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...