Bye-Bye STUFF!

We decided to store all our STUFF in PODs. Very convenient! They truck over a big box, drop it off on your driveway, you fill it up, and they come take it and store it in their warehouse. When we want our STUFF, we just call them and they'll drop off your PODs where you tell them to. We liked this idea much better than renting a truck and storage unit and lugging our STUFF out, in, out, over the hill to Santa Cruz, and in again. (For those that don't know, Santa Cruz is a very twisty, windy road to be driving a truck over.)

But, take a look at all that STUFF!!! That's only one of TWO that we need! (At least, the other one's a smaller size.) And, this is "what we don't use on a daily basis"! Granted, I wouldn't expect to get rid of Sean's surfboard-making tools, garden tools and whatever we use to fix the house. Nor, would I want to get rid of the several boxes of pictures, crafting supplies and, of course, our boards. But still, we are paying for 10 months of storage to keep this STUFF!

All this comes in light of a web presentation that I just received. (Thanks Ian!) It's all about the materials industry. I've read/researched many of the ideas that are in this, but I was really impressed how this emcompasses everything all together. Check it out: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

So, I guess all I can say for myself is that "I'm a work in progress". It'll be interesting how I feel about all this STUFF when we return from our trip....

Dreams and Insomnia in Sunnyvale

We have a little more than 3 weeks to go and this journey we are about to take is really starting to feel like a dream and someone's going to wake me up any minute now!

The past few weeks, I've connected with new souls and ones that I don't have regular contact with and haven't talk to in quite a while. Every time I talk about what we're doing, it just seems so unreal! It's just unbelievable that this plan has developed to this point. I am more and more grateful for what life has given me, with each and every connection I make, the closer we get to leaving. When entering into a world where you essentially won't know anyone for 10 months, it means so much to make one last connection with loved ones before going. We are so grateful for the people we know and will surely miss them. 10 months seems like forever when you think about it in that perspective.

In the mean time, every time I think of something to do, I have to get it done right then. So, I've been running around like a mad woman. I'm afraid that it'll still be there with yet another billion things to do at the last minute. We almost have a tenant for our house. So, the faster I can get that secured, the more relieved I'll feel. I've also been piling up stuff to take in this new duffel bag that we got, to take the wet suits and "a few other things". It's totally stuffed, and the wet suits aren't even in it yet. Eek! The POD (storage container) is on the driveway. We thought it would be full by now. Every time I start packing something in a box, I have second thoughts because I'll still need it. (See a pattern?) I've changed my mind about selling the Audi for the hundredth time.... I so love that car! (Though I keep telling myself that it's "just" a material posession...)

I haven't been able to sleep at night, thinking about it all. Meanwhile, my brain's fuzzy during the day when I should be getting stuff done. Oh well! I guess I'm "training" for all that jetlag and time changes that are about to come...

We've Got "Real" Plans Now & We're Practicing

So, we bought our plane tickets and travel insurance up to Hong Kong last Wednesday, and pre-paid our hotel in NYC last Saturday. And wow - it seems to real now! Now, we gotta get working on the rest of our trip...

Tomorrow, we leave on a 10 day trip to Hawaii for Christmas. So, we've been considering it "practice". We got a few more things (thanks to the wonderful offerings at REI and some other places) to make our travels a little easier. It feels soooo long since we've actually gone some place, so I've seriously been counting the days for the past 2 weeks. Less than 23 1/2 hours and counting!!!! :-)

We Need Your Help!!!

Now that the intinerary is firmed up, air tix are almost bought and the RV in Europe is reserved, we could use some help finding some places to stay in the following places. Some preferences - family-friendly, not too far from attractions but not too close to obnoxious tourist crowds, and inexpensive if possible (but we understand that large, major cities are expensive.)

