Europe Through the Back Door Family Style

We did it! We survived a two week whirlwind trip in Europe with a 2 and 5 year old. Not only that, we managed to get back into the travel style we adopted when we read good 'ol Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door some years back. Carry-on only, 35-40 litre packs and only just the basics. Buy the shampoo when you arrive! I have no idea how we got so off track but when we had kids we started to travel with double strollers, carseats and enough clothes to dress the kids 3X a day. In reality it was all the stuff that made travel with the kids so much more stressful. Could we do Europe with each little carrying their own pack and forgo all the checked baggage?


Photo evidence:

One small pack each, the diaper bag full of activities, a bag to stuff the Ergo carrier into and a stroller that folds down to the size of a purse. That's it. No electronic devices, no suitcases. We flew through airports, skipped the lines, jumped onto buses and trains and walked across towns from train to Inn with no problems. With Caelen in the ergo on Joel's back and Austen in the stroller we even managed to have them both sleep while on the move. So, it was a great, relaxing and fun family trip and we are really energised to travel so much more with the boys.

Postcard from Oxford

Avebury

Our cottage

Walking across Oxford with all our stuff, yay traveling light!

Postcards from France

Europe On The Calendar Again!

Our last trip to Paris was in 2011

We did it! We booked our first trip to Europe with the kids in mid-July. It's going to be the four of us, traveling light and as simply as possible. A week in France for a reunion with our dear friends from Singapore and a week in the UK visiting my second cousins and great uncle and seeing a castle or two.

We land in Paris and spend a night in a quaint Inn in the Marais, stroll some of the sights and then catch a train to Bordeaux for our Singapore friends visit. After about 5 days in Bordeaux, we will take the train to Paris and chunnel to London to spend a night there (and a day exploring - Austen is determined to see Big Ben so we better do that) before heading out to our thatched cottage we have rented for a week in Oxfordshire.  It's the most we have ever moved around with the kids and are hoping they aren't too upset by the changes. Finding the space to travel and make it feel unhurried is our new challenge. We also are not bringing Joel's bike, the big double stroller, car seats, electronic devices (aside from phones), or anything that doesn't fit into a carry on bag. That is my mission anyway. Pictures of this actually happening pending.

Our baggage pile on the way to Montreal in 2016. This is what travel hell looks like.

Transition

Joel comes home with a desk chair, this is getting real.

2018 might be known as a year of rapid change and growth for us. We began in a low patch, both essentially unemployed, and no travel or fun on the horizon at all. By February I was working full time again, on several really engaging contracts and Joel was consulting at some companies and circling around one role he was really interested in. In March he landed that job and in April he started his new journey working from home right beside me. With side-by-side desks, we've discovered all kinds of new things about one another we've never really considered in the past 17 years together. We're actually pretty compatible co-workers, often working the same hours late at night, listening to audiobooks and sipping tea.

We have returned to some of last year's travel plans that were put on hold but are now possible once again. I'm going to reveal our next destination very soon. Until then, happy spring, onward and upward!

Happy Christmas And A Tiny Bit Of Snow

We have had a full house since late November. Joel's parents came down to stay with us for Caelen's 2nd Birthday for a few weeks. We took the chance to do a mini trip to Monterey and used points we acquired by hosting a Home Exchange last summer to stay in a great little cottage not far from Cannery Row for four days.

Our dear friends from our Singapore days, Gemma and Fre and their daughters helped us celebrate Caelen's special day, even hosting us there for cake after a big day walking around the aquarium. Caelen was so thrilled to have the happy birthday song sung to him. He's been to lots of birthdays for bigger kids with Austen but didn 't have a recollection of ever having his own before this. One of his presents was a little wooden birthday cake which he has continued to carry around to ensure we celebrate his birthday every day since. In fact, as the Christmas decorations went up he declared that these were also for his Birthday. Usually one feels badly for the kids with the December Birthdays getting lost in the shuffle of the holiday events. It seems Caelen might just find a way to co-opt the holiday altogether.

