It’s our one year travel anniversary and we are so excited to share a little about this incredible journey.
It’s very easy to over glamorize travel. I’m here to say it’s not all beautiful Instagram photos. But that’s the part I love. I love the opportunity to view the world through my own lens. To see more of the big picture and to confirm with my own eyes that we, the people of the Earth, are more the same than we are different.
I’ve had more personal growth this last year of full-time travel than I’ve had in the five years prior. And I’ve walked through some major shit in that time. Travel also tests your relationship/marriage. Again, we’ve worked together through some tough times and come out with a deeper, stronger connection and commitment to one another.
Seriously, there is nothing better than giving our kids the opportunity to compare and contrast the people and systems of cultures and places around the world. Each of them is taking in so much at their level of understanding and building their personal world perspective. Travel teaches us so many things.
There are many ways to travel. Fast travel lets you pack in as many sights as you can handle. We call this a mile wide and inch deep. Conversely, slow travel gives you time to unpack the nuance of a place. This we refer to as an inch wide and a mile deep.
In this first year of full-time travel, we tried to expose our family to both. Packing in tons, then parking in one spot for a while and repeat.
This is our travel anniversary by the numbers, our “travel stats” if you will. It will give you a snapshot of this crazy life we are all so grateful to have started one year ago today.
Number of US States
We started this adventure with an epic East Coast road trip from Orlando to Boston. Our goal (other than hanging out with beloved friends that we wouldn’t see for a while) was to learn more about American history.
13 plus Washington DC. We did so so much, here are just the highlights.
- Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, FL – the oldest fort in the continental US built by the Spanish in 1672.
- A thorough, week-long tour of our nation’s capital including The White House, Library of Congress, National Archives, many monuments in the National Mall, and our favorite, The National Museum of African American history and culture.
- In Philadelphia we toured Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell, visited The Seaport Air and Sea Museum, and of course climbed the “Rocky Steps” not exacted US history 101 but fun and memorable.
- On to NYC to visit Ellis Island (the kids audio tour is outstanding and even the 5-year-olds enjoyed it). We went to the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, and The Ground Zero Memorial. Loved the Intrepid Museum. We also did a driving tour of NYC and many typical sites like time Square and Central Park.
- Next up Boston, so much history. This is where we said goodbye to friends, reorganized our gear from road trip to international travel, sold our van and got on a plane.
Miles We Put On Our Van
1800
Number Of Continents
4
Three in one day was a super cool experience.
Number Of Countries
16
Transportation – Number of flights, buses, trains, etc.
There are so many ways to get from point A to point B and I think we’ve done most of them. Check out our post on transportation hacks. Always price compare, especially if you’re a large family or if you can team up with friends to create a small group. Often, it’s cheaper to hire a private driver than it is to fly, take the bus or train. They always get you there faster and you can stop for a bathroom break anytime you want (great when you have kids).
We used 74 different types of transportation. Here’s the breakdown:
14 Flights
10 Shuttles
5 Buses
5 Private Car Hires (like limo service)
4 Rental Cars
3 Trains (2 regular, 1 high speed)
1 Auto Transport Ferry
Countless Taxis including vans, cars, tuk-tuks, and the back of pickup trucks (standard in Egypt)
1 Gracious AirBnB host ride to the hospital
1 Completely awesome disco van
*Not counted – sightseeing trollies, buses, and boats as well as public transportation.
Number Of Broken Toilets
I promise we are great guests, our motto is to leave it better than we found it. We also eat a high fiber diet. There are seven of us and sometimes we test the infrastructure. Luckily, Tom is a professional Handyman and travels with tools. But alas five toilets needed repair this year.
Story One
After touring New York City all day I mentioned I needed a pit stop. All EIGHT kids (five bio, three borrowed) said the same. So Tom dropped us off in lower Manhattan and circled the block while I found a shopkeep to take pity on this gray-haired Momma with eight children in tow. Little did I know after a day of dollar pizza and Carlos Bakery eight little humans can wreak havoc on old city pipes. #excussmesirdoyouhaveaplunger
Story Two & Three (I know, I know)
After a property sits unoccupied for many years and a family of five moves in upstairs, immediately followed by a family of seven downstairs – things sometimes back up. What’s the Spanish word for toilet snake? Eventually, a crew with a special truck had to come to blow out the pipes…Twice!
