Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! We have had an awesome week in Koh Tao. Lots of beach time, snorkeling, sea cliff jumping, excellent restaurants, and great company with the Butzer-Pelsters. Tim and I had a great couple of scuba dives this morning. Our second dive was a “wreck dive”. We had the opportunity to enter two different rooms/corridors on the HTMS Sattakut, which is a former USA WWII battle ship sunk intentionally off of the coast of Koh Tao for the purpose of being a scuba training location. What an awesome experience to go into the ship! Thank you New Way Diving , Koh Tao!

Koh Nang Yuan

Thai Boat Taxi...kidding

Sunset at Sairee beach

Sairee Beach

Tanote Bay...our FAVORITE!

Acceptable levels of risk

How does the saying go? “ When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Scooter transportation is the primary means of conveyance on Koh Tao. You see scooters attached to food carts, delivering ice as a modified pickup truck of sorts, carrying dogs, livestock, and my personal favorite is three adult passengers with the rear person being a woman riding side-saddle in a dress holding a newborn baby. Awesome. The cool thing is that scooter travel is ubiquitous in Third World countries and the risk tolerances appear to be more liberal than in the USA. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I prefer to view it simply as THE thing and try to avoid being a First World risk assessor/judge while traveling abroad. It is one example of something that they do on a daily basis to simply make it all work. Life. Even the use of the horn is different than at home. At home, the horn means , “screw you dude!” Here it is a tool to say, “Hello there. I am on your right side. Thank you. Have a nice day.” Amazing you can say all that in a couple of beeps of the scooter horn. So we ride scooters to the beach. And we triple up. And it is all OK. Don’t limit yourself by doing what someone tells you is OK or not OK. Make your own decisions. Follow your gut. On many occasions, I feel that we have sanitized so much out of our daily lives in the USA, we have forgotten what it is like to live. We get tweaked about people’s choices – their choices! “Oooh look at that person jogging at dawn/dusk without reflective neon green clothing. That is so unsafe!” Seriously?!? Get over it.

Koh Tao update from Audrey

Hello!!! I am here to update you on our tiny island adventure!!! Of course we had to first get here. It was horrendous!! There is no airport in Koh Tao so we had to take a boat! The waves were HUGE and everyone got seasick. At first it was really fun, but then all the fun disappeared. Finally we got there. When we were in the bay you could see the island and it looked like a picture from a magazine!! That first day we took a taxi to our apartments. All of us were EXTREMELY tired. We met the owner of the apartments and she gave us these really delicious cookies that had like this filling and it was heaven!!! I don’t know if I have told you this, but there are a lot of 7- Eleven’s here. My Dad found an ice cream bar that is called the Magnum bar. Everyone is addicted to it, especially me!!!!! On one of the days in Koh Tao we went to the only fish spa on the island. What you do is stick your feet in a fish tank and they nibble all of the gunk off your feet! Is that amazing or what?! Also, we go to a lot of beaches! They are all pretty warm. There is one thing that is kind of bad about Koh Tao, there are more than enough biting bugs!!!I have like ten mosquito bites just on one leg! One more thing is that there is lots of fruit. We tried this one thing called Mango Teen. It is the best. Well that is all for this blog post.

SS Barf-O-Rama

A rough ferry crossing from Chumphon to Koh Tao. This video was taken shortly after we left port before it got too rough...it was a harbinger of things to come...it later got spicy...and then it got quiet...real quiet...save for sounds of stomachs wretching from the seasickness. Many poor souls going to their respective My Private Idaho's counting the minutes.

I wanted to capture the scene as it ramped up, but my kinder, gentler side (that I did not know I even had in me) got the best of me and I kept the camera stowed.  Fairly epic for a lot of folks.

Koh Tao is fantastic.  More posts coming in the near future.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Our final 24 hours in Bangkok evaporated in a blur.  On the morning of Day 3, Joanie and I completed another Crossfit style workout in the rooftop gym.  Pretty cool to be on the roof of a skyscraper getting in your daily burn. Check out the photo below of the rooftop pool.  Amazing views in 360 degrees of the seemingly endless urbanization that is Bangkok proper.

Our next activity was a boat ride in a river taxi up the Chao Phraya river that cuts through the heart of Bangkok.  The river was obviously once the life blood of Bangkok and it still plays an important role in today's world.  The boat took us past fancy hotels, shanty towns, temples, and industrial sites - all within a couple of km of travel. We exited at the pier near the Royal Palace. It was a hot morning. Already passing 90 degrees at 10:00. The palace grounds were choked with tourists!  Careful visiting  the Wats and Palaces of Thailand on Christmas week. Tons of visitors.

