I am so grateful for this crazy, around-the-world adventure with the people I love best. And equally happy to be back home. Although there may have been some mishaps, shenanigans and bad parenting along the way, we survived and even thrived through it all. And as the Chinese perceptively observed, we are very lucky to have such a “happy family.” Since we’ve landed back home, people ask which destinations were our favorites. I’d say: Tonga, Tanzania and Australia. Tonga was…
You’d think by now we’d know what we were doing. Admittedly, Spain is the least planned part of our trip. It is our last stop so we thought we’d have plenty of time to figure it out later. Or we were going to be spontaneous. Well, Type A planners are not good at winging it. First of all, I can’t take this 90+ degree heat. Our last three apartments have not had air conditioning. This is what happens when you wait…
Barcelona is a kaleidoscope of color – geometric, fanciful and a little dizzying in this heat. Gaudi’s architecture is brilliant yet bizarre. His masterpiece La Sagrada Familia is Dr. Seuss on the outside and absolutely divine on the inside. The stain glass windows explode with colors that fill the sanctuary with surreal light. The pedestrian lanes around our apartment in the Gothic Quarter are also laid out like a mosaic. The web of streets are designed to meander through all…
The blue skies, rolling green hills and colorful flower boxes of Germany were a breath of fresh air compared to the unfamiliar, muted landscapes of Dubai, Tanzania and Beijing. I physically relaxed in a way I hadn’t realized I was on guard before. People ride bikes (with bells and baskets!) along pedestrian paths to work and to the market. Ladies in colorful summer dresses and high heels wheel about without helmets, their hair flowing in the breeze like an 80s…
Jens drove 200+ km/hr on the autobahn in a BMW 5 series, a sweet upgrade from the rental car agency. The car’s navigation is projected on the windshield like a hologram. This is a level of luxury and performance well beyond our 2008 Prius back home. Let’s be honest: this whole trip is an upgrade from our regular life. It’s fast paced, exciting and exotic. A friend of mine who took a similar extended vacation warned me to enjoy it…
When one brother dares the other to touch the electric fence, and the fun parent wants to prove he can do it, and the responsible parent offers to document the whole experiment – then it is time for Confessions of a Bad Parent. This may shock you, but I am not always the perfect parent I pretend to be on Facebook. Like that time in Tonga when we blatantly left our children at the airport to selfishly take the last…
At 111° Dubai is the hottest place I’ve ever been. It’s so hot, the forecast calls for sand. Even the tap water runs hot. In my first visit to the bathroom, I was surprised by the steaming water in the toilet bowl. It was not a sensation I was expecting, so I looked around thinking I might have accidently pressed a button with benefits, like on a fancy Japanese toilet. We waited until the relative cool of the evening for a…
“Karibu Sana – a very warm welcome to your new home,” is how we were consistently greeted throughout Tanzania. The people of Tanzania are warm, friendly and have a genuine spirit of hospitality. They actually say, “hakuna matata”. It’s the friendliest and most easygoing place we’ve been so far. There is a natural camaraderie in the way our safari guide Raphael traded greetings with the other guides and tribesman. In the national game parks, employees and guides stay in dormitories,…
Tanzania is teaming with wildlife. The giraffes, elephants, zebras, gazelles – they’re all hanging out together – peacefully intermingling as they graze on the savannah. I guess I expected the different species to be separated into their own habitats, like the carefully curated shadow boxes at the zoo. Besides the gazelles who are naturally skittish, the rest of the animals were completely nonchalant at our approach. They would continue eating or lounging by the track, the easier to be…
I found this ancient city surprisingly modern in it’s architecture, transportation systems, and dual signage in English. Here we are at the Bird’s Nest, but all over Beijing we spotted futuristic shapes. As you can see from the photos, the smog is terrible. It dulls the sky, scratches your throat and eyes, and smells vaguely of smoke. In the Olympic Village, it seems especially cruel and sad – a sharp contrast to the arenas built for the best athletes in…