Our Trip Home

Most expats that only make it to their home country yearly (or less) will tell you those trips are hardly relaxing.  It's often a marathon of trying to see as many people as possible, eating everything you've been missing and running errands.  You collapse onto the airplane wishing you had a holiday from your holiday.

To make things even more interesting, my family and Joe's family live a mere 1300 kilometres from each other - too far to drive with very limited time yet still at least 2 flights and a half day of travel via air.  It's always a dilemma.  How do we get to see both sides equally, still having time to visit friends and other cities we enjoy while battling jet lag and now with a baby who generally detests his car seat? This year, I proposed something different.

My family ended up renting a lovely vacation home in Kelowna, a gorgeous little city in the Okanagan Valley which also happens to be in the same province as Joe's parents.  It was win-win.  The St Johns holidayed together, we finally made it to Joe's hometown (our first time in 2 years) and we didn't have to traipse across three provinces.  The trip was so much more relaxed for Joe and I too.  We felt like we vacationed, not just visited and having my family with us in Kelowna also meant that we could sneak away here and there for some time, just the two of us (yay grandparents!)  I wish we could have added an extra week onto both sides of the trip but I suppose that is always the case - the time goes far too fast.