The Palace tour was excellent.  We next walked to Wat Po to see the Reclining Buddha.  A very impressive gold Buddha laying down on his side. The kids and adults were now lagging from the heat and crowds.  A snack back in the AC controlled hotel room complete with some ice cold Singhas, had us back on our A Game.

Our next objective was to shuttle ourselves and our backpacks through downtown Bangkok mass transit to the train station.  We had an overnight train booked for Chumphon, where we would then catch our ferry ride to Koh Tao for 9 nights over Xmas and New Years.  The kids did great cruising through the Sky Train and then transitioning to the subway.  We stowed our bags and then set out to explore the neighboring Chinatown.

Chinatown has a couple of exceptional Wats. One was particularly notable because we watched an old monk in orange robes blessing a local family's new car. He was chanting, dousing water, and blessing as monks do, this Toyota Yaris.  Very cool. We dined in Chinatown, bought some snacks for the overnight train, and then ambled back to the station in time for out 19:30 departure.

The lap of luxury

Train Station at night

Reclining Buddha

Chinatown Bangkok

Grand Palace

Angor Wat replica at Grand Palace

Chatuchak Market - Bangkok's Saturday Market

The Butzer-Pelster's joined us in Bangkok for a couple of weeks of our trip.  Tim is Joanie's older brother and his wife Martha is Joanie's longtime childhood pal. Their daughters Sally and Mary are a couple of our kids' favorite first cousins, who they get to see usually only once or twice a year. Typically at the Butzer Family beach week on the Oregon Coast.


Today we took the exceptionally efficient Bangkok Sky Train out to the Saturday Market.  An amazing  amalgamation of colors, aromas, wares, foods, and of course, humanity. We shopped, ate, shopped some more -much to Rock's chagrin- and then wrapped it up with a 30 minute Thai foot massage. Perfect.

Final images from Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai ended up being a superlative initial international stop for our round the world journey.  Tons of activities, great people watching, excellent restaurants, and a manageable scale.  Here are a final few pics from our week in Chiang Mai.

Elephant Riding

Thai Village

Crossbow Shooting

I finally get another chance to write the blog.... The kids have been very keen to help out in this regard. But the other night we did something that I have wanted to do for years - ever since I heard about it. We took a Thai Cooking class! I know, it may not sound exciting to everyone, but I love to cook and I love Thai food, so for me it was nirvana, tee hee.
Before we started chopping and cooking, we took a little walking tour of the outdoor market to look at the spices and Thai ingredients. I wish we had these markets at home.  They are lively and full of wonderful things to eat - raw and cooked.
We each got to chop and cook 4 dishes that we chose from three options (putting us in three different rooms for the preparation depending on which dish you chose to prepare). After the food was prepared then we would all sit together and devour our own handiwork. We were a little unsure how it was going to work out with the kids on their own, but they did splendidly. The knives were big and the burners were hot!  And the experience.......really affordable!  We were all stuffed at the end of the evening. I can't wait to go again!

A mother's eyes watching the knife

Rock getting his wok on

Spring rolls!!

Chiang Mai Zoo

We had an awesome visit to the zoo in Chiang Mai. We all consider ourselves zoo aficionados and would rank this zoo among the best we have visited. Great exhibits, a fantastic property, and some opportunities to participate in some activities not normally found in other zoo experiences - including feeding a jaguar!!

Tiger Kingdom...seriously?!?...yessir

There are certain activities that we have insulated ourselves out of in the good 'ol US of A.  This is one of them.  Get some.

Chiang Mai

Enjoyed a great first day in Chiang Mai, Thailand touring the ancient temples (Wats).  

Bangkok by Audrey

So we took a plane from Taipei to Bangkok and basically slept the whole time! We had to wait in a line to go through immigration. The line took 20 to 30 minutes to get through. After immigration we had to go receive our bags. My dad had reserved a place in a hotel. A shuttle from the hotel came to pick us up. At the time it was 2:30 in the morning! I enjoyed being able to know I was in a foreign country!!! We slept till 7:00 and then went down to the breakfast buffet. It was incredibly good. Mackenzie and I had fried rice that had like carrots, eggs, and a bunch of other yummy stuff. This is a Thai breakfast buffet and they had cookies out, so I got several. I told my dad that obviously Thai's had cookies for breakfast cause they were out. Now I am totally full of delicious food! When we got upstairs the kids turned on the TV. It was the weirdest button to turn it on. You had to take your finger and turn it in circles. Well.... we could not watch it because we did not understand the language. Then I started to write this! Uh Oh! We have to take pills for Malaria. It was pretty small and I swallowed it fine.

