Going back home

This summer, the children and I decided to return home to the US for 7 weeks.  We had not been home for 10 months!  The children were ready to see friends, eat at IHOP and just relax for the entire summer without speaking French.  Preston had work responsibilities until August, then he would be off for one month.  That's right, ONE MONTH.  August is the month when the entire country of France is on vacation!  Just about everyone in France is off of work.  Stores are closed and services are very limited during this time.  Basically, you can't get anything done, so you might as well go on vacation too!  Vacation time is one of the many benefits of living here in France.

Since we had not been home for almost a year, we wanted to see everyone we could, eat everything we missed in France and catch up on our tv shows.  For the past year, the only shows that we really watched were the ones that we could find on Youtube.  Although we have CNN broadcast in english and many popular US tv shows are dubbed in French, it is not the same.  I mean, the joy of watching tv is that it is mindless entertainment.  And watching depressing world events or translating old episodes of "Friends" or "My Wife and Kids" is not mindless!

So with our mission clearly stated, we began our summer "vacation."  Here are the numbers:

7 weeks

13 cities

Jackson, Mississippi

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Atlanta, Georgia

Orlando, Florida

Irmo, South Carolina

Greenville, South Carolina

Albemarle, North Carolina

Charlotte, North Carolina

Milledgeville, Georgia

Byron, Georgia

Hilton Head, South Carolina

Dominican Republic

Edisto Beach, South Carolina

And tons of friends and family!

WHEW!!!!  It was a full schedule, but we enjoyed it!  We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (no cheesecake in France), Carrabas, PF Chang's, Monterey's Mexican, Chick-fil-a (several times), Bone Fish, Zaxby's, Cracker Barrel (no big breakfast places in France), Hyman's seafood (shrimp poboys) and finally IHOP.  There were several other resturants that we visited, but these were the restaurants that we missed the most.  However, the foods that I really missed were the homemade dishes.  BBQ ribs and chicken, macaroni and cheese, fried Misssissippi catfish, greens, lowcountry shrimp boil, shrimp and grits, cornbread, homemade pound cake!  MMMMMMMM....these are the dishes that cannot be found in France!  It tasted so good to be home! 

As far as friends and family, we were really blessed by how many people we were able to see!  I was able to catch up with high school and college friends.  We visited our old neighbors and church family in North Carolina.  In Columbia, we were able to participate in VBS at our church and attend Sunday as well as Wednesday night service.  The children were able to hang out with their school and neighborhood friends.  It was soooooo good to see people and be welcomed back with open arms.  Here are a few pictures of the people and places that we visited.

We were also able to take one week to spend with our individual friends alone.  Preston went to the Dominican Republic with college friends, I went to Charlotte, NC with long time girlfriends, Daniele stayed with her best friends in Columbia, SC, Maya and Lauren stayed with the Bower's Family in Columbia, SC and John went to Hilton Head, SC with his best friend.  We spent our final week in the US at the beach in Edisto Beach, SC.  I really do miss the warm water and the sand of SC beaches.  It was a great way for us to relax before returning to France.  My parents, my sister Lea and her family, my sister Jocelyn and my brother Lee joined us for the last weekend to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary.  It was the perfect way to end our summer vacation.

But as much fun as we had, we will NOT do this next year!  We were blessed to have this opportunity to see everyone, but we were worn out!  In fact, before the end of our tour, all of the children were ready to go home.... to France!  Finally, they were calling France home.  So, the long visit back to the US accomplished many things.  We were able to see some of our favorite people, eat some great American foods and visit some of our favorite places.  But most importantly, we were gone long enough to miss our lives in France.  We were ready to go back home.