Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

People: our visit in Melbourne was filled with great people.  Our host, who shares the duplex with the apartment she rents, was a generous and warm person who made us feel so welcome and comfortable. Her family, especially her 12-year old son and their 4-month old English Staffordshire named Lucy, brought us many smiles. The abundant toys in our rental used to be his and we are very grateful, especially for the LEGO. Our first friend in Melbourne was “Motormouth” Bridget at Oliver’s Barber Shop. We passed the shop several times a day and the kids always looked forward to saying hi. Bridget renamed Henry “Jabberjaws” and they were good mates. Bridget had lollipops for the kids but they’d love her without them.  The kids went to summer camp at the local primary school with a program called TeamKids. They enjoyed being in the company of peers for several days, doing kid-focused activities, and being as wild as they felt like. Ali and Cate made friends with two girl...

First of all, is my math right? I know that we started on June 23rd but that was in the United States. Today is January 8th but that's in Australia. It's only January 7th in the US. Does that mean the trip is longer or shorter? Can anybody explain daylight savings time to me? Second, we've been having a really good week. Elise took the day off on Monday and regained some energy. We found a daycamp here that is effectively drop-in during their school holidays. For friends in Portland: this is like Campfire mixed with Trackers. In other words, it's awesome. We showed the kids the "menu" if activities on each day and the result was that Henry and Lily went on Tuesday, Ali and Cate on Wednesday and all four on Thursday. Arriving at St Kilda Park Primary School for TeamKids Camp We feel really satisfied and proud that our kids show up at a new venue with unfamiliar kids and adults and plunge right in. Henry made a friend, which led to a playdate and possibl...

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 ...