Sacked out in Taipei airport en route to Bangkok

Rock pondering Japanese in Tokyo Narita

Life's a Beach at 12:12:12 on 12/12/12

We wrapped up our 10 day Hawai'i visit with another trip to our favorite beach in the world - Mauna Kea. There may be a better one out there somewhere, but we have yet to discover it. A great finish to a great start of our round the world adventure. Tomorrow begins a 25 hour in-transit leg to Bangkok. Ugh.

Heading to Bangkok tomorrow!!

Pu'ukohola Heiau Educational Report By Kenzi and Audrey

Audrey: Hi! I am here to tell you about Hawaii National Historic Area. First off, Kamehameha the future king, was born on the northwestern tip of Hawaii. He was the son of a high chief and princess. Kamehameha trained in his childhood to join the ranks of the warriors. In young adulthood, he was VERY tall and muscular!! To become King he flipped the original stone over. Now here's how it goes:             

If you flipped this stone over you had the chance to rule the Hawaiian Islands. Guess What? Kamehameha did it!! He became the King of the Hawaiian Islands!!  

Next, THE WEAPONS!!! The Pahoa is a dagger made of hardwood and almost 17 in. long. Shark teeth are bound to this weapon's edges. At the National Historic Area, we saw a spear 16 ft. tall!!! That's all folks!!

Kenzi: In 1758, many Hawaiian seers predicted that Keku'ia'poiwa, the daughter of a mighty chief, would give birth to a great Hawaiian  ruler. It was also predicted that he would be a rebel against many other chiefs. When Alapainui, the mighty king of the island of Hawaii, heard this news, he was very upset and planned to have the infant killed at birth. Alas, the princes would not have this. When the baby was born, she snuck him through a hole in her thatched cabin to a chief known as Nae'ole. He took the baby to a nearby forest where the child would stay safe and unknown for several years.

When Alapanui found the baby to be missing, he was outraged!!! He sent many warriors on a frantic search through many nearby villages to find the child. Many innocent people were whipped and burned because they did not know any information about the missing child. Meanwhile, Kamehameha (then known as Pai'ea meaning hard-shelled crab) was being raised in the forest by Nae'ole and chieftess Kaha'opulani. He was said to be the most cared for child in all of Hawaii.

Five years after the child had been born, Alapainui decided he would let the child come back to live with his true family. Kamehameha learned about the sea creatures, plants, and customs of Hawaii. In his later years, he was said to be very strong and about 7 feet tall. No wonder he could lift the Naha rock no prob. Well that's it for me. Hopefully you had enough patience to read it all and didn't fall asleep while doing it. And oh by the way: my dad made me do a report on this. If it was my decision in what it should be about, it would have been a lot more exciting!

Mike and Joanie in a rousing game of Hawai'ian Checkers!

Rock's report of his snorkeling trip

This morning I  went on a big snorkel. I got super cold. I don't think I'm doing that again. Brrrr. My dad and I saw a Flying Gurnard. It was awesome. We also saw an Eagle Ray. It was about 6-8 feet long including the tail!

Snorkeling report from Audrey

The snorkeling in Hawaii is GREAT!!! You have the chance to see lots of exotic fish. I am going to tell you about our last couple of snorkels and what we saw.

On our snorkel today we saw a Spotted Eagle Ray, Eels, and my brother saw a Flying Gurnard. The Spotted Eagle Ray has spots and is way smaller than a Manta Ray. Flying Gurnards are fish that are flat and have wings! I am pretty sure you all know what an eel is, but for those who do not know they are long, snake-like fish.

Would you like it if I told you about some fish? Well, here goes...... Yellow Tangs are yellow fish. They are very common in Hawaii. Moorish Idols are black, white, and yellow. These fish have a dorsal fin that has a long tail. My favorite fish is the Hawaiian State Fish. The name is really complicated to pronounce. Humuhumu-nukunuka-a-pua'a!!!!! I told you it was hard!

Here is a joke: What do you call a woman who is laying on the beach? Sandy. Ha! Ha! I made that one up.

Surf's up!

News from Rock

I'm in Hawai'i right now. The weather is great. And the paddle boarding is awesome. Guess what? I remembered the password to our hide-a-key from a year ago. 3-6-0. The degrees in a circle. I went snorkeling today. I saw a trumpeter fish and a sea cucumber. My dad saw a sea turtle.

