Location: Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

M: Sadly, the day has arrived. We must bid Europe adieu. Maybe aurevoir is a better word to use here, as we will be back ASAP. (S: no seriously).

We left the Christie’s with hugs, dog pats and and thank yous. There’s a train strike so we got up super early and had a detour through Brighton on the way to Gatwick. Between the early morning, not eating breakfast and leaving, I was not exactly a happy camper (sorry, Savanna!). Tragically, the mustard I bought in the Netherlands was taken away when we went through security. I was not impressed! Straight into the garbage without anyone getting to enjoy it. Sav then demonstrated her exceptional ability to keep track of things as we got up from our table at the restaurant and she promptly left her new iPod behind. On the ground. Thankfully, the guys who were sitting down at the table next to us yelled out as we walked away.

S: In my defense two minutes earlier I had put it in my pocket, and it slipped out as I slid along the booth seat. Anyway no harm no foul, I still have an iPod. We got onto our plane and settled in for what was going to be a very long 9 hour flight, on which Meaghan promptly passed out. I decided I was going to try and stay awake for the entire day in order to curb jet lag when I got home. We played a lot of cards, listened to a lot of Taylor Swift, and wiped away a lot of happy/sad tears. Well a lot of my happy/sad tears. Meaghan was overly excited to be going home… Until our touch down in Calgary where she looked at me and said “I’m getting tired and sad.”

M: Customs was surprisingly fast, so we had a some time sitting by the gate. During this time, I made Sav cry again in the Calgary airport and instead of comforting her, I laughed and drank her coffee. This is true friendship.

S: It was like the 9th time I cried today. I’m a mess. Also at almost 24 hours awake I really needed that coffee…

M: The rest of our trip home was uneventful. We flew to Vancouver where we picked up our bags and rechecked them with Air North. I had just a smidgen of energy left and used it to wheel Savanna around the airport on the luggage cart as we killed time. We grabbed some ridiculously overpriced airport food and sat there holding our exhausted heads in our hands.

Then, 27 hours after leaving Lewes, we were finally in our mothers’ arms back in Whitehorse. We were greeted by a little group, including my dog wearing a festive scarf. I’m normally the one who dresses him up for the airport, so I was very happy to see someone else had taken on this duty. As sad as we were to be going home, it was so wonderful to hug our families again.

S: The time finally came where we had to say goodbye. We stared at each other for a long while in silence, not sure exactly what to say or do. I cried (again) as is to be expected and we hugged for a long time. Eventually we pried ourselves away from each other and walked out the doors, parting ways at the very last possible second in the dark, frozen wintery parking lot.

But let’s not get too dramatic… worry not friends, I’m probably going to Meaghan’s for breakfast tomorrow.

Until the next big adventure,

S&M