The next several months were a whirlwind of buying and upgrading a camper (our beloved Taxa Cricket), acquiring a tow vehicle (our less-than-beloved 2011 Nissan Pathfinder), subletting our home for the summer, and spending untold hours prepping and planning.

On July 1, 2021 we set off on a nine and a half-week road trip from Vancouver, BC to Cape Breton, NS. We discovered so much of our beautiful country and stopped along the way to see friends and family. It was wonderful.

And then it took me almost a year to compile this video, quel surprise. Clara says “I hope you like it”!

Though I haven’t been writing lately, I did sit down and compile our videos. Here is my best attempt at squeezing 7 wonderful months into 8 minutes and 6 seconds with a surprise ending.

While creating this video creating this video I remembered that family, friends, adventure, and our beautiful planet always bring me joy.

We set off Monday morning with the intention of driving to our hotel atop the Poàs Volcano just 4 hours away. We planned to leave early, make a quick stop at a highly-praised animal rescue, and arrive at the hotel in the afternoon. But when travelling—and especially when travelling with kids—nothing goes according to plan.

We left late and our stop at the lovely animal rescue took longer than anticipated (#kids). But what really surprised us was the drive that followed. Most of the drive was on busy 2-lane highways. The thing about busy 2-lane highways is that when you get stuck behind a truck going 30km/h you too are going 30km/h until either the truck changes course or you get a rare break in oncoming traffic. So, the drive got longer and longer while our kids got more and more grouchy.

And then, just when we thought we were minutes away, we realized we’d been lead astray by Google Maps. We’d driven up one the side of the volcano only to be met with a private driveway and a road that did not connect to our hotel. We actually needed to drive up the other side of the volcano!

We finally arrived as the sun was setting. After spending 4 weeks in 30° heat, we were shocked by the cool 15° evening. But we were even more shocked to find out that the volcano had erupted that morning! It sure was beautiful, though.

The next morning we found ourselves with a bit of extra time as the volcano viewpoint was, obviously, closed. We decided to have a slow morning at our wacky boutique hotel. This hotel charmed up with its nightly fire, playground, donkey pasture, and breakfast dome.

A few hours later we set off for our next stop: Hacienda Alsacia. Hacienda Alsacia is the only coffee plantation in the world that’s owned by Starbucks. We’re still not 100% sure why Starbucks bought it (it produces just a small amount of coffee), but we’re guessing it was some kind of brilliant marketing move. The plantation is spectacular. I just wish I could have photographed it better (don’t worry, though, Starbucks has that covered).

Let me pause here for a minute here to mention two things we’ve learned while travelling in Costa Rica’s Green Season with two kids under 6:

1. 5.75 is the perfect age to travel to Costa Rica—almost everything (including the plantation tour) is free if you’re under 6.
2. Green (a.k.a. rainy) season is the perfect time to travel to Costa Rica—many things end up being private (including the plantation tour).

Once we had finished taking in the views (and the caffeine) at Hacienda Alsacia, we were on our way to Chachagua Rainforest Ecolodge (about 2.5 hours away). The road was long and winding, but the views were stunning. The highlight was when we coasted down an especially steep road to discover a waterfall at the bottom!

We slept that night in a rainforest bungalow surrounded by nature’s best white noise: jungle sounds. We awoke to find sloths, wild sloths, in the trees right outside. Someone call Kristen Bell. After pulling my jaw up off the floor (and eating breakfast), we joined the guided nature walk on the hotel trails. The guide wasn’t my favourite, but the trails, views, and “hu-normous” trees made it worth it.

But the day had barely begun. After the walk we went to Baldi Hot Springs. Baldi is “The Largest And Purest Most Natural Hot Springs In The World” (but not “The Most Grammatically Correct”). It is the Las Vegas of hot springs—25 pools ranging from 20-45 degrees. It’s wonderful. And it was free for our kids.

Oh, and there are also four fun waterslides that the adults enjoyed. They were definitely not designed to North American standards (which made them, perhaps, even more fun). And did I mention there was no one else around?

Pretty good road trip so far, right? Well, it gets even better!

The next day, after another leisurely morning, we bid farewell to the La Fortuna/Arenal area and drove to Rio Celeste in Tenorio Volcano National Park. After a quick stop for lunch we arrived at the national park. We hiked the 1.5km to the waterfall, and it looked like this:

It was decidedly the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen; and we mostly had it to ourselves. One couple eventually showed up so we used the opportunity to get a family picture (as one does).

