Home Leave

Home Leave is a State Department-mandated vacation that occurs between tours and is required to take place in the United States. The idea behind this seemingly odd requirement is to ensure that employees working abroad for extended periods of time are routinely reoriented and re-exposed to the US, as a way of preventing burnout and a waning allegiance to the country. Our leave happened to be the maximum time allotted to us, or 30 days, plus a week of Annual Leave tacked on at the end. We used this time to travel around the country, visit with family, renew our licenses, attend medical appointments, and try to relax despite the near constant stream of activities we attempted to squeeze in. Without getting into too many extraneous details, here’s a quick recap of our first home leave.

Road Trip to Texas

As I mentioned at the end of Arlington Interlude, our drive back to San Antonio included stays in four cities. First, we stopped in Louisville, Kentucky to enjoy a variety of stops along the Bourbon Trail. We did tastings at Buffalo Trace, Angel’s Envy, and Michter’s, with the latter being the best of the three. We also enjoyed a fun open jam session at Stevie Ray’s Blues Bar, where the last two musicians to get on stage happened to be touring with Jagged Little Pill the Musical.

Next, we spent a night in Memphis, enjoying the incredible house band at BB King’s on Beale Street. However, we were there on a Monday, so the city was pretty dead. The next day we checked out Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, which was pretty awesome despite my reluctance to go in. We then drove directly south to New Orleans, where we spent the next three days.

It rained most of the time we were there, so we were not able to enjoy many of the famous outdoor tourist stops, but we did visit the WWII Museum, the Museum of Death, and Decatur and Bourbon Streets. We also ate muffaletta and beignets like good tourists. While weather and timing (we were there mid-week), certainly played a factor, we came away from our stop in New Orleans thoroughly unimpressed. It certainly had a character of its own, but it seemed to be hiding in the shadows, awaiting the weekend masses of drunken 21-year olds stumbling over the decrepit sidewalks. Our last stop on this road trip was a night in Houston, where we met up with some friends to see an Astros game. The next morning, it was back to San Antonio.

Northeast x Northwest

Several days later, we were off again. This time, we flew to Boston. We were there for a short few days, where Misha was bombarded with one social engagement after another. After all, this is what happens when you only visit a place with so many friends and family once every three years.

After all this travel, you’d think we’d slow down and take it easy, right? Much to Misha’s chagrin, the answer to that question was a resounding “no”. Off we went to the Pacific Northwest for the next two weeks. We spent a few days in Seattle and could not have asked for better weather. We stayed in Queen Anne (highly recommend), visited Pike’s Place, the Space Needle, the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Chihuly Garden & Glass (by far the highlight of the trip, just incredible art), and went to a Mariners game that featured nearly a home run per inning. From there, we drove up the Olympic Peninsula to the northwestern-most point in the contiguous United States (Neah Bay), hiked the Flattery Trail, and visited the Makah Cultural Center.

We then drove south along the coast and crossed over into Oregon. Unfortunately, at a rest area on the state line, Misha had her phone stolen (she blames the cause of this on women’s pants, which don’t have big enough pockets to fit modern cell phones). The joke was on the thief though, because they stole a cell phone that had broken speakers and a broken screen. We continued on, with one night in beautiful Cannon Beach. Then it was off to Portland for two nights, where we stayed in the Hawthorn neighborhood, went to a few craft breweries, did a donut tour, had maybe the best sushi of our lives (Bamboo, has multiple locations and is a MUST), and did a little thrift shopping. The following day was Willamette Valley wine day. We stayed in McMinnville and visited the Holloran, Anne Amie, and Domaine Serene wineries. Holloran had the best wines, which also happened to be the most affordable, but Anne Amie and Domaine Serene both had absolutely stunning properties.

On we went, this time to Sisters and Bend in Central Oregon. We hiked Koosah and Sahalie Falls, wandered around the Dee Wright Observatory, stumbled our way through the Big Obsidian Flow Trail (all pictured above), did an incredible night time star tour 6,000 feet up in the mountains with Wanderlust Tours, and drank more craft beer. We finished up with a night at Alexandria Nicole Cellars, where we stayed in a tiny house in the middle of the winery. It had a community garden, 5-6 goats, chickens, and wine, of course. All of this made for an excellent end to two non-stop weeks on the road.

After all of that, our home leave still wasn’t over. We still had three weeks left in Texas, which we spent relaxing with family and getting ready for our second tour abroad. Since it’s now been over a week since we landed in Guatemala, I’m overdue for a blog post on our new home. Which means, next up, I’ll be writing about my first impressions of Guatemala City!