Hit the road Jack...
So I have been told I need to interrupt my reading of Fiji’s odd and colorful history* to fill in the “About” page for this website. Thankfully, the kids are otherwise responsible for building the site. I'll work for web companies but I don't do websites...yet.
It’s probably only fair to make me explain what we are doing seeing as this trip sprung from yet another moment of my sheer brilliance or, according to others, it represents yet another serious lapse in Papa’s judgment. For now, I'll ignore the detractors. They can vote when we get home. With my role winding down at Evergreen Solar and no obvious next opportunity on the horizon, my mind wandered back to working and traveling abroad with Carrie many years ago. Rather nonchalantly one day I asked Carrie whether we should take a year off and travel round the world with the kids . It’s always fun to say things like that when my wife is totally absorbed in the trials and tribulations of our daily life and sitting plugged into to her computer screen. She didn't give my idea much thought at the time. Well, half serious or not, that nut of an idea grew into the trip we will try to share on this website.
Our overseas family adventure was also spurred on by recent travels to China for work and an expat position in Shanghai I pursued. That position didn’t materialize, but, alas, these things work out in the end. We are now well on our way to enjoying a three-month sabbatical that will take us to seven countries, at least a dozen different islands and countless little adventures along the way.
We are traveling fairly light and trying to get off the beaten path when we can, as much as might be possible for a family of five with a limited amount of time and a fairly ambitious list of places to visit. Our goal is simple – to go together as a family and see a variety of cultures and natural environments that vary significantly from our own. In doing so we suspect there will be intangibles to gain, i.e., personal growth and broader takeaways to help us grow as a family and so on. However, we found it a bit tricky to put those on the itinerary. If somehow we had, I suspect they would get in the way of the trip and, if we don’t take the trip those I know those intangibles may never come to pass. Not sure whether we will get the sort of "trail magic" that through hikers experience on the AT but anything along those lines would be more than welcome.
And for all of those who wonder what we are doing about school for our children, I’ll explain by borrowing a phrase an old friend loved to quip, “Don’t ever let school get in the way of your education.” Of course, no disrespect is intended towards all of the marvelous teachers whose classes our children are missing. The support and encouragement of those educators truly impressed us as we prepared for the trip and we are communicating with many of them and our children’s classmates as we go.
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* See Fiji’s Times, a History of Fiji by Kim Gravelle – I quickly stumbled on the connection back from Fiji to Massachusetts through the various Nantucket sea captains who plied the Fijian waters, whaling and trading in the 1800s. On their visits they had to be careful when meeting the Fijians. Many a visitor here didn’t get to feast with the Fijians but instead became the feast. Nine days and three feasts later, I’m happy to report the Fijian diet is now much safer for visitors and quite tasty.
It’s probably only fair to make me explain what we are doing seeing as this trip sprung from yet another moment of my sheer brilliance or, according to others, it represents yet another serious lapse in Papa’s judgment. For now, I'll ignore the detractors. They can vote when we get home. With my role winding down at Evergreen Solar and no obvious next opportunity on the horizon, my mind wandered back to working and traveling abroad with Carrie many years ago. Rather nonchalantly one day I asked Carrie whether we should take a year off and travel round the world with the kids . It’s always fun to say things like that when my wife is totally absorbed in the trials and tribulations of our daily life and sitting plugged into to her computer screen. She didn't give my idea much thought at the time. Well, half serious or not, that nut of an idea grew into the trip we will try to share on this website.
Our overseas family adventure was also spurred on by recent travels to China for work and an expat position in Shanghai I pursued. That position didn’t materialize, but, alas, these things work out in the end. We are now well on our way to enjoying a three-month sabbatical that will take us to seven countries, at least a dozen different islands and countless little adventures along the way.
We are traveling fairly light and trying to get off the beaten path when we can, as much as might be possible for a family of five with a limited amount of time and a fairly ambitious list of places to visit. Our goal is simple – to go together as a family and see a variety of cultures and natural environments that vary significantly from our own. In doing so we suspect there will be intangibles to gain, i.e., personal growth and broader takeaways to help us grow as a family and so on. However, we found it a bit tricky to put those on the itinerary. If somehow we had, I suspect they would get in the way of the trip and, if we don’t take the trip those I know those intangibles may never come to pass. Not sure whether we will get the sort of "trail magic" that through hikers experience on the AT but anything along those lines would be more than welcome.
And for all of those who wonder what we are doing about school for our children, I’ll explain by borrowing a phrase an old friend loved to quip, “Don’t ever let school get in the way of your education.” Of course, no disrespect is intended towards all of the marvelous teachers whose classes our children are missing. The support and encouragement of those educators truly impressed us as we prepared for the trip and we are communicating with many of them and our children’s classmates as we go.
________________________________________
* See Fiji’s Times, a History of Fiji by Kim Gravelle – I quickly stumbled on the connection back from Fiji to Massachusetts through the various Nantucket sea captains who plied the Fijian waters, whaling and trading in the 1800s. On their visits they had to be careful when meeting the Fijians. Many a visitor here didn’t get to feast with the Fijians but instead became the feast. Nine days and three feasts later, I’m happy to report the Fijian diet is now much safer for visitors and quite tasty.