4 Years and ~80,000 Miles

Almost 80,000 miles traveled…

• 8100 nautical miles on Ohana (about 9400 statute or “road” miles)
• 18,000 miles by plane
• 25,000 miles by RV
• 27,000 miles by car (separate from the RV)

That’s equivalent to more than 3 times around the equator. So, even though life intervened and we put aside our initial dream of circumnavigating the world by boat, we have had an astounding four years.

Where have we been the past 4 years?

• 14 countries
• 44 states
• 45 national parks
• 11 Unesco World Heritage sites
• … and skirted 1 underwater volcano going north from Grenada (Kick ’em Jenny)

We added 1 amazing furry creature to our family, sold Ohana and bought an RV (named the Puppy Pounce Palace – see previously mentioned amazing furry creature), had 1 broken arm (Grace was such a trooper, and thankfully it was inbetween selling Ohana and the start of COVID), 2 girls with braces, and attended 1 amazing wedding (Danny is married!!).

We tried to recall all of the memorable animals that we’ve encountered – either because of the cool factor of seeing them, or because of the sheer numbers:

• dolphins / whales / sea lions / penguins / fish / turtles / barracudas / manatees / eagle rays / sharks / stingrays / alligators / otters
• coati / capybara / parrots / monkeys / iguanas
• egrets / ospreys / blue herons / cormorants / sandpipers / Canadian geese / snow geese / bald eagles / spoonbills / swans
• elk / deer / grizzly bears / black bears (and cubs!) / buffalo and so many playful calves / moose / llamas / alpacas / goats / sheep / hoary marmots / great horned sheep / mountain goats / antelope / coyote / wolves / foxes / wild horses

So, really, where have we been?

What exactly have we been up to since we seemed to fall off the face of the earth?

The last time we posted on the blog, our lives were starting to shift. We had just finished cruising up the ICW (intercostal waterway) from West Palm Beach, FL, to Norfolk, VA, then up the Chesapeake Bay and into Washington, DC. We ended up spending 4 amazing months in DC during the summer and early fall of 2019. Our boat was docked at a marina walking distance from the National Mall, and we took full advantage of being in the center of things. But also during that time, we started to realize that the health of Ted’s parents was declining, and that they needed some extra help. We had realized during our time on the boat outside of the US, that it was difficult to make it back to the US in a timely manner if something were to happen. So, we started talking about the idea of transitioning to travel within the US, and we started looking at RVs.

We moved off of Ohana just before Thanksgiving 2019, drove to Arizona, visited family, got our beautiful puppy, Bailey, and then moved to Fort Collins, CO, for what we thought would be a few months of helping family before we could continue our travels.

For those of you keeping track, that takes us up to about March of 2020. As everyone’s lives got turned upside down by COVID at that time, so did ours. Although we were blessed in so many ways: to not be traveling internationally – some of our friends were separated from spouses and children for months by bad timing; to already be set up with homeschooling the girls; to have sold the boat weeks before COVID truly ‘hit’; to already be helping out Ted’s parents, who would have had an extremely difficult time navigating the beginning of COVID by themselves, when life as everyone knew it flipped inside out. We were also fortunate to have purchased our RV before that market went through the roof. We tried at first traveling part-time in the western US starting late summer of 2020 – with all of the restrictions in place, travel by RV was actually fantastic.

We traveled part-time from Colorado in short stints for about 18 months, until we had everything set up to be able to finally re-start full-time travel in June 2021, this time in our RV. We started off by visiting the Tetons and Yellowstone, then back to Colorado and Arizona for visits, then up to the Pacific Northwest, Glacier, South Dakota, and another loop back down to Colorado and Arizona.

We made our way east for Danny’s wedding in Ohio – the girls were so excited to be invited to be a part of it as junior bridesmaids. Then we kept going east to see the fall colors in New England and to visit Acadia National Park. I took the girls and Ted to see Boston University – I hadn’t been back since graduation, and it was so great to share the area with them.

We headed south to Cape Hatteras, Kitty Hawk, Hilton Head, Savannah, and then all the way down to the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Ted flew back to Colorado monthly to visit family from wherever in the US we happened to be at the time. Because of COVID and some unexpected timing issues, we didn’t end up visiting with friends as we traveled – sorry that we missed so many of you when we were so much closer than we’d been for a while!

We’ve had amazing adventures and seen so much – we’ve included just a few highlight pictures here of our travels since last posting on the blog. And now, as of a few months ago, we officially moved to NW Washington – Anacortes, to be exact. It’s a small town on Fidalgo Island, easily accessed by a short bridge from the mainland, and it’s so beautiful here. We visited this area for extended periods at a couple of different times during the year (including winter to make sure that we knew what we were getting into!). It’s a gorgeous area, and it has the added bonus of being somewhat in the rain shadow of both Vancouver Island and the Olympic Mountains, depending on the incoming weather patterns. So we don’t get as much rain as further south in Washington – about half to three-quarters of what Seattle typically gets about 60 miles south of us.

Katie just turned 14, and she starts high school as a freshman this fall. She is becoming an even more amazing artist and loves creating with anything she can find.

Grace turns 12 next month and starts 7th grade this fall. She continues to love and advocate for all animals, and she is really looking forward to starting drama classes soon.

We are finishing up our last year of homeschooling – our four grades done together as a family have flown by. We’ve learned so much together! The girls are also becoming incredibly adept at cooking and baking.

As for Bailey, he is a typical 2-year-old golden retriever, and he loves all of the trails that are so close by to us. He has known a lot of change since he joined our family, and he’s taken it all in stride. As long as he’s being constantly petted.

Our traveling full-time has come to a close for now, as we return to a brick-and-mortar home, and the girls return to traditional school for the remainder of their pre-college education. But we already have some ideas of where we will travel to next as a family. We all still have very long bucket lists – our biggest challenge will be agreeing on what comes next!