Day 13 and 14 - Last moments with family and flying home

We arrived back "home" to the Gunter's little guest cottage very late that night after our busy day of veiwing the natural wonders of the North Eastern part of South Africa. We knew the next day would be our last and we had a mixture of sadness to leave and a feeling of excitement to get back to familiar surroundings in America. Our last day was spent trying to squeeze in as much time with family as we could. I didn't get any good pictures that day, unfortunately (they all turned out blury :( So I'll just have to write about it instead.
We spent the morning visiting with the Gunters, the afternoon hanging out at Aunt Allison and Jessica's house, and that evening we had dinner with Uncle Warwick (Dad's brother), his new wife, Emmelyn, his two sons, Richard John and Ryan, and Richard's girlfriend, Taryn. It was a full house with the 5 of us and the 5 of them, but they had grilled up enough food to feed an army. We all ate to our heart's content, and there was even food left over! It was a delicious meal and good company. It's too bad we didn't have more time to spend with them.
By the time we got back to the cottage, it was another late night, and we knew we would have to spend the next day packing to fly back. Our flight wasn't until later that afternoon, so we didn't have to rush, which was nice. Most of Mom's side of the family made it to the airport with us to see us off. We said our last goodbyes and we were off to get on the plane for about 18 hours this time. The flight home is always longer than the flight there, and we have to stop to refuel. This time we stopped in the middle of the night in Dakar. Of course they don't let you off the plane, and it's dark outside, so we didn't really see much.
The trip back was not quite as pleasant as the trip there because there was something wrong with the circulation on the plane and it was so hot and stuffy where we were sitting. Also, I don't know what happened this time, but the food was much worse than our first flight. So the combination of all that left me feeling a little air sick this time. The temperature had been a balmy 84 degrees F when we boarded the plane in South Africa, and was a chilling 4 degrees F when we disembarked in Washington DC - a whopping 80 degree difference! But to me it felt wonderful after feeling sick and stuffy on the plane for so long. The cold, crisp air helped me feel much better and I was so glad to get off that plane. Our layover wasn't too long, and soon were were homeward bound. We arrived back just after 10 am on Saturday January 17th, apparently the first coldest day of the year in NC. It was so nice to get back home to our little place even though David had accidentally turned the heat off instead of down, so it was close to 40 degrees inside our house! We immediately put the heat on, climbed into bed and pulled all the covers we could find onto us to stay warm. And that is exactly where I stayed until 4pm that day.
After catching up on some sleep, David and I sorted through our pictures and reminisced about the best trip we have taken together so far. We can't wait to go back again and also take more exciting trips like this one soon.