It felt strange to be settling into life in Tanzania and return to the States after barely finishing our orientation. One doesn’t feel they have yet earned a vacation. Luckily I’m never one to shy away from relaxation or friends so I quickly transitioned into vacation mode as our plane touched down in LAX after our 19 hour flight from Addis Ababa, the longest I have ever continuously been on an airplane.

Our week in California was filled with taco tours of Southern California, meeting new babies, new puppies, seeing new homes of friends, enjoying a bitter Negroni and a piny IPA, staying up late connecting with college friends and work friends and family, visiting our college campus, golfing and disc golfing and bachelor partying in Tahoe, stocking up on good chocolate and whiskey, brushing our teeth with running tap water, indulging in baths, eating In-N-Out two days in a row, packing away the 10+ Amazon packages we had sent to the US, and seeing two really good people that we love commit their lives to each other.

It was a really good week. It felt bittersweet and sweet, but mostly sweet. It made me long to stay in California unemployed eating tacos for a long time. It seems so ironic that it is the satisfaction I find professionally that allows the idea of lounging in California endlessly to seem attractive; I’m positive if I were unemployed and directionless I would find this same vision to be boring and lifeless. And in that scenario I couldn’t afford the amount of tacos I want to eat so I guess the whole idea is a bust. Some photos of our recent adventures.