After a short torrential downpour on the way back up the 200 steps we checked into our hotel and discovered it had a free guided night walk. How could we resist?

Now, it had already been a long day and the kids had already walked close to 5 kilometres, so we really pushed them to the max by signing up for this night tour. We endured one epic meltdown from Will, but seeing so many cool frogs, bugs, and even a snake and tarantula made it worth it.

And then came day five. The day before my birthday. The day we ended up claiming as my honorary birthday because it was just that good. We awoke on Friday not knowing how we were going to spend the day or where we were going to spend the night. We loved our hotel. We loved the area. So rather than squeeze in one more road trip stop we decided to stay at Rio Celeste and:

1. go for a morning swim in the pool,
2. hike one of the hotel’s beautiful trails (including a swim in Rio Celeste),
3. eat lunch at a restaurant,
4. spend the afternoon horseback riding (wait, what?),
5. go for another swim and have pool drinks for all, and
6. attempt a nice birthday dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.

Reader, we did it.

With a three year old and a five year old. And while those of you without kids might not think this sounds remarkable, I’m pretty sure those of you with kids are virtually high-fiving us.

Pictures or it didn’t happen:

Life tip: if the day before your birthday is ever extremely fantastic I highly recommend just claiming it as your birthday. Then it doesn’t matter if your actual birthday consists of a long rainy drive, a big box store, whining children, and five loads of laundry. Your “birthday” was yesterday.

And that, my friends, brings us to the end of our 5-day road trip. This is an incredible country; we’re so lucky to be here. It amazes me that we’ve only seen a tiny slice.

P.S. We had great weather on this road trip. Most of the rain was in the late-evening/overnight. We only had torrential rain twice during the day (and one of those times was while we were in the hot springs). While I can’t promise weather like this in the green season, I can promise no crowds and breathtaking attractions all to yourself.

On balance, we are great! This is certainly not to say that everything is perfect and we don’t have any problems—we do!

• It’s really, really hot. We’ve been trying to use fan only to acclimate (which is a bit uncomfortable, but working—a couple of days ago the kids were cold after we got out of the pool…it was 30°).
• There are lots of ants that bite.
• For some reason our kids are waking up at about 5:15am. I’ve even tin-foiled their window.
• Will is three. He’s just dropped his nap. He’s in a new country. It’s hot here. There are lots of tears. There’s been some hitting. Meanwhile, Clara is learning how to fit into a new social structure at school and she gets overwhelmed. We’re working on it.
• We’re working. A lot. This is making us less present and patient with our kids then we want to be. It also means we haven’t been eating that mindfully.
• And there’s the little things. For example, we’re having a really hard time finding good fins for Clara. This sounds trite, but it’s taking up a lot of brain space. Little things like this add up.

Problems aside: our condo (a 3br, 3ba, 2-story condo in Vista Ocotal) is fantastic and the layout is highly functional. We’ve spent about $60 acquiring little things that make the space even more practical and so our day-to-day is pretty frictionless.

The shared pool is one of my favourites ever. It is perfect for young swimmers with its many depths, none of which are too deep. We swim pretty much every day after school.

The ocean is steps away and we can hear it from our bedroom. Playa Ocotal (our beach) is wonderful. It’s a beautiful, small, and quiet black sand beach with fantastic tide pools. It’s also got snorkelling and the water is calm enough for our kids to swim and play in the water.

While the school is a bit rough around the edges (literally, as there is a barbed wire fence), the teachers are amazing and our kids are happy and engaged.

The kids are in a multi-aged grouping (3-6) with about 10 kids and two teachers, but they often interact and play with the 7-11 year olds. The school’s values align perfectly with our own: a mix of helping the kids excel personally and as global citizens. In addition to literacy, numeracy, and Montessori-inspired work, they do yoga, tap, phys. ed., and even take golf carts to the beach to snorkel and play in the tide pools every Wednesday.

The school is Spanish-English bilingual, so they are learning Spanish; Clara came home on her first day counting to five and is picking up words and phrases every day. Yesterday at the pool Will delighted all the adults present when a man was trying to teach him how to count:

Man: One, two, three… Uno, dos, tres

Will: Quatro!