Easing into it...

The trials and tribulations of SE Asia are awaiting us in about 10 days time. In the mean time, we are taking it easy with snorkeling and paddle boarding in Hawai'i.

24 hour countdown

Well, here we are less than 24 hours from our first flight. Hard to believe we are on the cusp of it. Ready to be Stepping out of the Groove for 9 months on the road!

So what does the blog title mean to us?  The Groove represents daily life and routine that we all operate in for 95+% of our existence. Going to work, attending school functions, paying bills, etc. We generally are afforded only small snippets of time to step out of that groove, whether it is a weekend away or even a longer vacation.

Our experience from previous international travel is that when you extend that time period for several months you "go to a different place" in your thoughts, attitudes, and reflections.  It is enough time away to separate yourself from that normal daily routine completely, such that you gain insights into your own pathway in this world. It is a cool place to get to and very much worthwhile to pursue.

Our first-world existence can get too comfortable. It is important to intentionally disrupt things from time to time in order to remind yourself that you are still alive.  Take risks, embrace some discomfort, loathe mediocrity, and learn to suffer well. Third world travel will definitely test your coping skills.

And remember, living well is the best revenge.

Mackie Mae weighing in

Hey! I'm guessing you already saw Audrey's Portland update from yesterday. However, I would like to tell you about my perspective on all of this (and oh by the way, this is Mackenzie speaking). First off, I would like to give all our viewers a little bit about where I am at this very moment. I am sitting at the Butzer-Pelster's dining room table in Portland, Oregon.

On Monday, we take off at 7:30 for Hawaii! Aloha! But you already know all about that! After Hawaii, we are heading towards Southeast Asia (more specifically, Thailand). Our family will be meeting up with the Butzer-Pelster's (again! :D) and going to an island called Koh Tao and spending like 9 days there.

When we part with Uncle Tim, Aunt Martha, Sally, and Mary, we will continuing through Southeast Asia. After that segment of the trip we will be going down to Africa! Then, we will go to Europe, then to South America!

When we finally get home, I will be sooooooo happy! However, my father just pointed out that the previous statement makes it sound like I do not want to go. I do!

Anyways, I am really excited for this trip and hope that I don't get stolen from, because that would not be very good. Thanks for listening! See you in 9 months.

Rigging for Rescue

I must give a ‘shout out’ to the entire staff of Rigging for Rescue who will be pulling the plow in our absence this next year:

Chris, our office manager, will be working his magic on the admin side of the business. He will be supported by our exceptionally capable cadre of instructors -Mark, Kevin, Leo, Brandon, Craig, and Dave. 

Everyone on the staff has been really supportive of our endeavor and willing to put in the extra work that our absence will inevitably create.  We sincerely appreciate their collective efforts.

We have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to own and operate Rigging for Rescue for going on 11 years now.  We have an amazing clientele base that are as passionate about technical rope rescue as we are.  Thank you for your continued patronage.

Portland update from Audrey

It is getting very close to leaving rainy Portland, Oregon, and entering our tropical visits! I personally am extremely psyched to visit Hawaii! We recently held an elk party with our cousins living in Portland. The elk was delicious! It was pleasant to be around our cousins after about three and a half months since our last visit. Grandma Butzer made delectable German chocolate cake AND grasshopper pie, which is my brother Rock's favorite!

I cannot wait until we get to go to Hawaii! I love snorkeling with my Nana and Grandpa. We will be staying in a condo that is walking distance from the beach. Hawaii's beaches are much warmer than Oregon's cold waters. 

Sally and Mary, our cousins, have school so we have some time to get our packs ready. Today Rock, me, my mom and my dad went to the Overlook Park to get some exercise. Mackenzie went to Cathedral School for lunch. On Saturday, the Gibbs family, the Butzer-Pelster family, and the Butzer family are going to a Chinese restaurant. It is going to be good. Monday December 3rd, we leave to the Portland airport at 6:00 am because our plane leaves at 7:30 am! I am enjoying this trip so far and I am sure to post more writings on the blog to keep you updated on our trip!

Passports

Our passports arrived on the front porch at our house in Ouray on Monday (4 days after we left town).  Lori scooped them up and Chris got them heading our way to an address in Portland, OR.  FedEx delivered yesterday.

The Burma visas were approved and we now have our travel documents in order. A big relief.

On the Road

We left Ouray at 0630 on Friday, November 23.  Day one was a big day of driving.  We made Jeff and Maria's place in Butte, MT in just under 14 hours. 825 miles.

