Before we had our daughter, our house, and even before we were married we had our Beagle, Gabby. Our love for the outdoors had us taking Gabby everywhere we went. We took her camping, hiking, kayaking, sailing, and to her favorite place, the Oregon Coast. She could dig in the sand and play fetch in the...

Our First House In 2001 we bought a small starter home in a working class Portland neighborhood with the intentions of fixing it up, selling it in a few years, and buying a bigger house. The typical American dream. Five years later, while everyone else was racing to buy bigger houses before the prices...

We have been doing a lot of research on the different types of accommodations in Europe. We will be starting an around-the-world adventure later this year that will have us in and around Europe for the first year. Since we will be on a tight budget, proper planning is important. Hotels, B&B’s,...

One of the things that I will miss when we leave for our round the world adventure is my local library.  I did not really discover or come to love my local library until after I had Sydney.  Admittedly, before having a child I was one of those people that if I found an interesting book I would just...

Two years ago this month I was playing around on a website that lets you check the availability of website names (domain names). We planned to start a travel blog at some point to document our round the world (RTW) adventure, but it seemed so far away at that point in time. But as I was playing around...

Two nights ago I was in the kitchen when I heard a loud CRACK sound from the living room. I went to the living room and looked around and noticed that the cat had been woken from his nap by the noise and was also looking around. I could not find anything that would have caused that noise and dismissed...

Our newest sponsor, Pimsleur, has offered to teach us foreign languages while we travel. This is really exciting as having the ability to communicate with the people we meet while traveling will add a whole new level to the experience on our around the world trip.  It’s nice to think that everyone...

The world is vast and there are so many places to see.   Once you make the plunge and decide that traveling is a priority, how do you decide where to go and what to see?   After all, there is only so much time and money and you must pick and choose.  We have gradually narrowed the places that we...

It was only 8 weeks ago that we were in Hawaii, yet, I feel a void; an emptiness that can only be filled with a plan to go somewhere warm, exotic, or adventurous. You would think that since we are starting our round the world (RTW) adventure this year that we would be excited and the void will be filled...

We are happy to announce that we have our first sponsor! AccuWebHosting has agreed to provide us with a year of web hosting for our website. Thank you AccuWebHosting!!! When we first started our blog 2 years ago, we signed up for web hosting with a different company that shall remain nameless. When it...

You know that anxiety feeling of getting ready for a one week vacation with the overwhelming amount of decisions and options that you must choose and can no longer put off? Will you pack enough? Will you pack too little? Will you need to dress up? What if your luggage gets lost? Will you get sick? What...

Chocolate cake. Those two words best describe Waikiki on the Hawaiian island of Oahu; good in small doses, but sickening if you get too much. After returning for a week, we overdosed! Three years ago we spent three nights in Waikiki before heading to the island of Kauai. We had expected to hate Waikiki,...