Back in the USA

And just like that, boom, we’re back in the US! It’s been a whirlwind month since our last update, to the point that it’s hard for me to believe looking back that just a month has passed.

We knew we were leaving Gozo when our lease was up at the beginning of September and had planned to head off to Australia for a few months, then likely coming home to the US to recuperate a bit from the travel life.

What we weren’t exactly expecting was to find out in early August that Sarah is, well, expecting, which in the end caused us to scrap the Aussie plans and go ahead and return to the US.

We didn’t really want to add morning sickness and no real permanent home to the other standard stress of traveling, so we packed up, closed up house in Gozo, and headed off to Amsterdam for a mini-vacation before catching a direct flight to Oakland.

We spent five days in Amsterdam and booked an apartment via Wimdu (much like AirBnB but with more listings for European cities) and couldn’t have been happier with the experience.

We stayed right on the edge of the city center so everything was within easy walking distance plus we had a full kitchen to use and a supermarket on the corner, which was a lifesaver as far as providing food for a pregnant wife whose appetite was all over the place.

Amsterdam is one of those cities that I’ve always dreamed of living in, even though I can’t quite convince Sarah that life on a houseboat there would rock.

I waffle back and forth on the idea of reincarnation and old souls, but Amsterdam is just one of those places where I feel like I’ve lived before and am returning home to, even though we’ve only been there twice for fairly brief stays.

I was a little nervous about our flight, as I booked one way flights via Skyscanner on ArkeFly direct from Amsterdam to Oakland (nearly a 13 hour flight) for a grand total of 250 euros per person.

That was over 1,000 euros cheaper per person than anything else I could find so I was half-expecting that we’d share a row with chickens or cows or freight being shipped but the flight was fine, especially after we upgraded to the Premium seats for just 30 euros more each (it was supposed to be 60 euros but for some reason they charged us half that at the counter).

We spent a night in Oakland before heading down to Monterey, where we’ll be staying for a month or two — maybe longer depending on how my job search goes.

As far as our wandering ways, well, we still plan on getting out and about, especially since we have the whole state of California to explore, as well as the Western half of the US in general.

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