FTJ | the family travel journal

Richmond V. Nashville

2011-07-29T03:05:00.000+01:00

Life has changed, shifted into a different mode. The blog, in order to survive, must change or perish. Blogs in general are changing anyway...mini musings are satisfied with a quick post on facebook...I hate twitter for anything but blatant commerce...so the blog...what's to become of it? More to the point, what about this traveling family? Are we traveling? Yes we are. Are we blogging?

Disney Cruise!

2010-11-08T16:51:00.000+01:00

So hey, wow, it's been a while! And we've been traveling a bit here and there but I've not posted much, because many of the places are not so new...a return to the lovely Pine Terrace Resort last summer with kids and grandparents, a lovely week of fishing, canoeing, swimming, Nisswa Turtle Races, reading the Stieg Larsson trilogy, and gazing into an evening campfire while listening to loons...

10,000 HITS! & Your Turn

2010-03-30T13:18:00.000+01:00

Coincidentally, I recently attended a travel writers' panel discussion at the annual Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA. Thoroughly enjoyed the event, but I remember hearing the comment that "the average blog has a readership of ONE." Well, what began as a Yahoo Groups newsletter to keep close family and friends updated on adoption trips to Chongqing has now topped 10,000 hits

Destination 2010: Maine

2010-03-29T19:07:00.000+01:00

So 2010 has a few travels in store for the Globetrekkers...all written in pencil at this point. And thanks to Ye Olde Recession, we are changing the way we think about travel, trying to make sure we know exactly where funds are coming from and not just saying "eh, we'll just put it on the credit card." I think for many people, those days are over for a while. Until our adoption trips, we never

Happy 2010!

2010-01-07T17:22:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays. We hosted grandparents over the winter holidays and had a blast just sticking close to home. No word on the China trip, and it may need to be a year later (2011/2012) to give us time to save up. With the economic shakedown, I feel less comfortable using the credit card in such big chunks like that & would rather save toward a trip rather than pay afterwards.

Planning, Scheming, Dreaming

2009-12-01T04:52:00.003+01:00

Such is the life of the Globetrekker family...reminds me of an episode of My So-Called Life in which the young girl, swooning after her first makeout session with Jordan Catalano, says in a voice over "suddenly, my whole life was separated into two main activities: Kissing, and Not Kissing."And so we, who have fallen ill with Ye Olde Travel Bug, are either Traveling or Not Traveling.But when we

Oh My, Is This A Big Trip Coming?

2009-11-15T00:37:00.002+01:00

You'll have to pardon me if this post turns out to be a dead end, but I think we are onto something here. We had always planned to return to China on a Heritage Tour (through Lotus Travel) in 2012. After all, we just finished adding onto our house, we've had some amazing travel adventures, far more than we think we even deserve, and were going to just stay put for a while.Inevitably,

We're Grounded

2009-09-20T19:23:00.002+01:00

Why no posts?Simply put, no travel.Our home, in a city often described as "a great place to raise kids" (which it is), is our home base. A great place to come home to after a long trip. A sanctuary. All of that. But after so much traveling, we looked around one day and realized that home base was getting a bit crowded. We are nearing the end of a renovation process that began in mid-May, and

A visit from Antwerpen

2009-08-07T02:44:00.003+01:00

We Globetrekkers have stayed close to home this summer, to supervise a home addition that is nearly complete. While the plaster dust flies, we've set up temporary domicile just up the street at the home of friends T & K. They spend the summer in Canada, and were as happy to have house-sitters as we were to borrow their house! What a stroke of luck - we are thankful indeed.For most of the

FTJ welcomes your comments

2009-06-30T21:41:00.001+01:00

Just a quick note to say I would love to know what your thoughts are as you read current and archived posts - comments have now been enabled. Every time I see the map of who's reading the blog, I wonder how you found it, what you're looking for, what you think - please introduce yourself!Thanks,LG

The Belgians are Coming!

2009-06-30T21:36:00.002+01:00

So excited - we will be reversing things on Thursday as our Belgian friends S&I and daughters H&E arrive in little old Harrisonburg, Virginia! We've got them staying at a sweet little place, a local favorite that is a bit off the beaten track. Since they will be getting over their jet lag while here (the 2-7 of July), we have some general ideas for short and full-day trips and will play things

Summer 2009 Plans

2009-06-20T14:25:00.003+01:00

So...I deleted the home renovation blog. I just didn't feel compelled to write about footers, framing, choosing windows, negotiating the price of carpeting...kind of funny, because I assumed when I started that sub-blog that I would of course keep up with it because I like to write. WRONG. I like to write about traveling!A year ago today we were still adjusting to the time in Antwerpen on our

LA-LA-LAND!