We’ve rented a car for the duration of our time here so we can go on weekend adventures (and drop off our kids at school). We have SIM cards with good internet. There’s a farmers’ market on Wednesdays. Jon’s joined a CrossFit gym. Clara’s starting ballet and karate next week. I’m running again (and will try Barre when the studio reopens in a couple of weeks).

Trip so far: 9/10, would do it again.

P.S. We’ve been adopted by a cat. Name being negotiated.

Last week Clara had her first day of Kindergarten Around The World. If a picture is really worth 1,000 words this image I shared on Facebook would say “look at how interesting and adventurous my family is, dot dot dot”.

But let’s be real for a second here. It’s just a picture: one fraction of one second in our story. On top of that, it’s the one fraction of the one second that I chose to share. When you look at that picture you don’t see that:

• I’m worried about groceries, school supplies, the actual school itself, work calls (wasn’t I supposed to be on sabbatical?), Will, Clara, Jon, finding snorkel gear, SIM cards, a rental car, our long-term rental, how to be a more patient, present, and kind parent, finding a school at our next stop in three months, being behind on emails, the health of extended family members, etc., etc., etc.
• Clara, just 5, is terrified she won’t be able to communicate and that she won’t make friends.
• Will, just 3, is terrified about his first day at a new school not only because he will be the littlest one but also because he is on week 3 of an uncharacteristic bout of separation anxiety (due to our life choices, perhaps).
• The night before I was in tears, physically shaking with guilt about not just letting Clara start kindergarten in Vancouver at her catchment school with her friends and Will stay at the daycare he knows with the teachers who already know and love him.

Pictures, and social media especially, allow us to chose what story to tell. But as people who digest these perfect looking pictures we need to remember that behind every single picture is a real person with a real story. Things aren’t perfect here, and they don’t need to be. But you better believe I’m going to continue posting pretty pictures.

Note: I drafted most of this post in September 2019, when the world was a different place. I’m re-dusting off the blog today and couldn’t leave this post behind. As you probably guessed, the kids were fine—after a week or two of adjusting they thrived at that school. We were fine too. Kindergarten Around the World was full of highs and lows and hugs and tears… and huge global pandemic-sized surprises. It was not the year we expected, but damn, my Instagram looks good.

Oh, hey there, it’s been a minute! Or, more accurately, 5,401,440 minutes. And what a 5.4 million minutes they’ve been. In the last 10.5 years we:

• moved to and worked in Toronto,
• got married,
• (I) started a photography business and another blog,
• left our jobs in Toronto,
• spent three months in Buenos Aires and visited Antarctica,
• moved to Vancouver,
• started a software company (and built something pretty darn amazing),
• turned thirty,
• had a baby,
• moved within Vancouver,
• (I) retired from photography and sort of abandoned the other blog,
• sold the software company,
• had another baby,
• bought a car,
• turned thirty-five,
• found a community in our wonderful neighbourhood, and
• planned to take a sabbatical in 2019-2020 to travel.

And that brings us to today. Instead of enrolling Clara (5.5) in kindergarten and Will (3) in daycare we packed everything up, sublet our home, and hit the road. “The more things change”, and all that.

And while we haven’t quite been able to make the sabbatical happen (for an exciting reason), on August 30 we left Vancouver for Costa Rica. On September 3, our kids started at an eco school where they’ll stay until December. After that we fly to Belize and travel overland to Playa del Carmen, Mexico where we’ll spend Christmas with my side of the family. January will bring some extended family time in Ottawa and then it’s off to Asia where we’re hoping to send our kids to at least two more schools.

Since this is unusual—and a little insane—we’ve (I’ve) decided to dust off the old blog and document our adventure. Keep your eyes and ears peeled as posts will be coming at you periodically over the next 10 or so months. For now: pura vida friends.

When Will and Clara were 1 and 4 years old, we decided to take them on a three week trip to Shanghai, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Travelling with littles is never easy, but it is SO rewarding. Here’s a video:

We’d heard some pretty positive things about Sintra, so had decided to make it an overnight adventure rather than just a day trip. But on the 40-minute train ride from Lisbon we were worried—we thought we were supposed to be leaving the city, but each and every stop on the train was dense suburbia.

That is until we got to the last, glorious, stop where suburbia made way for parks and trees and mountains and twisty-turvy cobblestone streets. The stuff out of fairy-tales.

