The journey home

We're currently on Day Five of our vacation in Amsterdam, after having spent some time in Paris. 

Dave is out on a walk, the kids are playing at the park in front of our AirBnb, and I'm sitting on the porch watching them and uploading pictures of our vacation thus far. 

I figure it's as good of a time as any to begin the sllloowww process of documenting our travels back to the U.S.

On Wednesday the 8th, we swam one last time in the pool...

...ordered up our favorite shwarma one last time...

...I had Turkish coffee with Reem one last time...

...and then around 8:30pm we all tried to get a bit of sleep.

That went only okay.

At 11:30pm the alarm went off, we grabbed our packed bags, and loaded up for a taxi ride with Hussien, one last time. 

Our plane left Kuwait at like 2:20am. 

After a rainy stopover in Istanbul...

We landed in Paris, France!

Where you can drink RIGHT FROM THE TAP!!!

Thankfully, all of our luggage landed as well...

We are lucky enough to have some fabulous friends who live in Paris, and who generously allowed us to stay with them. 

Dave and Ryan went to Grad School together in Portland, and have kept in touch over the years. It was fun for me to watch how quickly they picked right back up where they left off, even though they haven't seen each other in nearly a decade.

We marveled at ALL THE ALCOHOL! And you could just BUY IT!! And legally DRINK IT!!!

Our friends have a daughter a year younger than our kids, and the three of them hit it off pretty quickly after being introduced to each other...

David and I enjoyed a little PDA in a country that didn't forbid it...

It was late Friday afternoon by the time we were settled, so we just walked around the neighborhood, played at a park, and visited their community garden...

...and yes, I dressed my son in his "FRANCE" soccer jersey, because I'm a little nerdy that way. 

We enjoyed some appetizers and wine that evening...

...and stayed up way too late catching up.

It was really fun seeing our friends and meeting their sweet daughter, and the four of us felt grateful to have something to fun greeting us on the other side of leaving our life in Kuwait.