Day 17: Good-byes

What can you say about saying good-bye?  I guess the fact that I only have two pictures for this day, sums it up.  We had a tasty breakfast at our bed and breakfast and then headed for the Port Elizabeth airport.  We got there early enough for Grandpa to visit yet another Vodacom booth to try to work out the service for his cell phone.  The word "Vodacom" became a regular part of our vocabulary and somewhat of a "Where's Waldo?" adventure through the trip, as Grandpa seemed to always be searching for one.  In fact, when we were at the Johannesburg airport, whiling away a few hours, we passed a sport shop that had a Vodacom shirt and DJ suggested we buy it for Grandpa.  But, since his communication with Vodacom was nothing but frustrating, he would have burned the shirt.

We took the opportunity to play a few more games of Nertz in a meeting room, while we waited for our flight. When the time for our flight came around, we left each other knowing we had such a great time that we just didn't want it to end, yet also feeling the pull of getting back to normal life. We waved to Grandma and Grandpa for as long as we could see each other and commenced to wait some more.

We had a long layover in Johannesburg, where we tried to walk around a lot in preparation for a 16 hour flight.  We also played Nertz, finally got to eat at the highly recommended Mug and Bean (should've done that sooner - it was yummy!), walked by the KitKat tasting table a number of times, bought items that would be confiscated in customs (Biltong and leftover oranges and apples) that would cause a small spat in Atlanta (we barely caught our plane in Atlanta because I decided to be truthful about small food items).

With all the crazy, wonderful, beautiful, funny, uncomfortable, joyful things that happened on our vacation in Europe and South Africa, I wouldn't change a thing.  We learned so much by both information given and having a lack of information that I would deem our trip a true adventure.  I tell people that one of the most valuable things about our trip was learning about other people and places, but also letting the kids witness their parents figure things out in foreign countries and languages (that's right, we really don't know what we are doing).  The boys asked us many questions to which the honest answer was "I don't know, but we'll figure it out."  I thought it was pretty funny that at customs in Atlanta we had a little conversation with the agent about how our kids asked us questions we didn't know the answers to and during our conversation, a mother with two kids passed us while she said to them, "I don't know!"  I guess we are not the only ones.

I loved thinking about life from the perspective of people who do not live in the United States.  I loved sharing it all with family.  I loved the adventure of it all and taking risks and making desperate decisions and laughing about it all.  I love this beautiful earth.  I love making do with what we had.  I loved the hours in the car observing lives lived differently than mine.  I loved trying new food.  I loved being in very old places.  I loved seeing animals. This is not hyperbole.  I really did love all of those things and more.  Except the 16 hour plane ride.  I didn't love that. But it was totally and completely worth it - and I'd do it again!