* New York, NY
* London, England
* Hong Kong
* A resort in the Philippines (safety is a priority, but experiencing "real" culture is also good)
* Bangkok and throughout Thailand

Of course, advice on ANYWHERE we plan to go is appreciated!
Thanks in advance!!! :-D

Here's Our Latest Intinerary

It feels like it's been quite a few months since I posted our intinerary and things have changed a bit. So, here's where we are going as of today:

Feb 22: San Jose/San Francisco, CA to New York, NY
Feb 27: New York, NY to Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Pick up RV for 8+ weeks and camp from The Netherlands to France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Drop off RV in Amsterdam and go to London for a couple days.
May 6: London to Hong Kong, SAR
(Maybe up to Shanghai for a few days)
May 11: Hong Kong to Manila, Philippines
May 20th: Manila to Bangkok, Thailand for 2 months

Here's where the dates get fuzzy....
Somehow travel (air/land) down through Malaysia for a week or two.
Indonesia for 2 months.
Fly to Sydney, Australia for 2 weeks.
Rent an RV in New Zealand for 2 months.
Maybe stop off in Fiji, Tahiti or Hawaii on the way home.
And if all goes to plan, we should return back to Santa Cruz right before Christmas.

Our New Home

Here's our new home for the first 2 months of our trip, a Ford Westfalia Nugget, reserved at B&W Campers in Amsterdam. It has a 3500cc diesel engine, Tom Tom Go Nav system and toilet for Kailani, who might be in the throes of toilet training while we're there. Wow - it seems so real now!

I'm also working on plane tickets from SFO to New York (LGA) and New York (JFK) to AMS. We are also contemplating leaving from London to Hong Kong. It's a few hundred bucks cheaper to fly from London instead of Amsterdam. So, after we've returned the Nugget and sent most of our camping/heavy stuff home in Amsterdam, we can hop across the channel to London for a couple days.

Some changes to the plan

So, we decided to delay our plans until the last week of February. We really liked the idea of, and decided to do 2 things: 1) spend a few days in NYC, not only because we'd like to visit there, but also so we can break up the long flight for Kai's sake. And, 2) rent an RV (just a van-sized one) in Europe. (Funny thing: Here they call the VW a "Eurovan". There, they call it the "Westfalia Calfornia". We're not getting that one though.)

We are impressed with some (but not all) of the luxurious campgrounds that one can stay at and they're pretty reasonably priced too. If only petrol/gas prices were! There seem to be campgrounds outside each major city, where you can park it and take public transpo in. So, it should be mostly highway driving. My major contention would have been to drive those narrow city streets of Europe! There are also gorgeous resort-like campgrounds in the country. Since it'll still cold, and we won't have to pack/unpack our cold-weather clothes and lug it on/off trains. Kai won't have to get used to a new bed everywhere we go. AND, it'll be easier on our food allergies (and our pocketbook) to cook for ourselves. I see it as a great excuse to visit local markets and see the locals! I already try to visit farmer's markets here as much as possible. Don't worry to the foodies that said they'd like to read about my dining experiences - we'll still be eating out to get a flavor for local foods.

Unfortunately, the weather gets better the later in the year and campgrounds open accordingly. Hence delaying our plans just a bit, but not enough to change the weather for the rest of the trip. We'll just have to search a little more for places that are open year-round. At least, we can leave a few days earlier to spend in New York. It's kind of bittersweet as far as packing though. I can take more stuff, but that means I'll be lugging more stuff until we get to the RV.

We found a highly recommended RV rental company in Amsterdam. We planned for 6-8 weeks in Europe, but they have a good deal on renting a vehicle for 2 months. So, 2 months it is! Now, instead of arriving in London, we'll be going in/out of Amsterdam. Both of us would have liked to see London, but we aren't heartbroken. Now, we have a good reason to see Amsterdam. Flights to Amsterdam from the US and out of Amsterdam to Asia seem to not be a problem.

At least, this first part of our trip is shaping up! Now, if I could only get the nerve to firm things up with the travel agent and pay for our plane tickets. It seems like it would be to "real" at that point! (I'd do it in a heartbeat if we only had our house rented!)

