After our amazing long weekend in Copenhagen, Travers and I flew back to California to celebrate a belated Thanksgiving with my family. Then we drove down to San Luis Obispo to visit Travers' sister Suzy, her husband Tim, and their daughter Kelsea. It had been awhile since we had seen them and Kelsea had grown so much in the time that had passed. She was much more interactive now that she was 2 years old and this visit was probably the start of a great bond with her that Travers and I cherish. We spent a couple days in SLO then Travers, Suzy, Kelsea and I drove down to Palm Springs to meet my mother-in-law, Rosemary and her husband Mike, who were vacationing in Palm Springs for the week. We spent the next several days and nights lounging by the pool, eating large meals, wandering the main shopping streets of Palm Springs, and playing with our niece at the house.
The highlight of the visit was going to the zoo which was decked out in Christmas spirit! We took Kelsea to see Santa, where she immediately screamed upon seeing the big red santa so we took a sharp right turn out of there as quickly as possible. And we took her to see an animal show where a possum and other night animals were featured, as was the Grinch, which, again, she screamed as he can be quite scary looking with his green face and wide grin. But she recovered quickly and the big highlight was taking her on the carousel, all of us together, spinning round and round.
It was a great visit with the family, but at the end of the week we had to say goodbye as we drove back up to SLO for one night, then back up to the Bay Area to spend some time with my family and some friends. We spent some time in San Francisco, seeing friends and re-connecting with past colleagues. And we spent time with my parents and sister before flying back to pack up and say good bye to Geneva.
We got back on a Monday afternoon, and we had until Saturday to get our apartment in order. The movers came on Wednesday and Thursday, and we had a list of things to get done, people to see, and things to close out before we left. It was a whirlwind of a week, and we were exhausted by the time it was all over with, but we were able to see some great friends before we left, go to Travers' holiday party at work, have some delicious final meals, one being fondue in a yurt, and go to some of our favorite places in Geneva.
On Saturday morning we caught a flight to London for our final hoorah on our way back to the states. A few tears ran down my cheeks as the plane took off from Geneva, but we have some amazing memories from our 2 years and 8 months there. We learned so much about ourselves and about the world, seeing as many different places, cities, and countries as we could see. And while we will miss it dearly, we know that its not goodbye forever.
Tu nous manques Geneve. A Bientot. Bisous Bisous.