Our B&B, a short walk from the train, was delightful (the owners had just finished a 5 year restoration of the century-old house). They had not only provided us with a baby-cot, but also with a baby-tub and rubber ducks for Clara to play with. I think it might have been my favourite hotel stay, ever.

On our first afternoon in town we visited Quinta de Regalia. I’ve never been to a better tourist attraction—and since a picture is worth a thousand words (and even pictures don’t capture it) here you go:

Our dinner on the first night was capped off by complimentary port and pastries. Can you imagine a restaurant just setting down a bottle of port on your table and allowing you to help yourself?!

Unsurprisingly, by the end of the first day, we had decided that one night in Sintra just wouldn’t be enough. We slept so well there. The wifi fast and reliable. The staff at the hotel simply smitten with Clara. And the affiliated café (where breakfast was served) delicious. And we just felt so happy to be there.

When we awoke the following day, we filled our bellies with the hearty breakfast and then set off on what ended up being Fall Walk, 2014. We hiked up through the towns and the woods to get to the 10th century Moorish castle.

The we walked up yet another peak to get to the Palacio de Pena, this place—yet again—was straight out of a fairy tale. Then we wandered through the gardens, and did a loop back into town. The walk/attractions took the better part of 6 hours. Clara was a trooper and let us carry her the entire time. She actually had about a two hour nap in the middle of the day as we explored the palace!

We had a late lunch of delicious sandwiches at our hotel’s cafe, and sought out the local library, with fast and free wifi. At that point we were sure we had made a horrible mistake—we should have spent three weeks in Sintra with day trips to Lisbon. That one goes into the life lessons pile for future travels!

Our plans to return to the same restaurant for dinner were thwarted by it’s being closed on Thursday, so instead we found a contemporary portuguese restaurant and had a lightened up dinner that was also delicious.

We slept soundly on our second night and then relaxed in the lovely town in the morning before—regretfully—having to get back to Lisbon in time for a call.

I love Sintra.

We’ve spent the last several days back in Lisbon working as efficiently as possible, given our internet situation; this afternoon we’re renting a car and driving down to Sagres, in the Algarve for three nights. We’re really looking forward to that. By the time we’re back in Lisbon, we’ll have just three days before flying home. I can’t believe how quickly time flies.

I’m actually very glad that I didn’t just jump the gun and try to write about it last week—I think my tone would have been very negative, as when we arrived, the weather was cold and rainy. Our apartment seemed dark and not very homey. The bed was brutally uncomfortable. Our internet didn’t work reliably (internet is sort of like electricity for us because we work pretty much full time while we travel), and we couldn’t find any good cafés for working. Our best bet seemed to be McDonalds (I wish I was joking). The city is a bit depressed (we live across the street from another dilapidated building, though I think it would be hard not to live across the street from a dilapidated building). We seriously talked about leaving: we’re in Europe, we said, we can get on a place and be anywhere else in a couple of hours. No need to be miserable for three weeks.

Thankfully, we decided to give it a couple of days while we saw some of the major sights.

So, the first Friday afternoon came (Oct 17th) and we headed up to the castle. And the weather got better (unseasonably, amazingly, better). And the castle was awesome. And the views from the castle were what I had expected Portugal to look like. And the neighbourhood near the castle was adorable. And we stumbled across some delicious, still-warm, pastel de natas. And when we got back to the apartment, our internet issues were partially resolved.

And then on Saturday we took Clara to the Oceanarium, the train station in that part of town is straight out of Star Trek.

The mall in that part of town is awesome, and it has fast and free internet (in fact, we’re headed over there today to work). And the Oceanarium was so so so good.

Not only was it a great attraction, but it was so fun seeing our little baby turn into a little girl who was totally awestruck by the views.

And then on Sunday we took the tram over to Belem (a western suburb of Lisbon) where we saw more beautiful sights, had a great lunch, and were refreshed for the week.

By Sunday night (October 19th) we had remembered that we picked this less-than-spectacular apartment because it was a steal and that it meant we could do some domestic travel, so we made a plan for the next two weeks.

We worked hard Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning and then on Wednesday afternoon set off on an overnight trip to Sintra. And Sintra deserves a post of its own.

And also, what happened to our baby?

(If you are curious about how we fixed the bed problem, I found three duvet covers in the closet and placed them between the mattress and the fitted sheet. Not perfect, but at least 1000x better.)