Top 5 things we want to accomplish:

1) Get some surfing in. We are definitely hitting some spots where we can surf and for a reason. We surf whenever we can and we enjoy it. Can you imagine taking a year off and not doing what you love? I've been asked many times "Are you going to take your boards with you?". Unfortunately, it would cost us more to take it on a plane than what they are worth. Great if you are flying once, but not for the number of flights we are taking. Plus, those airline guys are ruthless with boards. We watched an entire plane to Costa Rica "Oh!" and "Ouch!" out the right side of our plane as the Taca Airlines guys threw their boards on top of each others'. I'm still trying to negotiate taking wet suits at least to Europe....

2) Practice yoga. Yes, getting excercise is important to me. When I first started researching detoxifying my body, I realized it was all about taking something. Somewhere along the way, I realize that the thing that makes me healthiest is to not pop a supplement, but to expell stuff through the lungs, get the circulation going to move it out, and to just plain sweat it out. Perhaps the sheer movement of traveling/exploring will be enough. Still, I think I'll need yoga to stretch out after uncomfortable sleeps on planes, trains and RVs. I don't know exactly how I'm going to continue this, as I'm more of a class-taker...They tell me what to do and I do it. I do practice yoga at home, but it's never nearly as good as a class. So, besides finding a class here and there, I'd like to start tightening up my home practice in the next 6 months.

3) See art in Europe. This is for Sean. He was an art major in college yet has never been to see the great museums of Europe. Need I say more? He also wants to see Gaudi's buildings in Spain. Luckily for Kai and I, he said he doesn't have the need to spend week's at the Louvre - just part of a day, he promises. He was so impressed that I know the "back" entrance to the Louvre, where there isn't a huge line of people to get in. Little did he know it's because there's a shopping mall there AND it's open on Sundays!

#4) How could I forget this? I'm sure there are some that are wondering what's up with all the talk about staying on an organic farm. Well, that's kind of Sean's gig. You see, we've had some successful crops the past few years and he keeps talking about how he'd like to farm for a living. Is he seroius? I don't know. Does he know what that entails? I don't know that either. So, I found that, in many other countries, you can stay on a farm and exchange work for food/shelter. I don't know how that will fare, since we're planning on renting an RV in both Europe and New Zealand and that's where I suspect most farms are. Or, how that'll work with Kailani, though she IS now trained in picking tomatoes at this point. But, we'll see....

#5) To humble myself. (This really should be #1, but it took me a little more time to ponder this...) So, I'm a 37 year old (What? Can't be!) stay-at-home mother of 2 living in the suburbs- EEEK! WHAT have I become?!?! Where is that 15 year old with a mohawk who's motto was "F*** the system"??? Well, apparently "the system" still sucks in my eyes. We elected the wrong president, board-certified medical doctors are looked at for all the answers to your helath problems (and the answers are always solved by something a pharmeceutical company sells) and corporations such as Chlorox spit out commercials that boast "INSTANT germ-killing disposable convenience" at the expense of children's health and the environment. I suppose my outlook on the world is a bit different after getting sick from inhaling 12 years worth of hairspray/color fumes and artificial nail dust. Or, maybe it was the several years of sitting on my a**, absorbing radiation from a computer screen while eating soup-in-a-can for lunch. I don't know what it is. But, I caught myself twice this week saying the "wrong" thing. As I think about why, I guess I suppress my ideas because they seem so much different than (what seems like) the rest of the world is doing (of course, besides a few select, loving friends). What I eluding to is that, after 22 years, it still "seems like" it's me against the rest of the world, yet I need to SEE the rest of the world to really get some prespective. I know that I soon need to again decide what I want to do with the rest of my life in terms of work (and the rest of my life begins when we get home from our trip, broke!) so perhaps I humble myself seeing how the rest of the world actually lives to truly appreciate that what I'm frustrated about is really not as bad. (This message has been brought to you by Anthony Bourdain, my hero and who's voice I hear as I write thought-provoking paragraphs such as this. Yes, I also enjoy a good roasted pig. But no, I don't smoke cigarettes!)