It felt like a monumental achievement just to transition our collective world into a vehicle.  Getting the house prepped for our departure was a big job. The punch list seemed endless a few weeks ago.

It didn't help that every day this autumn was pretty well just like the day we left - flawless weather! We managed to get in our climbing, elk hunting, trail runs, and bike rides despite being distracted by the huge task at hand.

Below is an image of our home in Ouray as well as the spectacular Amphitheater that forms the backdrop to our east.

Departure Eve

Wow.  This is it.  Tomorrow AM we depart Ouray for the first leg of our Round the World journey.  All international travel of any significance begins in Butte, Montana and we would be loathe to deviate from that time honored tradition.

We have a 14-hour drive to get to my brother Jeff's place in Butte.  Jeff and his wife Maria are going to be Nanda's caregivers over the next 9 months.  She will be in good hands.

We are likely not the first, but we are the next group of international travelers to begin their journey without passports. Ugh!  Our passports are in visa application purgatory at the Burma embassy in Washington DC.  The only visa that we had to get in advance and it is not going swimmingly, to say the least. We have the neighborhood watch program alerted to our front door step to watch out for a Fedex parcel in the next few days. Hopefully the passports catch up to us before we leave Portland on Dec 3.  Plan B is duplicate passports in Honolulu at the regional office the day prior to our flight to Bangkok.

10+ years in the making and the day has finally arrived.  Pretty surreal.  Had a great Turkey Day celebration with the Jackson's that included Don and Jan from Avon.  A nice send off from Ouray.

Bon Voyage Party

Our friends Jenny and Lindsay organized a going away Bon Voyage party in our honor.  Thank you!  We had a great time visiting with our Ouray extended family.  We will miss you all and wish you a prosperous and healthy 2013.  See you in August!

Audrey is psyched!

2 weeks out

Wow.  Two weeks to go.  Time marches on.  After years of planning, discussing, and dreaming of this trip we are truly on the door step.

Yesterday was spent in front of the computer doing prep work for next years tax return.  Lots of stuff like that to consider when you are going to be absent for many months.  Next week is the kids last week of school.

We met our winter tenants yesterday. They wanted to pay a visit to the house. They will be occupying the house starting December 1.  Our property manager arranged the meeting. When I answered the door I found my friend Andres and his girlfriend Annie.  What a nice surprise to know that we will have friends occupying our home for the winter.

Ethan finished processing our elk yesterday. It was a wonderful distraction to spend an hour packing it away in the deep freezer.  We were down to two pounds of sausage from the 2011 elk and it was great to close the door seeing all of those wonderful white butcher paper packages! Food for when we get home. We may (will?) be broke.

We Fedexed our passports and visa applications to the Myanmar embassy in Washington DC, yesterday.  I didn't like saying goodbye to our passports only two weeks out from departure.  However, the visa is only valid for 90 days from date of issue so we had to wait until November 7 to ship.  It'll work out fine, no doubt. Myanmar is the only country we are visiting that requires a visa in advance. All other visas we can get at the border.

That is a significant benefit to traveling on a USA passport.  Many countries are not afforded the same type of reciprocity and accumulating visas is a time consuming ordeal (and expensive!).

Every day we knock out tasks on the punch list.  It is fun to watch the list diminish.  Not long now.

Mike

Mackenzie's expectations

Hi! My name is Mackenzie Gibbs. I am thirteen years old. For those of you who don’t know, my family and I are going on a HUGE world trip. I am really excited for this trip; however, I am going to miss a lot of things about Ouray.

First off, I will really miss my friends. Although we will be able to email and Skype, they will still be thousands of miles away from me. Second of all, I will miss a life of luxury. When we are travelling, there will be a lot of situations where we will not be comfortable at all. Some examples are overnight flights, jet lag, temperature struggles (too hot or cold), and uncomfortable trains. One of the last major things that I will miss is American food. I know it sounds stupid but I grew up eating that kind of food. Ya, we have other types such as Mexican and Chinese, but it was still made in the good ol’ USA. When you have to part with that kind of sentimental attachment to something (13 years of sentimental build-up), it can be very sad. I mean, you gotta love mac-n’-cheese, hamburgers, and potato chips?!?! They are American heritage! So I conclude that American food is very important to our culture.

Along with the longing for friends, luxury, and American food, I also have some expectations. One of the main things I expect to happen on this trip is to meet new people. One can always use more friends, right!?! I would looove to have a new friend from each country we go to. Would that be cool or what?!?! By the time I get back, I’ll have so many friends, I won’t remember my peeps back home. Just Kidding!  Anyways. Oh right.

