Travel Tip #1

Family Travel Tip 1: (George)

When planning an extended family trip involving multiple countries, maximum vaccinations with extra long needles, arranging storage of everything you know and hold sacred (including things you didn't know you had until you go to move), finding someone to take care of your wolf (or hamster, for that matter), pre-paying long-term medical coverage of the type that can medivac you from the top of a Beobob tree during a Class 3 monsoon, fighting for school and work release, living each day in which the simplest problems grow in dizzy complexity and the real problems get tied up in several Gordian knots, finding copies of your eyeglass presciptions, marriage license, preparing for taxes six months in advance (instead of usual six months late), and a host of other details that can fill a to-do list long enough to pave your way around the equator (OK students, how many miles or kilometers would that be?)--if you are making such plans and fit these categories, we have some advice for you.

Go to Disneyland. Do a picnic in your local park. Surf the 'Net. Better yet, read our story. No matter how appealing the idea of a year's sabbatical bopping about the world may sound, the reality is.... Sorry, gotta go. Have to decide which silverware we're keeping, and which we'll garage sale for 10 cents on the dollar.

The Decision: Part 1 (Salli)
As Peter Pan told Wendy, "All it takes is faith and trust and a little bit of Pixie dust." The decision to travel around the world, once made, was remarkable. All of us are focused – more tolerant and patient, and sometimes downright cheerful. (I find myself changing my computer passwords at work to things like "Courage," "Clarity," and "Imagine"). Still, if thoughts alone (and Pixie dust) could carry us, we'd already be gone. My decision came when I realized that the fragility of life doesn't mean that you can't take chances, that whining only makes life SEEM longer, and that doing nothing is – well, doing nothing. As our friend Dennis W. says, "You just have to put a period in your life and go on."When we made the decision with the girls, we agreed this would be an adventure, and like all adventures there would be hard times and weary times and homesick times and scary times along with the fun and excitement. They counter with George's favorite refrain... "But Mom, it will always make a good story... " Those are my girls!

"...second star to the right and straight on 'till morning," is what Peter told Wendy on directions to Never-land. It sounds like good directions to me...First stop: delusions . . .

The Decision: Part 2 (Samantha)
Yeah right mom, it's all been sunshine and smiles. The truth is that we are tired and very cranky, and are beginning to wonder if maybe we should subscribe to watch someone else attempt this. We have spent hours of time we don't have working on the homepage and the night it was erased was a nightmare. We spend every minute of every day mulling over some problem that has popped up--from what to do with the wolf to the reservation problems in China. It has been one hurdle after another, and I don't think it's going to get any easier!

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