kids referred to "home" we asked for clarification if they were talking about our "Edinburgh home" or our "San Diego home," for example. Dave started telling Sam that home is wherever his mother is.

Over the course of our journey, we have stayed the night in 42 different lodgings. No wonder when we packed up to leave Lake Tahoe for San Diego, it felt like a familiar routine. However, we feel relief knowing this is our last nomadic journey for a while.

As we drive down the San Joaquin Valley on this final leg of our epic journey, our minds bounce back to the green pastures of Normandy, the frozen winter of Strasbourg, the desert sands of the Sahara and the soggy Highlands of Scotland.

There is a poetic symmetry in our journey. We began our homeschool
year at the cabin at Lake Tahoe on August 20 and then ended our school year there as well on June 11. As far as years to be abroad and homeschooling, this one turned out to be fortuitous as it was a year when everyone had to transition to learning and working remotely.

We look forward to returning home to San Diego and enjoying our favorite place on Earth to live. Or as Dave says, "No matter where we go in the world, we're always happy to come home to San Diego."