election

it's a pretty fun time to be an american.

tracking results on the huffington post...

-e

the journey "home"

steven and i flew home at the end of september.

it was a bit sooner than we had thought

(we did all of our budgeting using lonely planet prices and it turns out those are not to be trusted).

though it was earlier than expected, we felt great about coming home,

and to us it seemed as though we had been gone for at least six months.

we never made it to nepal liked we had planned,

but that just means we have reason to go back! (soon?!)

we flew into SFO 

and got to spend a couple days visiting with our wonderful friends

who didnt care that we were recovering from jet lag and not very exciting to be around. 

we then bussed up to santa rosa to spend time with more friends,

enjoying the sunshine, western pub food,

and making wonderful dinners using ingredients 

picked from diana's incredible garden...

-e

for some reason i only have this one picture from our time in san francisco. getting over jet lag is lame. pretty amazing moment though. watching the space shuttle fly over the city from our friends rooftop.

mmmm pub food. we missed you.

visiting our friend diana's garden. i could have spent all day here.

enjoying the sunshine in santa rosa

fresh veggies and funky nails.

flight(s) home

it may not seem like it from the last month of posts

but steven and i returned to the USA safely at the end of september.

we had very little access to internet in myanmar so our posts 

had to wait until we were back.

it was quite an epic journey

and it seemed as though we were gone forever,

though our friends and family have said it felt like we just left.

we flew back into san francisco 

and have only made it as far as arcata ca.

we have yet to see many of our friends and family in the seattle area.

i feel as though our trip won't feel complete until i get to hug my mom and dad.

here are some pictures from our flights back.

most notable was the airport in taiwan

where each little waiting area was themed. 

it was amazing.

somehow i only seemed to really photograph the

hello kitty room...

-e

when is a waiting area at an airport ever this empty? at 8am at the yangon international airport.

the library themed waiting room at the taiwan airport

hello kitty room. the best

hello kitty time zones

every waiting room was this elaborate. it was so great.

well hello san francisco. 

last supper

i can't believe it

but the time has come.

this is a post about our last meal overseas.

sure there was a small breakfast the next morning,

some Burger King at the bangkok airport during a layover,

and several in-flight meals while traveling over the pacific ocean,

but this was our last true meal.

after five wonderful and sunny days in ngwe saung

where we did nothing but lay on the beach, read books, and try not to worry about life once we got back home,

we took our final myanmar bus ride (we are not missing those)

and spent the last 12 hours back in yangon.

after getting to our hotel we realized that we had a plethora of burmese kyat left

so we decided to splurge on a super fancy dinner.

it was a meal to remember.

with fabulous drinks, 

tasty food (quite a rare find for us in myanmar)

and great company,

including the wait staff who, of course, 

wanted to hang around and speak in english during our dinner.

i will never forget it,

and i especially will never forget how we were able to make it happen...

-e

the view during dinner. the shwedagon paya

turned out we showed up during happy hour when drinks were buy one get one free

so we got a couple...

steven's lamb, which was cheaper than the chicken.... we didnt argue

my comfort food. 

us. 42 hours later we landed in san francisco...

elephant camp

on one of our last days in myanmar

we decided to rent a scooter and go see an elephant camp.

i had been very excited to see some elephants 

ever since we landed on the other side of the plant

and couldn't wait to see a whole camp of them.

we showed up and there was a building full of burmese men

who told us to wait and the elephants would come to us.

we waited for a bit and finally saw the head of a giant magnificent animal

heading over a nearby hill.

the elephant came right up to us!

i was surprised at it's size

yet how gentle it was as we got close and said hello.

we spent some time getting comfortable

with the elephant and finally i felt eager to see more,

specifically a BABY elephant!

we asked the building of men if there were more elephants

and they said yes.

if we spent $10 and went on an elephant ride

we would get to see more elephants. 

so we agreed and watched nervously 

as the men strapped a small wooden seat to the top of the elephant 

and motioned for us to get on.

the elephant walked us slowly through the forest

and at one point even took us through a nearby river.

it was an extremely uncomfortable ride

but on the other hand it was incredible to see the power and 

precision of this great animal up close.

the ride took about an hour

and never once did we see another elephant.

we started getting the feeling that maybe there were no other elephants

and i think we were right because after an hour the elephant

brought us back to the building of burmese men 

who accepted our money and suddenly spoke

no english when we inquired again about seeing additional elephants...

-e