American Summer 2019

In a few minutes we will board a plane headed for (Stockholm and then) Los Angeles! It’s time for American Summer 2019. This year we’re starting our trip in California to visit relatives I haven’t seen in literally ten years. We’re also going to the US much earlier than we have before - usually we wait until July. But we couldn’t bear to miss all of a Finnish July again, though with this June schedule we’re missing Midsummer so perhaps it’s a wash in the end anyway. That’s a big difference between our American Summers from the UAE and the ones we’re taking now: when we were gone during the UAE summers, we weren’t missing much. Now, we’re missing one of the finest stretches of weather/nature on this earth!

I am feeling more feelings than usual about this trip - I’m used to having a soft landing at my parents’ house where we can convalesce and get over our hideous jet lag in relative isolation. This time, we will hit the ground running seeing sights and people in California! We’ll see how it goes.

Also, a least a little bit of me feels like a tourist because thinking of going to California made me sit down the other day and PAINT MY TOENAILS. I have never done that in my life! I also thought about having the kids watch La La Land for research but stopped just short of that ridiculousness.

America, here we come!