An easy one for you vets...

[mandolin]

OK, so, yet another person here learning with a manga as one of her study aides. This one.. seems so simple, yet escapes me. :/

There is a girl, getting onto the back of her brother's bike, and she waves to someone a little ways off saying:

行ってきまーーーーす！

I know that's "I'm leaving now" or thereabouts.

A reply from the man she was waving to is the part that has me a little off. Is this sort of a common formality (like the things you say when entering someones house, or when returning home, etc)? He says:

気をつけて　行っておいで

The best I can manage is "Travel with good spirits". And the ultimate gist of it might be "Be safe!" Is this essentially correct? I'd also like a lit. translation just for comparison.

[Harisenbon]

Take care and come back.

[mandolin]

Harisenbon... you're my hero.

[Harisenbon]

But slightly wrong. I talked to my wife, and she informs me that it means exactly the same as いってらしゃい... which means... Take care (and come back).. ok.. maybe I wasn't THAT wrong.

[Spaztick]

気を付けて means "be careful," or literally "apply awareness."
いってらしゃい is the same thing as 行っておいで、except that the ladder (the last one) is two words, 行って and おいで。 行って is easy enough, it's the て form of 行く.
おいで when I looked it up is an old Japanese word that means "to come here," the kanji for it is お出で, which of course 出る means "to enter."

So, いってらしゃい means "come back" and 行っておいで means "come back," but more literally "come and come here."

Hope that helped.

[mandolin]

I guess the real lesson learned here, is that even the easy ones aren't so easy. I have my work cut out for me, for sure.