While planning for our year, both in advance and on-the-go, TripAdvisor became our sixth family member. We poured over reviews and suggestions of restaurants, apartments, hikes, hotels, trains, and self-guided tours. As a school writing assignment, we even studied what makes a good review and...

I had the most beautiful ice cream cone the other day. The rain was just stopping, and the Kyoto street colors were accentuated by the wet. Red lanterns, dark wood, carefully arranged potted plants, flocks of bright umbrellas. As I savored both the green tea color AND flavor, I remembered...

New friends for a new year!  We are so thankful to get to know several sets of amazing people who have shared their meals, their homes, their time, and their STORIES with us over the past month or so during our travels. Click on the “Faces” link to meet some terrific people who...

There are some who believe the world will end on December 21, 2012.  That’s tomorrow. It’s based on what appears to be the end of the ancient Mayan calendar. There are many, of course — like us — who don’t give much credence to Mayan prophets and their...

We fly to Morocco in a few minutes … but not after some school in the waiting area. We’re working through our first pangs of HOMESICKNESS. Thankful for this whole journey — to places, and through our...

Happy Thanksgiving from southern France! Through a Heavenly set of circumstances, we were introduced to Jason, Angie, Lillia, Caleb, Micah, Andrew, and Ariana just over 36 hours ago. Since then, THEY HAVE EMBRACED US and WELCOMED US IN TO THEIR LIVES. Basketball practice. Pizza. Games of...

An Open Letter to Family, Friends, and Our Thieves: We are doing fine. We are deeply grateful for your prayers, your emails, and how so many of you are sharing similar emotions of shock, anger, sadness — and hope. I want to share some of our experience from the last day and a half. I...

While eating lunch at a Barcelona rest stop, our car window was shattered and everything inside was taken. Laptops. Cameras. Clothes from weekend trip to Barcelona. Backpacks with whole trip mementos. Passports and credit cards NOT taken. These items were in our possession. Family feeling...

H and I went to an FC Barcelona soccer match together — tonight — for his 11th birthday. We were so close to the field, I could see the evening dew on the players’ cleats. Barcelona currently has one of the greatest complete soccer teams in a generation. (Ever?) One of the...

We’ve added a new option to the MAPS option above on the masthead. There’s now a COMPLETE JOURNEY map. We’ll try to keep it updated.

I write this update from a free WIFI cafe in southern France. Six time zones away, our home in VIRGINIA is full of LIFE and COMMUNITY. That’s the report from the three young men who are renting our home through next summer. There apparently have been gatherings of young adult fellowship...

Up at dawn, chocolate milk for appetizer, and opening presents on a world journey birthday. Happy Birthday,...

Up at dawn, chocolate milk for appetizer, and opening presents on a world journey birthday. Happy Birthday,...

We’ve just concluded another spirited game of Fictionary — joined at the table this evening by a light-up gemstone we’re calling a cousin to the lava lamp. One of our best rounds this evening came from the word GHAWAZEE. *Without* checking a dictionary — can you choose...

Three moments to share from today about the profound impact of LIGHT. We woke before sunrise today to secure tickets to one of the world’s few remaining Paleolithic cave painting sites still open to the public. “Paleolithic” sort of means “super old,” like older...

My maternal grandmother was often part of my family beach vacations. Mama Liz showed me how to play cards on those trips, usually on her bed. She floated effortlessly and endlessly on her back in the surf. And she taught me the words and music to French national anthem. We sang that anthem as...

Somehow, descriptions of new hair styles are a frequent topic on these pages. Here is the latest: E’s “faux hawk.” It’s “faux” because “it’s not a full...

This could make you a bit dizzy with the sped up camera work … but we have documented the climb up “our” chateau, complete with medieval music from a period festival in...

J is leading our first Art of Language class, seminar style, based on a journalistic view of last night’s Olympic Closing Ceremony. Apple juice provided....

Vous etes ici. You Are Here. This is a concept we have often struggled with, as a family and as individuals, throughout our lives. We want to live in the present, notice small things, enjoy our time together — instead of constantly thinking of the next big thing, wishing time away,...