Details: Who we are and why we are doing it

I'm a retired corporate/association event planner and now a stay-at-home mom to 18 year old, Caitlin, and a 20 month old, Kailani. Caitlin, who is the same age as I was when I gave birth to her, is leaving for Sonoma State University next week. I've always had a passion to travel. But for the past 18 years, some of the time being a single mother and alot of times seeing friends my age leave for various locations, thought I couldn't afford to take much time off to travel. (Not to say that I haven't done any, but way too little than what I'd like, and much was on business, without loved ones by my side to share it with.) If I could only turn back time! However, Caitlin is certainly well-traveled, thanks to Grandma "Tutu" Karen taking her to Hawaii every summer, and most recently taking her on a 8 day kayaking tour of the islands of Palau. Anyway, before I go back to work to pay for preschool, I see the window of opportunity! I can't think of a better way to satiate an 18 year old travel bug by (mostly) living in countries that cost less than what we can rent our house for. First, it started out that we'll relocate from living in Sunnyvale to Santa Cruz, which has always felt more like "home" to me every since I moved away from there to move back to where I was born and raised. Then, I thought "While we're packed up, let's take some before we move". Now, it's one whole year and a journey completely around the world. But for me, every journey has always been enlightening, and I seriously feel in need of some, especially after losing my mother to cancer and then almost completely recovering from what an MD told me I'd have to live with for the rest of my life. I feel so healthy, the work we've done on our fixer-upper the house is "enough" (there's always more that you can do, right?) and neither Sean or I have a career that we would feel sad to leave at the moment.

Kailani has been to Oregon, Texas and Mexico and has so far been a great as long as she knows we're there for her. She is an observer, so taking her to new places keeps her eyes and her mind busy. Although she isn't reading yet, she's more than happy to be read to for hours on end. Hopefully, as long as we have a stack of books on hand as well as her "baby doll", blankie and a few new surprises along the way, we hope she will fare.


Hmmmm, about Sean? I don't know. I might just have to let him speak for himself.

Here we go!

(The four of us last December 2006 at Mt. Bachelor, OR)

So, Sean and I decided last January, to take a year-long around-the-world trip with Kailani, who will be 2 years old, before we relocate to Santa Cruz, CA. We plan to leave January or February 2008, depending on when we can get our house rented and get everything else sorted out. We want to wait until then so Caitlin has time to settle-in at Sonoma State College, and we also have a family trip to Hawaii already planned for Christmas 2007. Since our decision, I feel like I've been studying for the hugest exam in my life. My eyes are bleary from reading info on the internet and in books, and my hands sore from writing way too many "to do" lists and notes. But, since "learning to blog" is on one of the lists, here's my warm-up! Hopefully, Sean becomes a active contributor to this site! (Hint, hint!)
Anyway, here's where we are (tentatively) planning to go:

- SFO to London via air
- London to Paris via Chunnel
- Tour the Mediterranean coastline in the South of France (for some surfing), Spain, Italy and maybe Greece (if it's warm enough). See if we can find some organic farms to stay/work on and immerse in food/wine nirvana.
- Maybe snowboard in the Alps (weather permitting)
- Finish off Europe through Germany (river surfing in Munich?), Amsterdam and/or London, depending on where we can get a good deal on tickets...
- Fly to Hong Kong (It would be great if Caitlin has a break from school and could meet us here, since some of her genes are from here. If not, somewhere else!)
- Maybe Shanghai
- Maybe Manila (Though I just read that this is a country with child abduction threats, and we'll have our 2 year old "Happa Howlie" with us, it would sure be great for Caitlin, Sean and Kailani to see where their genes come from.)
- Still considering Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
- Definitely spend some time seeing all of Thailand!
- Short feeding frenzy in Singapore and Malaysia
- Surf and soak up the beauty and culture in Bali and the rest of Indonesia
- Rent a "campervan" (as they call it), drive around New Zealand and also visit some organic farmstays
- Short visit and some surfing in Sydney and the Australian coast. More farmstays?
- Maybe Fiji, Micronesia (where Caitlin just got back from a couple weeks ago and highly recommends) and/or Hawaii on the way home

....phew!

Of course, we'll go crazy if it's just the three of us for a year around the globe and no other familiar faces. So, we invite you to be a part of our journey, and meet us anywhere along the way...