Usually start planning the next one but not this time...boo hoo. I laughed Kate because I have two cats and this time of year is usually a good time to find hair balls anywhere and everywhere.

Open all the windows to air out the house - and turn the AC on full blast if it's hot.

We bring the suitcases right into the laundry room and start washing. After that, I usually login to email and check for something interesting and finally check my online credit card statement to see how painful paying it next month will be!

Kate W lol I first pet the cat then look for the vomit. Next, I go through the mail,check my e-mail, look at my pictures, maybe do some laundry(but I usually stay in apartments with washing facilities) and finally dump out my suitcase in a spare room.

Sit my butt on the couch, flip on the tube, and RELAX. Flying takes it out of me for some reason....

Open the mail, then go to the grocery store to restock the larder, take one look at the produce and stifle a crying jag.

WOW there are a LOT of cat people out there!!!

I shower, look at pics on the computer, call the fam and go to sleep. Unpacking to me means the trip is really over- it usually takes me a day to admit to that.

%%-

"I get in the house, take a very long hot shower, put on my old comfortable pj's and get in bed, no matter what time it is! I love my pillow, I love watching tv in bed, which I probably haven't done for a few weeks. Sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes I get up after an hour or so and start to unpack and get the laundry going."

DITTO ME EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!

Like Happytotravel, I first have to get Mexican food. When I get home I locate the cats to make sure there has been another escape. Then check the mail, shower and off to bed.
Judy

I go home and greet the critters, pop the clothes in the laundry, check e-mail (because I haven't checked it since I left) and start downloading and processing the 15 million photos I took.

Once a decent sampling of photos are done, I print out a contact sheet if someone's interested in a quick look, grab all the gifts I bought and head out for the streets to deliver them.

Then I go back home and spend several weeks processing, printing and framing my favorite photos and hanging them on the walls (wherever there's room)

Head to our favorite Mexican food restaurant for cheese enchiladas or fajitas and a fresh brewed iced tea with lots of ice...come home and crash.

We always have someone stay here for the dog so as soon as we walk in the door, she is right there - yipping, wiggling and jumping all over the place. (It's actually quite precious how much she misses us, though it wouldn't matter if were gone for a day or two weeks - still the same response!)

It's then a requirement that we drop everything and focus the next hour or two of our lives completely and totally on the dog. If we don't, there will be he!! to pay! :)

After that, I open windows/blinds, check the mail, take a shower, and then start the unpacking & laundry. If it's late, screw all that, I'm going to bed!

Shower. Then pet the cat. Then look for the cat vomit. Then enjoy a glass of wine (while DD scrapes up said vomit).

In that order.

Most of my trips have been to exotic places where you can't drink the tap water. So the first thing so the first thing I typically do is stick my head under a faucet and drink some tap water :D

katya, I was thinking the same thing! I would have said that I pet my cat when I get home, but she gets mad at us for leaving her (we have a cat sitter who comes everyday while we are gone) so she hides under the bed and holds a grudge for at least a day!

Tracy

I strip naked, grab a Fresca, and take a long hot BATH, with bubbles.

Lots of cat owners in this forum. Doesn't anyone have a snake for a pet nowadays?

Absolutely put the kettle on. But we're like Pavlov's dogs in the UK for that. Any time we, or anyone else, enters our house the kettle is on before anything else. Even taking our coats off.

Maybe I made a Freudian slip when I said that I looked for cats to make sure there had been an escape. I have threatened them with outdoor living from time to time.

I hug my ((&)), drop the luggage in a corner, make sure mail is on my desk, shower, then head to sleep, since I'm usually coming home from my trips late at night.

I deal with my luggage, laundry and mail the next morning, hence the luggage in the corner. I've tripped over/slipped on them many groggy morning-afters.

Squish our delightful dog. Then go into mourning (never, ever am ready to come home). Funny - lots of people tell me they are ready to come home, travel makes them appreciate home, etc. but with me it is the opposite - I so badly want to STAY in Europe!!

after kissing both the cats, I grab my stack of newspapers and check the obituaries for the 2 weeks I was gone. I used to think my parents were insane when they did this but... shock.... I've turned into my mother!

