Coming Home Ain't That Easy

It's pretty easy to go on a vacation - a weekend, a week, or if you're lucky a whole month off of your everyday fast track. Coming home is always the hardest part of any journey, but there are a few things I do to ensure my recent experience away provides a foundation for moving forward into my everyday life with new lessons learned about people, places, and cultures around the country and the world.

• Update my perspective - I make a conscious effort to think about how the places I visit are different from my hometown. I go beyond whether it's a small town or big city, but think more about how people who live and work in those places interacted with their environment. Were there public meeting places? Was the food culturally authentic? Did I enjoy being there? What historical sites made an impression? On our recent trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we trekked across the country through mid-America's smallest prairie towns via an interstate highway. The highway drive is relentlessly boring, but the stop-offs in small town America were more memorable. I gain appreciation for the smallest towns just by collecting a small bit of history that pops up on a highway directional sign (how about Nicodemus, Kansas, the only remaining western town established by African Americans during Reconstruction, or Boonsville, Missouri where donuts and being the 9th Best Place to Visit according to Smithsonian made it one of my favorite places for a pit-stop.

Not only was this a sleepy but charming town at 10:00 AM on a Sunday, but Boonsville, MO also made the Smithsonianmag.com's Top 10 Places to Visit list! Why? We aren't really sure from the short time we were there except our visit to the donut shop could be a hint - they fill your donut with whatever flavor you'd like and cap it with a smile. Friendly people can make a town go round! Check out the list here and craft your own road trip! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/best-small-towns-2015-180954993/

•  Download my pictures - Our digital age makes it easier than ever to take a lot of photos then store them in the proverbial cloud. It could be months before you look at the pictures again to remember where you've been. I like to organize my digital photos into events on my Mac, and quickly "book" them on an easy photo book site. If I have time I caption photos, but if I want to be quick about it, I order the book and handwrite my notes for a more personal feel and memory of our trip. 


• Family time is precious on the road...and at home - We often forget once we get back into the grind how much we need to pay attention to each other's quirks, concerns, and sensitivities. On a 4,000 mile road trip across America in a mid-size SUV, it's a tight fit physically and emotionally. Even the most device-laden teenagers will make remarks, jokes, sing, and interact with you in the car, so make a point to listen for the same energy at home even if you're not captive in an 80 SF vehicle.