Going Home

After church and lunch, we stopped at Babu and Shirley’s for coffee and treats. They live in the home that GV grew up in. It was fun to see family pictures on the wall and to see that Abby was feeling much better!

GV’s parents

Shirley’s family

stickers like these are very popular. Especially ones with Caucasian babies on them.

 

It was a long drive into Cochin to the airport and the traffic was quite bad due to construction of a new train system.

the building looked abandoned but I’m guessing it wasn’t

 

By the time we headed back to the good old US of A, we were exhausted. I was totally expecting to sleep most of the way. We hardly slept a wink. I guess I’m glad it didn’t take as long to get home as it did to get there.

There was some kind of snafu with our passports when we left Cochin, but it got sorted out (we didn’t understand most of what was going on) and we got on a plane headed to Singapore without a hitch. We even had time to shop for souvenirs at the airport before we left. It was the first time I’d seen souvenirs since we’d been in India.

an open-air garden in the Cochin airport in case you were tired of the cool comfort of air conditioning and wanted to enjoy the hot and muggy outdoors… ;o)

Our first stop was Singapore. Not as long of a layover this time but the airport was no less impressive…

It is like a upscale shopping mall, airport, and luxury resort hotel all rolled up into one…

all the shops I couldn’t even afford to pop into to look… ;o)

 

they had changed this display since the last time we were there

Then it was on to Tokyo, Japan…

the food on Singapore Airlines is amazing! But we still didn’t sleep much… :o(

a view of Japan from the air

  

They had the coolest foods in Tokyo! Like funky flavored Kit Kat bars and Cup o Noodles! ;o)

By this time we were so tired that both Rick and I fell asleep on the floor or on the seats at the airport waiting for our next flight to San Francisco. We didn’t sleep very well on the plane, however.

When we arrived back in the US, we waited in a very long line for customs where Chris got in trouble with the customs agents and had to get out of line to delete the pictures he took for security reasons. Then we revealed that we had rice in our suitcase and had to empty it out completely and get rid of it. Apparently rice from India is too dangerous to bring into the country. With our delay at customs we got separated from Rick. We were very thankful to meet up again at the gate for our connecting flight!

The first thing we wanted when we landed in Portland was a big juicy hamburger. So Dad and Mom took us to Red Robin to hear all about our trip. Hamburgers are delicious!

In hind sight, we probably just should have gone back to Mom and Dad’s and gotten a good night’s sleep instead of driving back home. It was all either of us could do to stay awake and I am sure that our guardian angels were probably keeping the van on the road. Although the house was empty upon our return (Zack was in Monmouth and Andy & Will were on the Great Escape) it was nice to find a warm welcome just the same… :o)

Tatum wrote the sign since she has the best handwriting :o)

      

Do they know us or what???

Everyone asks if we would go again… the answer? Yes!