6 months!

It’s been over six months since we left our house. It’s wild to reflect and think of all the places we have been and all the experiences we have had. What an amazing time it has been. We know our family is so lucky to be able to do this.

June 30 2022 - Victoria ferry, leaving home

January 2023 

It’s not ALL glamorous and wonderful. Some days we keep it very low key and sit around and play games and do math and we work. We sometimes fight. We spend a lot of time grocery shopping because we have to find the store and learn where things are and how to weigh our fruit at the produce section. And then we go to another store because the first one didn’t have any meat or cereal. We spend a lot of time planning and looking ahead at bus schedules and accommodations.

Each place has had big experiences and little experiences. It’s hard to capture the little moments.

Iceland – backpacking with my niece Ella from hut to hut, the kids persevering in the POURING rain, hot springs on the side of the road, calling out “foss” whenever we saw a waterfall, eating really good ice cream at a farm, and swimming at the Blue Lagoon.

Norway – Jason ran the gnarly terrain at the Tromso skyrace, we learned about the northern lights. We saw huge seals and played at the Troll museum. We ate reindeer stew and cod liver oil. Jason working online while the Hurtigruten ferry rocked and rolled in a storm. Beautiful Bergen and its amazing breakfast, its food market, and the awesome surrounding mountains and fjords. The statue park in Oslo.

Sweden – Stockholm’s folk festival and bike traffic. Kayaking and having ‘fika’ with a fire while we camped. The Liseberg amusement park in Gotenburg.

Denmark – camping and biking to the top of the country where the two seas met. LegoHouse and eating at MiniChef. The Viking Museum and rowing the huge oars. Copenhagen’s hostel with the little ‘pods’ for our beds, and nearby piers and swimming in the sea.

England – meeting and staying with relatives at their house. Harry Potter World. Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge. Watching ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at the Globe Theatre. The roman baths in Bath. The passing of Queen Elizabeth.

Wales – Jason ran loads of miles down the country in the Dragon’s Back Event. Running in Cardiff to train for my marathon.

Ireland – our townhouse in Killarney and exploring the park by bike, running, walking, hiking. Ross Castle. Biking / running the gap of Dunloe. I became a birth doula. Pub music. Our bus tour to the Ring of Kerry and seeing Skelling Michael from the road. Driving the Dingle Peninsula and seeing the Cliffs of Moher.

France – Saint Malo and Mount St Michael. The kids’ joy at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Walking in Paris and the gardens of Versailles. Staying with another family in Montpellier. The castle fun at Carcassonne. Learning about gladiators in Nimes and seeing the Pont du Gard. Running around the walls in Avignon. In La Ciotat we enjoyed swimming, jumping off the rocks, and running in the hills. I loved the laundry hanging from our street. We are all still humming the tune from the French train stations when you get on/off at a platform.

Greece – I ran 42.2km from Marathon to Athens while people shouted “Bravo! Bravo!”. The Olmypic museum. Grandma came! The acropolis / Parthenon. Delphi. Rachel sounded Greek when she said “to MiniMarket”. Our house and the sunsets in Santorini. Ava falling in love with every stray cat for the last 2+ months. The beach across the street from our cute place in Naxos. I created an online course about treating tailbone pain. The windmills, windy streets, and white houses in Mykonos.

Turkey – the call to prayer 5 times per day and the beautiful mosques everywhere. The amazing ruins of Ephesus. The blue and white pools at Pamukkale and swimming at Cleopatra’s warm pool. The busy streets and bridges of Istanbul. Smoking and the Grand Bazaar. Covering our heads to enter the Hagia Sofia mosque.

Egypt – meeting Nana and the ridiculously crazy traffic in Cairo. The stepped pyramid, going underground into tombs. The pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Our cruise on the Nile, the temples and hieroglyphs. Nana shouting ‘Mercy Me!” as we almost got run over in our horse-drawn carriage in Edfu. Ava drove her horse-drawn carriage. King Tut’s tomb, Hatshepsut’s temple and statues of Ramses in Luxor.

Jordan – the columns along the main street nymphaeum at Jerash. Petra by night under the stars and drinking sweet tea on a blanket in the sand. Walking around Petra and seeing the Treasury, the Monastery and hiking above to a terrific geocache in the rocks. Nana and Ava rode donkeys. Our jeep ride over the sand dunes of Wadi Rum. Floating in the dead sea and having mud massages.

Albania – bumper cars and rides at Christmas. Riding the gondola and then hiking through the leaves. Fireworks at New Year’s Eve.

Montenegro – the beautiful old city of Kotor and hiking up to the fortress... stay tuned for more Montenegro experiences to come.

We are currently planning the end of our trip and figuring out when we will be coming home... stay tuned for more! Thanks for following along.