Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand June-July 2022 - Written by Mary

The Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand voyage was a beautiful trip for our family! We always love a nice balance of travel where we stay places elongated amounts of time if possible (with less tourism), combined with a lot of quality family time. We also try to balance slowing down with being on the move, as well as adult activities with kid activities. We thought Australia would be a fine option for summer swim activities as long as we stayed north. We were correct in theory but it rained nearly our entire stay. We had to get creative with card games, movies and umbrellas! Although the weather strongly affected our trip, we don’t regret our Poly-Australian voyage as it would be so unlikely for us to visit Australia in the summer (USA winter). We thought better now than never! This has been a theme of our’s throughout our travels and I’m thankful for it! As soon as we landed on this trip, I felt an immediate ease of the developed world. From Hawaii to Australia to New Zealand, we embraced the ease of English, clean water, developed roads and electronic payments (typically we’re hustling to find cash as that’s more widely used in less developed countries). Every 3 to 4 days, we find it’s necessary to hit the easy button. This means we don’t rush out to a tour, don’t make the kids walk 5 miles and do what they want to do (like a time zone arcade that were scattered all over Australia). We ended up buying membership cards and frequenting the arcade! Although it feels funny to fly halfway across the world to spend money at a cheap arcade, our kids’ perspective of how special international travel is diminishes when we shove it down their throats every day! We loved experiencing the differences between Australia and New Zealand! This was one of my favorite parts! Some parts of Australia felt very much like parts of Asia on Semester at Sea, and the reminiscing was fun. We ignorantly thought Australia and NZ would be very similar. In fact, we found them to be incredibly different! New Zealand immediately reminded us of a Hawaii as they identify as a Polynesian country. Australia (Sydney specifically) sometimes felt like London, then Seattle, then San Francisco - almost like United States combined with Asia. If there was anything I disliked about Australia, it was that it was too much like America. Of course I love America, but I love grit with some culture shock when we travel. One of the main moments we were challenged and did experience culture shock was driving on the other side of the road. Fortunately we had a soft landing introducing this change in Cairns and Port Douglas (both small Australian cities) before we ventured into driving on highways and merging (like in downtown Auckland). We were forced to adjust, slow lane on the left, and wipers on the right side of the steering wheel :) Favorite cities (Wow we covered them all!) Lucy - Port Douglas Mikey - Cairns Andy - Sydney or Rotorua Mary - Sydney or Brisbane Rosie - Auckland

Written by Mary - 4/3/22 - Peru!

Peru has been magical! Family dinners, breakfasts and lunch, sweet Peruvian friends and small talk, the tropical and mountain dichotomy, the high altitude air and sea level ocean air. Peru was only 12 days and one destination but each stop along the way was a trip in itself! Lima was exciting with the Peruvian fútbol team qualifying for the world cup and the presidents impeachment. Cusco as immediately beautiful as the smaller town’s quaint charm captivated us. We felt like true travelers at 11k feet but were immensely soiled by the JW Marriott - possibly the nicest hotel we’ve stayed in EVER. The staff would do ANYTHING for you while you sit in a king/queen throne in a 120 year old convento! Then Aguascalientes was a mix of both the excitement and charm as we were surprised by a bus driver strike/demonstration and our bus was canceled and we had to hire a driver (wonderful David who we met the day before at the airport and toured us around) to leave at 4am to skirt the strike/demonstration, to make our train and travel through the luscious Rain Forrest along the Amazon river on train to land in the sweetest Pueblo with a small community and bed and breakfasts. Machu Picchu was all worth it! The surrounding mountains of the ruins made the entire venture worth it. I’d never seen mountains like these! So steep and jagged! The Incan ruins in addition were a total bonus. We could not believe they had been there 600 years. It’s a musicale they’re still standing. Our tour guide Marilu was a sweet addition - patient with the kids and explaining in a kid version that was interesting to them. The second day lucy and I hike Huayna Picchu the 8k foot mountain that sits behind the village citadel. It was surprisingly easy for us and we loved the one on one time! The return home reminded us of allll the difficult steps it had taken us to get so far as we rewound our journey. 12 days felt a perfect timing for us this trip as after time, south America’s charm fades and can begin to hinder your rose colored glasses. Sacred valley, thank you for checking our bucket list as we venture thru mother earths (or as Peruvians call her - Pacha Mama’s) playground ☺️

Written by Mary - 6/1/21 - We're Home!

After 7 countries, 33 cities, 20 boats, 27 planes, 34 houses, 35 covid tests and 7 months, we're home. Rosie cried tears of joy when we arrived. Although I could carry on wanderlusting all over the globe, it's great to be home. There's something human about longing for a consistent place to rest, unwind and just be. We're SO FORTUNATE to have seen the world as we did (especially amidst a global pandemic). Our experience will live in my heart the rest of our lives and I know I will long for it again. But, we're ALSO FORTUNATE to have family, friends and community as we do in Denver (beautiful Denver). Returning is bittersweet to say the least. Thanks for following along.

A few More Photos from Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Greece