2009-03-11T01:32:00.002+01:00

So I went to L.A. last week - I have some stories to tell, but this is just a teaser. Once I have all my grading done (it's spring break) my reward to myself is to write to you about my few days in L.A.If you're yearning for news of Antwerp though, I just happened to find a new blog from a JMU student who JUST found out she was accepted to the semester in Antwerp program for fall of this year.

Jean is my hero!

2009-01-27T22:34:00.002+01:00

Click on the title of this blog to get to an exciting travel blog from my hero, Jean. Jean and I were nuns together in Nunsense years ago, and she went from accountant to actress to director and theatre board member. After her husband passed away suddenly several years ago, did Jean sit around at home saying oh me oh my? NO. She went back to school and got her college degree and is heading to

New Blog from Me

2009-01-08T15:20:00.002+01:00

You might have noticed that my posts have been few and far between on FTJ recently. That's because 2009's travel budget will be reduced, if not eliminated, by a different kind of adventure: we're adding onto the house! So I started a blog (natch) to document that process.I'm calling it 37 Pieces, after a piece of advice my aunt K shared. I had told her about all of the wonderful things we

Trips and Visitors on the Horizon

2009-01-07T20:28:00.002+01:00

OK...lots on the horizon, though different than the usual Family Travel Journal fare.late January brings a trip to the Maryland Theatre Festival for work, and a stay in Bethesda not far from my old stomping grounds (used to work at 7200 Wisconsin, a large office building there). I'll give you a hotel review after I get back. I'll be interested to see what the immediate aftermath of Obama's

Happy Holidays All!

2008-12-23T17:05:00.001+01:00

Happy Holidays to You!Happy Traveling in 2009~John, Louise, JieJie and MeiMei Globetrekker

Catching up yet again

2008-12-11T02:36:00.005+01:00

Ok - while the girls try to settle down and fall asleep after a joyous round of tree decorating (no ornaments broken, no tantrums from them or us), I'll tell you about MeiMei's 5th birthday...before she turns 6!As you might recall, we went to Belgium last summer for about 3 weeks, with a side trip to Germany's Rhine valley area. We got back to Antwerpen, used the rental car to go to Plopsaland,

A Young Blogger Describes China

2008-11-14T02:18:00.002+01:00

I am so excited to share a link with you to a ten-year-old's blog from China. I am still in touch with the Panda Pals, a group of parents who all formed a "cyber waiting room" in 2001 when we sent our paperwork to China. We kept each other company, hoped together, stressed out together, shared rumors from all our various adoption agencies, went through September 11th together, and remain close

We Saw Barack Obama!

2008-10-29T01:08:00.003+01:00

Wow, what an exciting day. I dropped the girls off at school, went home, my sister in law called, and we decided that she would park in our driveway and we would walk over to JMU together to see if we could get her in to see Obama. John and I had decided that we would see the speech with MeiMei at a downtown restaurant while JieJie had her dance class, so I knew I wouldn't be going to the

A Trip Across Town...To See Obama

2008-10-28T01:51:00.003+01:00

I will resume the Antwerp recap shortly, but first I must share tomorrow's exciting itinerary. I am going to the James Madison University Convocation Center (aka the basketball arena, cap. 7600) to see the next President of the United States, Senator Barack Obama! My college students have been so excited about this election, actually asking me to delay the start of class to help one another

Plopsaland II

2008-10-01T16:54:00.003+01:00

Click on the title of this entry and you'll be redirected to the home page for the best darn amusement park for kids and grownups alike that we have ever been to, PLOPSALAND in DePanne, Belgium. We drove there in our lovely rental car, though you can get there by train too. DeLijn has special fares from Antwerpen to DePanne combined with reduced price admission to the park. We got a discount

Trier, Germany

2008-09-14T02:26:00.002+01:00

After leaving the lovely town of Koblenz and the quaint Hotel Brenner, we got back in the rental car, turned on the GPS / Alec Guinness, and headed for Trier. The thing about the GPS is, it lulls you into this kind of ditzy mindset where you're going "I don't need to look at a paper map beforehand!" but you DO. Because if we HAD looked at one we would not have been surprised by the message that

Yeah, Yeah, I know.

2008-09-03T19:07:00.002+01:00

Ok, so it's lame to post an apology for not posting. But I just wanted to let you know that I haven't quit! JieJie and MeiMei started school last week, John is back to work, I'm back to work, and updating the blog is on the to-do list. Still need to tell you about:*lessons learned on the Antwerp trip (good ones, no worries)*long weekend in Williamsburg (aka Why Plopsaland Beats Busch Gardens)*

Young Germans Looking Back

2008-08-02T15:01:00.002+01:00

When we dined in Koblenz, somehow WW2 came up in conversation with our young waiter, who was born in Poland but had grown up in Koblenz. His perspective on the war, the Holocaust, etc., was matter-of-fact. He shrugged and said that what happened was terrible, and of course he personally had not done anything, so didn't feel defensive. That it was a sad chapter altogether.For me, growing up