my heart is still in san francisco
i felt like i should post something to wrap everything up and let everyone know we’re home. traveling was fun, and i’m so glad we had the opportunity, but i’m happy to be home. I honestly don’t know how those backpackers do it - for months at a time, with no real itinerary. having grown up military, i’ve always considered myself a bit of a modern-day nomad, but more of a longer-term nomad i guess. more like 1-3 years in one place as opposed to 1-3 weeks or months!
we’re still digging ourselves out from under the luggage, souvenirs, and mail we accumulated over the last 2 1/2 months and are enjoying our regular haunts like our neighborhood coffee shop, deli and grocery store.
i haven’t really decided what i’m going to do with the site from here … one thing i learned from this trip is that i don’t plan to do something like it again any time soon! when we first took off i thought if everything went well - considering our employment situation - we might continue doing these types of trips. but when we travel from now on, i think we’ll take longer chunks of time to see one or two areas - instead of six countries in one month! It was a great way to see everything - and obviously i’m psyched we did it - but it’s not something i necessarily want to repeat 
and speaking of our employment situation, i think i’ll be looking for full-time employment now that we’re back. a lot of my clients stopped working with me around christmas time for various monetary issues and i honestly don’t love what i’m doing as a consultant/freelancer enough to try and build my client base back up again.
so anyway, i’m thinking i might just use the blog to update friends and family on our (incredibly exciting non-travel, day-to-day) life. so keep checking back and i’ll keep writing.
<3
alexis
Great to have met you here in Tokyo. It was neat to meet the rest of the James family, especially having heard so much about both you and your sister. I have to admit that you were not how I pictured you. (Even more beautiful–is that a good line?:-) We so enjoy your parents. They are such good people–though I suspect no one thinks their parents are “perfect” I think they are such good people. Hope to see you in Tokyo one of these days again. Chap Herb