Anyways, another expectation that should happen in order to make this a fine trip is awesome food (I know, a tiny bit obsessed with it)! I already love all the different foods we have at home; but it will taste even better at the place it started from. The final extreme hope for this wonderful experience is the fun of it. If we spent nine months travelling around the world and didn’t have any fun, what would be the point!?! If we don’t have a ton of fun on this trip, I think I’ll live the rest of my life regretting it. I feel like I should put some sort of conclusion here, but I can’t think of one so... be sure to follow the Gibbs family:D!

Rock's expectations

The  first thing I think of about this trip is that I will miss my friends. And I am hopeful to not die. We saw a movie on Myanmar and a little girl had TB and it scared me. I really don't want that. I would like to see the gold Buddhas in Myanmar. I want to see a car being trampled by elephants............ but NOT ours!!! I want to see rhinos fighting. I am curious if there will be noodles anywhere, because noodles are my favorite food!

Audrey's expectations

I expect that we will have bad times and good times, and times we want to stay forever, times when we will be homesick!  I am very excited for this trip!  Experiences I would like to happen are...in Paris get my very own loaf of Baguette bread.  In Africa I would like to see lion cubs, giraffe, rhinos, elephants and basically every other animal there is!  What I would like to do is go to the Dead Sea which is located in Israel.  I hear that there is so much salt  that salt castles form!  Also, there are no fish or coral. There might be some living algae, though!  I would also like to eat gelato in Italy.  It is a type of ice cream.

This trip is going to be a good educational experience, but I bet I will be glad to be home!

30 day countdown

I am sitting in the dining room listening to the wind howl outside as I ponder this blog entry.  My day was spent out in the high country of the San Juan's battling this same wind on a long day of elk hunting. No elk in the freezer yet this season, but several days still remain.  Optimism is still high!

Pretty sobering to think we will be getting in the car to drive Nanda to Uncle Jeff's and Aunt Maria's in Montana in 30 days time.  That is our send-off from Ouray and the beginning of this adventure.  There is a lot left to be done in those 30 days. Yikes!  Some days pass comfortably with thoughts such as, "what will be will be, just don't forget the passports on the way to the airport."  Other days are rife with feelings of suffocation, "Heellllpppppp!!  There are way too many tasks left to be accomplished!"

Today is one of the easy days.  Probably coincides with many hours and miles in solitary thought toting around a rifle in the mountains.

This adventure really began even before Joanie and I had children together.  We decided way back when, that if we did have children, we would definitely take a year off with them and travel the world.  Making that statement back then created the obligation.  I am a big fan of 'creating the obligation'. Go ahead - jump into the deep end of the pool. What's the worse that could happen?  If nothing else, you'll have a good story to tell.

World travel has been in our blood for a long time.  Joanie and I created a travel legacy for ourselves in our 20s by rejecting conventional wisdom and choosing travel and adventure over careers and upward mobility. Whatever that means.  That commitment to travel and lifestyle created where we live, who we are, how we spend our days, and what we believe.  We expect our children to be similarly empowered by the magic of choice.

The first trip of significant magnitude that I took was Europe for 3 1/2 months in 1989. Right after college.  I still have the card my parents gave me just prior to embarkation.  It has a simple pastel drawing of a sail boat on the cover.  Open the card and it reads, "Bon Voyage...living well is the best revenge."  I love that line. It suits my personality as I suspect my parents knew when they selected the card.

Life is not a dress rehearsal.   Time is short.  Go and and GET SOME while you are here.

Mike and Joanie's 20th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary and we are sitting on the couch in our cozy living room working on details of this amazing upcoming trip. It truly seems like just yesterday that we were setting out on our honeymoon to Nepal.  It was Mike and I's first trip to a third world country and it was incredibly enlightening.  Let me just say that 20 years later I still say a little prayer of thanks in the middle of the night for indoor plumbing.  I continue to marvel at how fortunate we have been to share so many world adventures.  We feel that world travel has helped us become more aware and compassionate citizens of the world.  We would like to foster these attributes in our children.
We leave December 3rd out of Portland, Oregon on our first leg of the journey to Hawai'i.  I can't believe that we have only two months left before our departure and there seems to be so many tasks yet undone.  Today's task is setting up this blog for our friends and relatives to follow us on this adventure.  I am hopeful that it will prove an enjoyable aspect for both the writer and the reader.