When I was recently in London, I was lucky to spend an afternoon hanging out at Coram’s Fields with Victoria Wallop and her son Dickon. (And you can tell, by the way, that we were two solo moms trying to cram about three days worth of conversation into part of an afternoon while watching our kids at the same time – did I think to snap a photo of us together? Of course not.) Victoria writes a blog called It’s A Small World After All and she is about to embark on a 9-month trip that will take her, her husband, and their three children (8, 6, and 4) from London to such far-flung places as New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, and Disneyland. They leave this fall and she seemed remarkably calm and pulled together for someone who still has to find someone to rent her house while she is gone. Oh and for someone who will spend the better part of a year in the constant company of three people under the age of nine!
Victoria isn’t the only person I know who is about to start a travel adventure with multiple children. Looking west I see Michelle Duffy of WanderMom who in a few short weeks will be leaving with her husband two tween boys to explore Bolivia, Laos, China, and possibly Egypt (just to name a few of their planned stops). Michelle literally wrote the book on traveling with kids and she and her husband have been biding their time in high-tech jobs while just itching to hit the road. I’m very excited for their family that departure is now imminent. (Again, I spent lots of time hanging out with Michelle at the BlogHer conference in Chicago last summer but we were too busy gabbing to take a picture apparently.)
When Matt and I sold our house and one of our cars and hit the road seven years ago, we were mostly traveling domestically; the farthest we were heading from home was Italy. More significantly, we only had one child. I smile now when I think how complicated and difficult it all seemed at the time. I’m sure Victoria and Michelle would smile too to see how stressed out Matt and I were about things like making sure that Tommy had his own dark and silent bedroom or what would happen if he missed a nap. The two of them have trips planned that make our jaunt seem strictly minor league. Trips that involve things like vaccinations and schooling on the road.
Anyway, today I’m dreaming not of our previous trip, already taken and well catalogued, but of a new extended adventure that Matt and I have just begun to discuss. This one will possibly take us to the far side of the world from where we live, to places like Hawaii, Australia, Korea, and India with school-age children who expect more from us and from the world than a toddler ever could. It’s more than a couple of years away and only a gleam in our eyes at this point, but it’s there, a golden possibility. A perfect Monday Dream.
What are you dreaming of on this fine morning? Or perhaps you are already living the dream of extended and distant travel? Either way, I hope that you will share your link below. And I do hope you’ll check out Victoria’s and Michelle’s blogs – I know that their stories are going to inspire me until I can follow in their footsteps. What I love about both of them is that they are taking their trips for a very pure and simple reason: They love the world and want to explore it with their children.
(Questions about how to participate? See About Monday Dreaming.)
Photo courtesy of atomicShed via Flickr.
It was so lovely to meet you, if very briefly, and it did feel as if we were trying to cram a million conversations into an afternoon. I used to worry constantly about darkened rooms and nap times. I’ve only just started to relax on that front. I still try and stick pointlessly to bedtimes. I supect they’ll go out of the window too…
Very exciting to hear about your dream. Ours started like that almost 3 years ago, it’s hard to believe we are actually going to pull it off.
Wonderful post Mara. I’m just beginning the planning for an around the world trip (www.globetrottingmama.com) with my husband and two boys (8 and 6) in July 2011. So cool to see how many others have done something similar or are thinking about it for down the road. I’m hoping that all the stress in the now will mean wonderful memories for the kids and us down the road. Loved the post and will be checking in on the blogs you mention to cheer them on.
Victoria – for us it’s going to be more like 4 years. But I know from experience (my own and others) how quickly that time will pass.
Heather – I am so happy to hear that you are planning a similar trip. Michelle and Victoria are going to be wonderful guides to us all, I’m sure of it (no pressure ladies).
Your friend’s trip sounds really exciting. It’s something we should all do. It’s great to hear that you want to do that too.
So happy to read this & hear or your new extended travel plan! I’m coming late to this because we have been busy traveling on our own open ended, non-stop around the world family trip, so have little time for internet chatting. 😉
We are entering our 5th year of non-stop world travel and still loving every moment. I think it gets easier the longer one does it, so my suggestion is to take more than a year, as much time as you can. The world is big. Slow travel works so much better for families or you can do a bit of slow and faster travel by picking some “bases”.
After 32 countries & 4 continents, we are about to add another phase to our journey which is always exciting and a bit nerve wracking too as we jump into the unknown in a bigger way.
We are in Barcelona now, after months of exploring more of France, we are about to take off to Malaga, London, SF to see family, Hawaii, Tahiti, Nz, Sidney, Singapore, and then Penang for the winter where kidlet will immerse in her Mandarin at a Chinese school there, then off to India in the spring to visit friends & see the Taj Mahal before heading back to another summer in Europe. We will add other short trips to SE Asian countries too.
We hope to stay within our 23 dollars a day per person budget, which will be more challenging with all these flights added to the mix.
I’ve tried all kinds of travel in my lifetime, but extended travel as a family is the best IMHO, so wishing you, Michelle, & Victoria the very best in your journeys and dreams!
One family did it with 8 kids and a grandpa, on a very low budget, so It is really doable for all who dream about it. Planning and preparing was the hardest for us, we took a year….but doing it has been easy!