Traveling for Christmas

Here we are. Back in our beloved Bay, where they beauty takes our breath away and where we keep asking ourselves – did we really live here? And where we keep waking up at 5AM and get a little scared whenever we have to go down a hill – were they really that steep when we lived here?

We traveled over a couple of days, as we decided to take Amtrak to Chicago and then fly out of O’Hare. Pros: Amtrak is a train = better seats and less motion sickness than a bus (and toilets that usually works!). Cons: delays, delays, delays. Why of why is that train just not capable of keeping the time? We had to wait quite some time outside in the cold before the train finally pulled in, but we boarded as some of the first and got good seats up front. And the train ride awoke a lot of memories of when we first got to Ann Arbor, with all our belongings in 7 suitcases and no clue of exactly how much we would have to struggle in the years to come.

When we finally got to Chicago it was surprisingly warm. We had expected it to be super cold, but we could easily walk about a mile to the hotel and even went out to see the Christ Kindl Markt and have gluhwein in ugly little cups. Teresa was supposed to have visited the market with her German class on Friday but they delayed the trip because of the weather and ended up planning it to be the exact same day as we were traveling to Chicago. Bottom line is that if we were to see and do one and only one thing in Chicago – that would be the Christmas market!

It was such a cozy little place with cuckoo clocks, bratwurst, potato pancakes and cute wood work.

Wednesday morning we got up early and went straight for the airport for our overbooked flight. We had made sure to have our seats booked in advance as this overbooking is unfortunately not a surprise on US domestic flights. And now we are here. Today we have been hanging out with our favorite Jon and our favorite farm animals in Tilden.

It has been fun to watch the kid’s reaction to being back here.  Both Kristian and I have been back a couple of times without the kids, but it has been more than 4 years since we lived here and Luca in particular do not remember much. But their faces light up as they start recognizing places and views. And I think we all agree now that if I actually happen to land a job here, they will still miss Michigan, but they would love to go back to California too.