My brother, Adrian, arrived on Christmas Eve and we celebrated a very cozy and delicious Christmas day. My parent's flight arrived in the afternoon on boxing day and we reprised our roles in the kitchen for the second evening of feasting. The following morning we left on a trip to Tahoe to seek some snow and a little holiday. 

We didn't find much snow at all but, here and there we found a little patch and made the most of it tobogganing. Austen did one day on the bunny hill learning to ski with daddy. The rest of our week was spent cozy by the fire, cooking elaborate dinners -- even baking bread and making pasta from scratch. 

2018 began with a night of board games and a little ringing of bells from the doorway of our cabin. This will be a busy year for us to be sure. Joel is searching for a new job which will likely have the biggest impact on our plans. We can't even circle dates for a Summer holiday because we have no idea where we'll be or what we'll be doing. I'm building up some contracts for this spring after the slow speed of midwinter. We're trying to choose a school for Austen to start kindergarten in the fall and find an appropriate preschool for Caelen to begin in June. 

And Then It Rained

We finally have some seasonal weather. That pouring rain that goes all night long and leaves everything thoroughly soaked has been and gone a couple of times. Our first significant rainfall since early spring. The succulents suddenly bloomed and now I'm hauling them close to the house for shelter from the cold dips in temperature we often get this high on the hillside in November and December. The lemons are ripening and the winter garden is emerging.

Caelen selecting a pumpkin for Halloween

Austen is in his third month of attending both a Waldorf forest preschool two days a week and a more traditional preschool the rest of the week. Caelen has a couple of different nannies who cover me every day while I work. He got into the groove very quickly. He's nearly finished potty training already and will turn two in December. Austen's preschool is letting Caelen enroll in January due to his signs of readiness (the usual age limit is 2 1/2). This will really thrill him. He wants to go with Austen each day so badly and Austen is so excited to have him join him. They won't be together at a school like this again for another three years.

Speaking of school we are registering Austen for Kindergarten for next fall. I am hoping for him to be accepted into a full time outdoor Waldorf program. They have the most magical venue and Austen is in love with the place after his tour. It doesn't hurt that most of his close friends are headed there too. So fingers crossed everyone! It's a lottery.

Joel is busy as always. It seems like he's been on a work trip nearly every week since the school year began. He's been home most weekends and for a few weekdays here and there but it's been pretty sparse. The boys are pretty used to being just with me and we have our routines down but there are always sad bedtime goodnights. I can't wait for the holiday season mostly because the travel ends for a little while.

My company is picking up lots of speed at last now that the kids are taken care of for a stretch each day. I took some time this year to really think about who I want to work with and what direction I want to take my portfolio. A maternity leave is both a curse—because it takes years to get caught up to your peers again— and a blessing—because you can change course and no one really notices the shift except you. I never had to cut loose my science & tech companies before I veered off to serve arty boutique companies. I'm happier and no one had to get ruffled about it. I post things I'm working on all the time if you are curious.

Everyone is still asking if we got the new Green Cards yet. No. Joel just checked the processing times and they are now processing Nov of 2016 and we are early Feb 2017 so I figure early Feb 2018 we should be good to go. But who knows. We're all itchy to travel and even taking about expatriation for a short stint if something comes up that looks good. One expats, always expats. Can we ever settle?

Love, Smoke and Community

October 2017 will go down in my memory as a tangle of highs and lows. I find it's always best to talk about the highs first so I'll share our happy 10th wedding anniversary/Canadian Thanksgiving celebration. Every year we gather our family and some close friends together and do a sit-down dinner for around 30 guests. This year we decided to get a little more romantic and tie in our 10th anniversary which was back in August but we hadn't really celebrated it yet. We always go "all out" for our Thanksgiving but this time I added a rack of crystal champagne glasses to the usual party rental order and got a little more involved with flowers. And then I needed these linens and well... it turned out really beautifully. Here's a peek:

It was a perfect clear warm evening and we toasted the event reading aloud our wedding vows we'd kept in our album all these years. Such wonderful food and company. We felt like a bride and groom again. 

