home.

I arrived home Wednesday night after a very long day of traveling. My parents and my aunt picked me up at the airport in NYC. After, my sister met us at our favorite restaurant in town, a place where we always see people we know. I was greeted by an old friend who immediately said, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be in France?" Followed by, "We were just talking about you last weekend."

It's nice to be home and to see familiar faces. I love that I can call the people I want to call without even looking at the phone because they are numbers I have dialed so many times before. It's so much better than using Skype and talking through the computer. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for modern technology. I love that I can video chat with my family and friends; but it's nice to pick up the phone and do it the old-fashioned way.

I really do have the best home. We're an hour from NYC, 45 minutes from Atlantic City, an hour and 15 minutes from Philadelphia, but even better than all that - we're 5 minutes from the beach. There is something truly unique about growing up by the beach (oh, and truly wonderful!).

Plus, who wouldn't want to live somewhere where delicious bagels are plentiful!? I, of course, had my first whole wheat everything bagel yesterday morning. I got to sit with my mom and eat our bagels and strawberries and enjoy conversation over that (yes, weak) American coffee that takes me 30 minutes to finish sipping. 

My mom, sister, and I then went for a nice walk at the beach. The sun was so hot - reaching over 100 degrees (38 C). I put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time since September. We looked at the amazing beach front homes and gossiped about the crazy Facebook statuses people put up (among other things).

My mom took me to the Olive Garden for lunch! We love their all you can eat soup and salad. Yummy! Don't make fun of me. I know the soup comes in a plastic bag. I know it's not made fresh on premises. However, I do know that they work really hard to get their flavors right (because they have an expensive food lab at Penn State where they were constantly perfecting their tastes, textures, visual appearance, etc.). They now offer flatbread as an add-on and my mom and I had the caprese flatbread. It was a little too salty but still delicious. We ordered fancy lemonades, too.

We then engaged in a marathon day of shopping! I went to the dentist. We went out to dinner and had delicious Italian food. We came home, sat on the couch, and were asleep by 9pm! We had intended to watch a movie but last night delivered a crazy storm that showcased powerful thunder, loud cracks of lightning, and a power outage that left us movie-less.

It was such a wonderful day, my first one home.