3 years on the road {time for a change}

       In April we hit our 3 year anniversary of hitting the road. Yes, it's now September. I'm that far behind on blogging. We spent Jan thru July bouncing around Florida while we waited for appointments and Daddy's two trips to Cuba. His father was born in Cuba and came to the US in the 50s just before Castro made leaving impossible, so he has always wanted to see where his dad grew up and spent half of his life. During that first trip, he made friends who invited him back to help with a children's bible camp. We were to go with him, but I felt it was too risky for the children once Daddy got very sick upon his return. We plan to spend Christmas in Cuba as a family this year. The mosquitos will be fewer, so the risk will be less. Please keep our health and safety in your prayers.

So here is what we were up to this year:

We drove from Washington state to Anchorage Alaska then down to Florida. On the way up we had our first Wwoofing experience when we spent the night at Happy Pig Organic Farm and worked on the farm with the family the next day. We attended and participated in two bird banding events in Yukon, where we all learned how to hold and release birds and I learned to scribe for the banders.

We spent 4 months volunteering as campground hosts at Eklutna Lake in Alaska for Chugach State Park with our friends Courtney and DeAnn. While there we experienced our first earthquake, had moose and a black bear visit our campsite and had a great time with friends, old and new. We had 3 days off each week and used that time to tent camp somewhere new nearly every weekend. I found my happy place, Hatcher Pass. We went there often, always doing something new. We enjoyed taking Irish and Israeli dance classes at the Anchorage Library. We toured the ULU factory, a fish hatchery, and Alaska Berries, where they grow and make berry wines and products. We camped in a yurt for the first time. We met actual Iditarod dogs who pulled us around on a sled. We watched as people surfed the Bore Tide in the Turnagain Arm. We saw countless black and brown bears, moose, caribou, elk and one marmot. We saw glaciers, heard and witnessed avalanches, and completed the most amazing mountain hikes in our lives. We hiked thru Denali National Park and laid eyes on the tallest mountain in North America. We fell head over heels in love with Alaska. Just before leaving we helped Dangerous Dan write, sing and record a song about our time at the park.

On our way back down to the lower 48, we spent time exploring three of Canada's provinces, British Columbia, Alberta and Yukon. We visited seven of their national parks. Our favorite was Banff and it's mesmerizing rivers and lakes in various shades of blue and green. They have some of the most fantastic Provincial Park campsites right along the water. We lost count of how many of their parks we stopped at.

We visited 13 National Parks in the US including Yellowstone, Glacier, Denali, Wrangell St Elias, Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Olympic, Kenai Fjords, Canaveral, Everglades and Cuyahoga. We visited at least five national wildlife refuges, my favorite place to look for birds.

We found our absolute favorite zoo, in Omaha of all places. We walked thru a life-sized recreation of The Ark with grandpa and grandma. We spent three days visiting our favorite aquatic friends at the MOTE in Sarasota. We attended the Alaska State Fair and the Sarasota fair. Asher and Journey lost their first baby teeth, learned to ride bikes without training wheels, to ride their scooters, hula hoop, rollerblade and swim!

I took my first ever trip away from the kids to go birding with my friend, Nicole. Nearly two years into birding, I'm only a handful of birds away from finding and identifying 500 species! I attended my first birding festival. Our family attended our third Fulltime Families rally, which was extra fun since we already knew so many families this time. We parked overnight at a roller skating rink. We spent lots of time with friends this year and managed to make it to Ohio for Christmas which was a blessing as we lost both my grandpa and my great aunt in early January. I'm so thankful I was able to spend time with both of them at the end. I was even able to record my grandpa talking about his time in WWII.

We explored six new states (Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska), so that brings us up to 35.

What's next?

We absolutely love the RV life, however we feel like we're ready for a change. We've seen most of the states in the US and we've dipped our toes in international travel. Now we would like to experience a new adventure, one that's even less defined than what we currently have. We plan to explore internationally for the next few years. What exactly does that look like? Good question. I only have a vague picture of renting homes in other countries, giving us a chance to live like the locals. Sometimes staying for months at one place, other times moving quickly to see more places in a shorter time. We'll be using Space A military flights whenever possible to reduce our expenses. Traveling without a vehicle means we'll basically be transitioning to a "carry-on only life", yes pretty much one backpack each for all of our belongings! This will be a HUGE adjustment for us. We're excited for the possibilities and curious to see just how it all works out.