Back in Seatown

We are back in Seattle, home sweet home. I have to say one of the things Imad and I were both struck by is how much we love our home. We'd forgotten what a nice place our house is and we did so much work with remodeling and cleaning/organizing before we left, it was nice to come back to such a comfy, pleasant home. We also lucked out with a great renter that left the place in perfect condition. Lucky for us, the weather here is beautiful so it is making our transition much easier, especially for Imad who got in the habit of obsessively checking Seattle weather the past few weeks.

The trip home and the jet lag thereafter were and continue to be a bit on the painful side. The day before we left, airports in northern Spain including Barcelona, our first destination were closed due to the volcanic ash. We kept our fingers crossed and luckily the airports did open by that night, however, because of the closure the day before, we had a delay of about 4 hours that we didn't know about until we got to the airport. The funniest part to me though is the company, Jet4U a low-cost Moroccan airline sent us an email notifying us of the recent daylight savings time in Morocco and that our flight would be running on the updated time. However, in the email they sent us the original flight time so needless to say we were confused. When we get to the airport, the flight is scheduled to leave an hour later. Now why wouldn't they have put the actual departure time in the email? A quintessential Moroccan moment when it comes to time. Anyway, we were in line for 2 hours when we finally got word that the flight is delayed but scheduled to depart which for us was a relief. We just needed to get to Barcelona so we could catch our next flight the following day to Seattle via London.

After a LONG day (including no naps for Younis), we made it to Barcelona and got some rest at the hotel. The next morning was hard for all of us to get up so we were running late. We made it to the airport, checked in, had an awful experience with the check-in counterperson, I won't go into details, but it meant us rushing through the security and running to catch the plane. We made it to London where we had a 4 hour layover and finally boarded our plane for a 10 hour flight back to Seattle. Again because of the volcanic ash, the plane had to take a little detour adding some time onto the flight, oh joy! In the moment, it felt like time couldn't move any slower, but we made it through. Younis did not sleep much, but I have to say he was really good during the whole trip which made it a million times easier. Now we're in jetlag limbo, up during the night, trying not to sleep too much during the day. Again, just trying to remember that this too will pass. Here are Younis and Imad enjoying a nice deep sleep.

Some of the things I've been struck by since our return to Seattle:

Everything is so calm and orderly

You don't hear honking all the time

Store clerks are super friendly (this one may just be me getting into all these conversations with people because I miss random conversations)

Target is its own insane little world that has everything one could need

It's easy to spend a lot of money

Seattle is beautiful! The mountains on a clear day are spectacular and it feels like there are endless things to do with kids

I'm sure they'll be more things as we get more settled and get over our jetlag.

Younis is loving rediscovering his toys and seeing Mamou, Papou, Auntie Shawn and will get to see all his Seattle friends in the coming days. It's good to be home, but I do miss Morocco and see how we'll always be a little here and a little there, especially for Imad and probably more for Younis as he gets older.

I hope to continue my blog in some form or another so stay tuned and thank you for joining along in our adventures and journey over these past 6 months in Morocco.