"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow"

Title quote attributed to Lin Yutang

Fifteen days ago I was on my first day off work, running around the house like a mad eejit, cleaning and tidying and doing laundry and packing; the Yorkshireman was at work tying up all his loose ends before he also went on leave. Then, one day later we were en route to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Cupcake! Yes, our much-anticipated big USA trip 2012 had finally arrived! Wooooo!

We spent two half days and one full day in Washington DC, two half days and seven full days in New York, then two half days and one full day in Boston. We travelled by plane, train, boat, subway, bus, trolley, and most of all our feet, but strangely not once a car unless you count our transport to/from the airport in Belfast.

The weather was so mild we had no need for all the cold weather gear we'd bought in preparation, although my Sloat (sleeping-bag coat for those who can't be bothered reading the link above) was amazing, especially in places a bit colder than the norm, e.g. on a three-hour long open-air boat tour and on the observation deck of a seventy floor building.

It was a really great trip, with the usual highs and lows you expect from travelling. All things considered it was at times awesome, interesting, busy, relaxing, frustrating, intriguing, weird, cool, painful, most excellent and legen... wait for it.... dary! ('lil How I Met Your Mother reference there). We're now suffering the effects of jet-lag and I'm suffering from an associated lack of milk for coffee, so we'll have to venture out into the familiar greyness and drizzle of Belfast to go to the supermarket and readjust to being home. Alas, the holiday is over, but at least we don't have to go back to work until Monday!

Just like on our trip to New York back in November 2010, I'm going to write a blog entry about each day of our trip separately but since I want to include photos this time, there might be a bit of a delay as I wait for the Yorkshireman to upload them and stuff. Also while we compare notes - we've found that each of us seems to remember little bits about each day that the other person doesn't.

But yes, we're back. The usual routine of work and responsibility will soon start again, but until then I plan to enjoy reliving our adventures a little bit more through photos and blogging... oh and my credit card statement. Doh!