Big Apple Homecoming
Arriving into LaGuardia airport on Wednesday afternoon was surreal. We stepped out of the airport into the cold April air and saw a very long line of yellow taxi cabs and a bunch of NYC buses - it looked like a scene from a movie. The nippy temperature and the noise levels were shocks to our systems after the peaceful calm of the Napa Valley. Thankfully, we were soon greeted by friendly faces: John's sister Grace and dad Dan came to pick us up and bring us to Long Island for the afternoon. 
The Beattys Overseas, with luggage and jetlagThere, we all got caught up and were able to see some of John's other siblings who live nearby. Although we didn't see our Cramsie nieces & nephew, we saw the other Beatty grandkids and were shocked at how much they've grown!!!! Five months is a longtime when it comes to the height of toddlers, man.
John's car had been kept on Long Island, so when we drove back to Manhattan in the early evening, we were greeted with the Manhattan skyline sight near the 59th Street Bridge.
It should have been a welcome vision, but for me, it was bittersweet. Our trip is over. The picking-up-and-going-anywhere-we-choose has ended. The anticipation of finding a new city/country/language/culture is no longer. 
A homemade welcome sign was so touching, made by nieces Meghan & Kara and nephew EddieAnd, as you may or not imagine, it's a bummer. Yes, I'm excited to be back to normalcy and to see our friends. Of course, I'm aware that I'm SO lucky to have just taken this trip and I should be counting my stars for the past 5 months of my life. Nevertheless, the blast of reality smacked us both in the face as we sat in the chaotic rush-hour traffic of New York City last night.
The young lady who subleased our apartment left it in such a state of filth that I spent my first 4 hours "back at my home" scrubbing and scouring every surface I could find. John wrote her a perfectly reprimanding email about the state of our place, but alas, I've accepted that it's just part of subleasing your place to someone who you really don't know. At the end of the night I realized that it was a perfectly New York-style welcome back to it's gritty city... traffic and grease and stink. Welcome da heck Home.
- Whitney
Whit & John
It's been brought to my attention that the Big Apple Homecoming entry (see above entry) is awful. I can understand that it reads as if I'm I'm whining. I guess that's because I am.
Let me start by saying that I'm a very lucky young woman in good health with a loving husband who invited me to travel around the world with him. Our trip was AMAZING (see all entries before this one)! I'm so thrilled about everything that we did that, frankly, I'm having trouble being equally enthusiastic about our arrival back to Manhattan. Not to knock New York, at all. It's been exactly one week that we've been back on the East Coast. Reuniting with family and friends has kept us company - along with a very special lady's 91st birthday over the past weekend! - and I'm re-adjusting to our "old life" better than I was when I wrote the above blog entry. Sorry for being negative or spoiled-bratty. First World problems... whiner!
- Whitney
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