Nick and I wrapped up the 3rd leg of our trip and started our long travel back to the USA. It all ran smoothly, which was great, but was still exhausting. Our journey started with a 2:30am wake up to walk to our airport shuttle bus stop to catch our 6:00am flight to London from Prague. We had 2 hours for our London layover, which is barely enough for Heathrow. The airport is so huge with many busses required to get between the different areas, and they don’t post your gate until there’s barely enough time to get there. It is always a hectic experience. I warned Nick about it, but then we had over 20 minutes at the gate (instead of running onto the plane which is more typical). So Nick didn’t get the full Heathrow airport experience. To end the travel day we had our 7 hour flight to Chicago, then a short flight to Iowa, and finally a short drive to Nick’s parents house.

We were grateful to get to spend so much time with family and catch up on some big logistical items for the last leg of our trip. Some of Nick’s cousins, aunts, and uncles made visits while we were in town, which was great. We don’t get to see everyone often. Emily, Nick’s sister, also came for the first few days. We went to the nearby lake for a run (Emily) and walk (me), helped harvest, cook amazing dinners using produce from the garden, and watch thunderstorms from the sunroom. A real treat was getting to eat Nick’s mom’s strawberry and rhubarb pie twice. Some other meal favorites were Nick’s ratatouille, burnt ends, steak, and salad from the garden. Of course we captured photos of the food and nature but hardly any of the family. Classic.

Nick’s dad kept him busy with chores on the farm: cleaning the chicken coop, feeding bees, harvesting pumpkins, and feeding the pigs. While Nick was kept occupied outside, I worked my way through our list of to-dos including a dentist visit, booking things for South America, catching up on the blog, writing our Christmas cards, providing all of our details for permits, and more. I got more than halfway through the list, which was less than I had hoped but it was still a great visit, especially with all of our visits to Almost Famous for ice cream and milkshakes.

Between getting things done we ate a ton of good food; fall is a fantastic time to be at Nick’s parents house since the garden is producing a ton. Having a place to take a break was wonderful and we were spoiled with many gorgeous sunrises. I picked raspberries to snack on in between tasks and Nick got to spend a lot of time with his dad. Eventually it was time to get ready to hit the road again, though, and say goodbye to Nick’s parents and the many bugs. We repacked our bags slightly differently for this last section. More hiking, a colder climate, and a conservative continent meant we needed hiking poles, more wool, and fewer crop tops.

Nick’s dad drove us to Chicago where we spent the day with Ted and Brooke. Lunch was sandwiches from the nearby deli, after which we said goodbye to Nick’s dad. There was a stark contrast with the number of steps in Iowa vs the number of steps we did in Chicago. Ted took us around his neighborhood, through some parks, to the zoo, and along the waterfront. When Brooke finished work we all headed to a pizza place for dinner and ended the night with Jenni’s ice cream. The next morning would be our flights to South America.