Home is wherever I am with you...

The St. Croix River near my parents home: there is no place on earth like this. We've been enjoying Sundays on the boat with the fam...

Hello from the middle of a melting country! We've been home now for 20 days, and it's difficult to describe the transition. Let's just say that nothing can prepare you for such an extraordinary and inspiring experience like the one we just had, and certainly nothing can prepare you for it to end. We are so truly grateful for it, as it has changed our lives, opened our eyes, and brought us closer together than I could have imagined. I would recommend it to anyone. I hope not to sound didactic, but one of the greatest things I've been challenged with from the trip (and will be for the rest of my life!) was this: be slow to anger, quick to forgive, and always choose love. It's difficult to do! But now we have to resume our lives in a somewhat standard and stationary way: assembling pieces of an old life to somehow create a new one. It is both exciting and terrifying. 

For me, it is simultaneously the realization and the death of a dream I've carried inside of me for a long time. I haven't yet been able to look through our photos because I am too sad that it's over! But because Jon is such an optimist, I am choosing to see it the way he does: this is just another stop on our itinerary, and we need to look forward to our next goal and future adventures!! (He's so great!) We were inspired in so many ways on this trip, which will materialize somehow in the future of this blog. Thank you for taking this journey with us, and I hope you will stick around for next. 

Here are some pieces of our old/new life: 
It's been so awesome to be with family and friends! It's absolutely the best part of being home :)

Jon with our gorgeous niece Adara

Adara! So beautiful and smart. We can't believe how big she and our nephew Graham are...6 months does a lot for a 1 year old!

Our adorable nephew Graham...who could resist such a face and those curls!!!

At Barbette in Minneapolis with my dear friend Christine. This could almost be Paris...

We made homemade naan and chicken tikka masala. A new favorite from the trip, and so
fun to cook it together for the first time. 

This is where you can find me now: at BANGbang salon and creative space in Minneapolis! Come by and see me!! 

Looking for Bjork

We've spent the last few days in Reykjavik, Iceland and have absolutely loved it. It's quite a bit cooler than Europe was (50s) but super sunny and beautiful. They have 23.5 hours of sunlight this time of year, so we've been fascinated by how little the light changes throughout the day...the shadows are long and slowly change directions, but it's impossible to mark the time by the color of the sky. It's like one very very long winter afternoon. As expected, the landscape is also quite unusual. This is a place that has inspired such interesting and influential musicians, artists, and designers, and it's not hard to see why. Everyone is really friendly and stylish, the main street is lined with gorgeous independent/local designer boutiques, lovely little cafes with excellent food. A great way to end the trip. Next time you go to Europe from Minneapolis fly Iceland Air because they give you a free stopover here and it's well worth a visit. Here are some photos of this amazing place.

Lava fields outside Reykjavik

Blue Lagoon. Totally amazing in every way. Purely natural and filled with minerals, it is located where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates meet, so we bathed between continents. one of the coolest places we've been.

We soaked it up for the afternoon and did three facial treatments! They have help-yourself buckets of natural silica mud found in the lagoon, so we gobbed it allover ourselves.

We stumbled across a show in a hidden little bar in downtown Reykjavik. The beer (and everything else!) is super expensive here, but we had a few good nights out anyway! Gotta do as the locals do, I guess. :)

Reykjavik at 2:30am....this is the darkest it gets!

These are our happy-to-be-going-home faces!! See you soon...