Story Four
Some things are better left unsaid. Sorry, Istanbul.
Story Five
Thai plumbing, old house, new diet, seven people – I’ll just stop there.
Number Of Languages In Which We’ve Learned To Say Thank You
It’s really important for us to make an attempt at using the local language. Sometimes that goes great and other times we just get sideways looks.
We now can say thank you in seven more languages. Also, we should make an honorable mention to our failed attempts in:
Lao
Burmese
Russian
Albanian
Some thoughts on language…
- Spoiler alert: Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin are all the same language.
- Turkish actually seems more challenging than Arabic (except in writing).
- And Greek is all Greek to me lol. Language comes back, even if you haven’t practiced in 20 years – muchas gracias!
- Thai has 44 consonants, 32 vowels, and 5 tones – I’ve gotten some really strange looks.
- Some words from some languages just work better and stay with you. I now understand my Spanglish friends much better.
- Sometimes when you’re trying to learn a new language, another language you know a little bit of just comes out instead. It gets messy.
- Many times I’ve used multiple languages in one sentence. Example: Yalla ninos, get in the car. khob khun ka. Which is “yalla” Arabic for let’s go or come on, “ninos” Spanish for children or kids, “get in the car” English obviously, and “khob khan ka” Thai for thank you (written a million different ways because there is no Thai to English translation).
- Speaking English is a privilege as it is one of the most common second languages and we can almost always find someone that speaks enough English to help us with what we need.
Number Of Beds
Our family of seven has slept in 88 different beds this year. This one blows my mind a little! We are only counting proper beds. No couches, overnight buses, or planes. Also, we are all about bed-sharing. Mom, Dad and the youngest in a queen-size is normal. The youngest two sharing a twin with their heads on opposite ends is common. The four boys always share – two in a full or three in a king. Teenage daughter gets her own bed as often as possible but will share with a little brother as needed. We do whatever works. We share some great tips in our vacation lodging post.
Here’s how it breaks down.
AirBnB’s – 32 beds
Hotels – 13 beds
Work Exchanges – 10 beds
Guest Homes – 9 beds (thank you)
House Sits – 8 beds
Resorts – 7 beds
Hostels – 5 beds
Motels – 4 beds
Number Of Photos We Took
About 15,000. There were days in which we snapped hundreds and days in which we took zero. I definitely have room to grow here.
Number Of Trips To The Hospital
2
Everyone is ok. We had one travel-related injury and one illness. Guess we need to write a post on this!
Number Of People That Helped Us.
There are too many to count. We are incredibly grateful to the kindness of so many people. Both local friends that helped in numerous ways to get this started and people around the world that are existing friends, new friends, and kind strangers. It really was a team effort to get us where we are today.
I’d love to list you all – to the delight of some yet horror (of being singled out online) of others. So I’ll just list a few things that awesome people did or are still doing to help us.
•Storing keepsakes.
•Storing a copy of our important paperwork.
•Sending us said paperwork in our time of need.
•Moved furniture.
•Sold household items for us.
•Checked mail.
•Sent us mail.
•Set up garage sales.
•Checked on tenants.
•Found us places to stay.
•Interpreted for us.
•Cohabitated with us.
•Bailed us out of a toxic work exchange.
•Let us stay with them in beautiful and amazing places.
•Picked us up from airports.
•Baked us my favorite cookies one last time before we left.
•And so, so much more.
We are eternally grateful to each and every one of you for helping us in so many ways. Thank you. Now, what country do you want to meet up in next year?
What Do The Kids Think Of All This?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So I’ll let the picture speak this time. This is what I woke up to today on our one year travel anniversary. I had to update the draft of this post!
Our kids are pretty great! Each of the letters has a drawing to represent something we did or someplace we went this year. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in year two.
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