Cairo, Ohio

            The flight from Tel Aviv to Cairo is approximately one hour long. Thus, when we were still in the air twelve hours after take-off, we became a bit concerned.  When the pilot announced that we were on our final approach to Chicago O’Hare, we knew something was rotten in Denmark…or, at least in Illinois….right…as if you could make that kind of mistake flying El Al out of Israel. 

            We are in Ohio, but it was no accident.  Our initial flight into Egypt from Israel was cancelled, and it proved to be no easy task to rebook our arrangements with the already limited time we had allowed for our visit to Egypt.  It increasingly began to feel like we were swimming against the current.  Besides that, we felt so incredibly satiated with our travels and the last two days in Jerusalem felt like the perfect note to end on.  Plus we both just felt like being around family.  Thus, it was with light hearts and excited anticipation that we booked our tickets to fly home to Ohio. 

            It has been fantastic having the opportunity to relax and spend time with family and also to catch up on our sleep.  We arrived here just after the two weeks of downpours ended, so the sun has been out and everything is bright green and beautiful.  It’s nice to see that northeast Ohio is just as beautiful with the new growth of spring as it is with the changing fall colors that decorated our last visit here.

            Today we checked out the Richfield and Bath Memorial Day Parades, and it was really nice to soak up the small town goodness.  During the last several weeks as we were traveling through Turkey, Israel and Jordan, we were impressed with the prevalence of flags and the apparent national pride of each of those countries.  It was nice to see that same pride on display upon returning back to the States. 

            We learned so much on our travels.  We came to appreciate so many qualities of the countries that we visited and the people that live in each place.  We plan to always travel and spend as much time as possible learning about other parts of the world. That said, one of the revelations that became quite profound for us during our three months of international travel is that we truly are very thankful to live in America.  It is really nice to be home.