My parents as well as some very dear friends came to town for the occasion and stayed for a few days after. At about 2am on Monday morning Joel awoke - we think the cat, Kopi-o, woke him - to our house filling with wood smoke. He leaped into action and closed every window and checked Next Door to see where the fire was. Sonoma. We were safe but the smoke was thick and luckily with his fast movements hardly any of us even woke till the morning. At breakfast, amid the hum of air cleaners, we looked out on ash that almost seemed like snow falling. The 50mph winds had also dumped a shower of burnt 1-2" black twigs all over the ground in the night. 

It's been hard to read the news each day. Fires breaking out all across Northern California and very seriously across the North Bay. People caught unaware in bed as freak high winds caused the fire to leap from one hilltop to the next. So many were never warned. Some evacuated and some never made it out. And the flames have marched on, continuing to destroy homes and take lives over the past six days. The most deadly forest fire in California's history and it's not over yet. 

It's barely an hour away which in itself is a bit scary. But lets be real, there are a lot of things between us and the fires so those particular blazes aren't the reason I packed a "go bag" for each of us just in case. Marin and most of the East Bay have been issued a red flag warning. It happens quite a lot to us at this time of year. It means if anything sparks it will burn fast and threaten nearby communities and make evacuations extremely fast. So they issue these warnings to keep us on our toes. We have never really taken much notice in the past but this week each red flag has been sobering. 

Air quality is a huge concern for us. Caelen has had eye irritation to the point of hives and blisters, Austen has a sore under his nose and we've all had a dry cough. We have those trusty n95 masks like the Singapore smog days of the past. The kids actually like their cute masks and we wear them whenever we have to go out. It does help. 

Fairfax has been like a ghost town. Everyone heeding the health advisory and staying indoors. Schools have been closed due not only to air quality but also so many teachers were evacuated they can't run the schools safely. 

We've taken some day trips out of the smoke and enjoyed some sunshine on Stinson Beach and around San Francisco. No matter where we go, no one's mind is really at peace. Every interaction with others begins with "is your family safe?" and exchanges of "good luck" replace "goodbye" in nearly every setting. We've talked to a lot of evacuees and have decided to open our own home to a family in need. Amazingly enough, I checked online and saw that there were hundreds of available homes willing to take in evacuees. It's heartwarming. As quickly as shelters post their needs online, I see follow-up messages saying "we're ok! No need for more stuff" as they are flooded with donations. There are still lots of needs to be filled but it's really important, with so many helping, to check the most up to date lists first!

Today is our first day of clear air. Some of the fires are contained - which is to say they aren't spreading but still burning. The death toll this morning was updated and will continue to climb. I hope the worst is over now. To all my friends around the Bay, I hope you are safe and good luck.

Travel in Flux

Who knew a split second would change our entire year? Caelen putting Austen's and my Green Cards in some mysterious place has meant we are in a queue to get new ones for likely over a year. Our trip to Europe was canceled. Joel was able to bank his sabbatical and we'll attempt this next Summer. Austen was especially bummed out about the change of plans so we booked a short trip to SoCal to visit both Disneyland and Legoland and our friends down that way. It was a success and took everyone's mind off yearning for the Tuscan hills.

Our Summer Travel Destination Will Be...

Europe! Yes, we are taking the boys on a 9-hour flight at ages 18 months and 4. Austen, who has difficulty with sitting still for all 10 minutes of circle time at preschool is probably going to love sitting in his seat for an entire day but what can I say. We're gluttons for punishment.

The plan is to spend a chunk of time in Italy somewhere in Tuscany. We will be having a little reunion with some dear friends we miss so much from our time in Singapore. We'll also be finishing our travels with a week in London. Nothing is booked yet, no dates are set in stone but the wheels are churning.