Sort the mail, pay the bills, take a shower and sleep. Laundry gets done the next day.

Check Fodor's to see what I have missed. I rarely check it when I am on a vacation.

I upload the 800 or so photos I took so that I can pine later on, compost the plants my daughter forgot to water, try not to answer the phone in either French or Italian, toss in a load (being careful to first remove any contraband souvenirs), shower and then visit with the tv.

Call everybody to rub it in :))

Unpack, check the mail and e-mail.

I also read every newspaper delivered while I was gone, especially the obituaries.

Unpacking can wait until the next day.

Cuddle our cat who's always very vocal at being left alone, check for furballs etc., read email (we don't do it while we're away), flip through the regular mail and unpack the dirty laundry--and then it's off to bed (we usually seem to arrive home quite late).

I'm with Chepar...can't go to sleep unless I unpack completely, no matter how long I've been gone. That is after kissing the kitties, looking for vomit, etc. Sound familiar?

I have to admit I'm completely nonplussed by the sheer number of Fodorites whose first activity upon arriving home after a European jaunt is looking for vomit.


Who knew?

Who wanted to?

Pour a glass of wine.

St Cirq - perhaps that's why so many like to travel - a few weeks with no vomit! :-d

1. Call our 3 grown kids & my parents to tell them we're safely home.

2. If it's warm season, walk around & check out our yard & what's new in the garden beds. Then I go inside and walk through our entire home being thankful.

If it's cold season, walk around the house, if possible, to check for winter damages. Inside I do the same as warm season.

3. Check phone messages, return priorty calls if needed.

4. Unpack gifts and lay them out on dining table.

5. Unpack & start laundry.

6. Have a snack & catch the weather report,

7. Have a glass of wine while reading a book I bought on the trip.

8. Fall asleep with pleasant new memories.

9. If exhausted, cancel #4-#7 and go to #8

Look at the bills and pour a stiff whiskey and think "oh well i will worry about them in the morning"

Reeeealy hope I cleaned the house before I left!

thereyet

"Call my Dad, the only other person I know who believes verbal trip reports start with: "the limo to the airport was black and was driven by Rick who was..." "

LJ, and here was I thinking my mom was an only child. But now I find she has a long-lost brother!

****

Patrick, great question.

I unpack my clothes in 5 minutes and throw them in the washing machine (they're nearly always dirty).

And after this heroic burst of post-trip activity, it takes weeks to finish unpacking, to distribute or discard the rest of my stuff (gifts to neighbours who watched house, brochures, trip documents, etc....) Sometimes just prior to the next trip I clean out the luggage to find...ticket stubs, etc. etc....

Check the cats first, but as soon as we are settled, it's off to dinner to our fave Mexican restaurant! I think salsa and enchiladas verdes do wonders for jetlag!

We drop the luggage on the living room rug and flop on the sofa. Then I work on compiling my travel journal and photos and posting them online: www.moonfun.net.

When I'm visiting Mom in Florida (our "second home"), one thing I can't resist doing as soon as I get there is buzzing around for about 45 minutes in her golf cart (with Mom along of course). She lives in a pretty retirement community with miles of paths, lots of trees, flowers, ponds, birds. And the light is just so different from Belgium or the UK. Plus I love exchanging warm hellos and big smiles with everyone else out and about walking or in their golf carts.

Hmmmm...
First, leave the luggage in the car for now. Then, greet the kitties, check my 1000 emails, check my snail mail. After I've 'caught up', I go and get the important luggage - the stuff with my toiletries. Then I take it into the bedroom so it will be available when I'm sleep-showering the next morning, getting ready for work.

I also maximize my days off by going to work the next day.

Unpacking the car and the clothes in the luggage usually waits a day or two.

I usually start writing my trip report before that happens :)