Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

Sorry for the wait, folks, but things have been a little too hectic here to get a post (or several posts) online. This morning I pointed out to Elise that two weeks from today (Saturday, August 10), we will be in Duluth with our RV. Between now and then, she and I will fly back to Oregon, spend about a week packing and preparing, and then three days driving to Minnesota. That also means we're two weeks away from something resembling a first day of school. Holy cow, the preparation for that has really consumed us for the last few days. Probably procrastinated on that task a bit too much. Anyway, the purpose of this post is to tell you the story of last weekend, which we spent in Minneapolis. To set the scene, we left our cabin in northern Wisconsin on the morning of Saturday, August 3rd; we dropped excess stuff back in Duluth and then drove about three hours down to "the cities." Unbeknownst to the kids, our former nanny was on a flight from Colorado for a surprise visit...

Dear Reader, Having successfully broken the streak of consecutive daily posts, my attention turned to the looming milestone: one month on the road. I'm writing on Sunday, July 21. We left Portland on Sunday, June 23. In case you've forgotten, that was spent approximately one week on Whidney Island, one week driving to Minnesota and the last two weeks with Elise's parents in Duluth. This past week was camp for all four kids. Lily and Henry went to an overnight camp on Sturgeon Lake, about an hour's drive south the city. Ali and Cate went to day camp, also offered by the Duluth YMCA. Among other things, this meant that Elise and I got to disappear for 24 hours up the North Shore of Lake Superior. For a moment, I need to tell a story from almost two years ago in order to explain why we're doing what we're doing this summer. First of all, we have been talking about doing this trip for several years. In the fall of 2017 we (the two of us) went to Italy for two ...

Dear Reader, As long as I've known Elise, she has craved Big Water. Not the kind of big water I've heard surfers covet. You see, Elise grew up on Lake Superior, which has this massive effect on you simply because of its, well, mass. It evokes calm. No, it commands calm. For most of our 20 years together, we made frequent trips to where her late grandfather lived on Bainbridge Island, looking out on Agate Passage, which separates the island from the mainland Kitsap Peninsula. Elise always took a specific kind of deep breath whenever we arrived there. So now, here we are on the western side of Whidbey Island, near the town of Oak Harbor, facing another large body of water. If you've ever encountered Big Sky Country in Montana, presumably as a visitor, you probably know this feeling of awe. Whatever it is, Big Water means something special to Elise. Today was a good day. There was quiet reading on the sofa (quiet for us, the kids were wrecking havoc on the beach at low t...