Homeward bound

And that was that.  We had finished up our Hawaii adventure - and our trip around the world - with a final tour around the island of Oahu.  Now, all we had left to do was make it back to the mainland US, and meet up with our family in Saginaw, Michigan.

We headed back to Hawaii International Airport, where we discovered that our final flight, scheduled from Detroit to Flint (where Erin's dad and family would pick us up) had been rescheduled - a full 6 hours later than originally planned.  We asked if we could fly into Saginaw's MBS airport instead, and (once again) in part due to James's status with the airline, the gate agent made it happen.

This rescheduling, however, was no mean feat - and we stayed there at the ticket counter a good half-hour waiting for confirmation that we would be getting home sometime before midnight.  Finally, we were booked and ready to travel.  We stopped in the Delta lounge in the airport for some last-minute e-mails, and then trudged onto the overnight plane to the Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac) airport.

Flight number 1 was uneventful, as was our second flight into Detroit.  We rushed to make our connection to the MBS flight, and were rewarded an hour later by stepping off the plane at MBS into the coldest weather we had felt for nearly a year.  Erin's dad Chuck, step-mother Theresa, and step-sister Stephanie were there to greet us, and after we bundled up in their car, we headed off to that most American of restaurants, Applebee's, for a much needed dinner.

Our last airline sunset for a while...

Tabitha takes her last flight of this adventure.

Our arrival in Detroit...it was cold and snowy, just as we had imagined it would be.

We went to bed that Thursday night with our bodies unsure exactly what time zone they were living in, but happy that we made it home safe-and-sound, in (mostly) one piece, and with almost all our "stuff" from the trip - minus a compass, some sunglasses, and James's Columbia hat.  Not too bad for first-time round-the-world travelers!

We cannot even begin to express how thankful we are that we were able to take such an amazing journey together.  We are grateful to all those who followed our journey via the blog - we hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did!

Since returning home, we've both returned to work and, while we are happy to be employed again (and to have the opportunity to pay off some of the credit card debt we accrued over the past six months), we're also a bit sad that we aren't still exploring the world together.  Maybe someday we'll embark on another travel adventure together.  Until then...