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Remember that “upcoming business trip” I mentioned about a week ago? Well, I just got back.

I spent the last week volleying between Wiesbaden and Darmstadt, Germany with my friend and colleague Mike. We were visiting on behalf of General Motors, to work with a supplier for the week and visit our Opel counterparts at the Mainz office. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, suffice it to say we feel it was a success. We had good flights, did good work, got to relax a bit, and we’re home safe.

We saw a lot of beautiful things during our visit. We saw beautiful buildings, drove through gorgeous landscapes, ate dinner on the banks of the Rhine river, and strolled through the cobblestone streets of the Wiesbaden market district nearly every evening. We got to experience some new things, too – like driving a 6-speed Passat on the autobahn (you can ask me in person just how fast) and going for our biweekly runs in a German city park instead of Honeoye Falls back roads.

But now that I’ve been doing some more business travel, I think I’ve come to a pretty safe conclusion: now matter how beautiful the things you see are when you’re away, the true beauty is when you come home…

Beauty is hearing a friendly “welcome home” from the customs agent as he stamps your passport. Beauty is sprinting for your connecting flight through a 40-minute layover, and arriving breathless at the gate to see that the plane is still there. Beauty is looking down from that 737 and seeing the patchwork of heartland fields slide by, and smiling as the pilot spends a few extra seconds skimming the clouds on descent, just because it’s so pretty up there.

And, even more than any of this, beauty is feeling your key in the lock of your own home, luggage in tow, as you realize you’ve only been away for a week but it feels like it’s been so much longer. Beauty is falling into the arms of your beaming wife and being thankful that you’re done spending your nights missing her, and spending your days looking forward to the moment you’re in right then.

Home. Family. Love. Beauty.

It was a good trip, and it’s good to be back.