I wanted a family so bad. So, so bad. And I got one, a pretty great one in the end. I can’t say I’d recommend having your first kid at 21 but I really wanted a baby and I wanted to start early so I could be “done” relatively young. Here I am, 43 years old and my youngest (my sweet baby) is getting settled at college. I now realize that “done” is not the right word and even if it was, I don’t want to be done. I adore my children, they are cool and interesting people and I am so lucky to have them. I will keep being their mom and parenting them as long as they’ll let me, but the dynamic has shifted considerably. They are all launched, living the life that they want and my daily presence is no longer necessary. I get to support and guide from afar, video call for updates and fly them out to us whenever they have time to visit.
It’s been a twisty-turny road but here I am, sitting in a bar in Seattle with my amazing partner; no house, no car, no dependents (kinda) only a plane ticket and some Airbnb reservations, two days away from leaving the country on a one way flight
We have been planning this out for years now, had a big false start two years ago and a lot of ups and downs, doubts and hopes. But we’ve made it. Kids settled and secure. Business fully mobile. Belongings liquidated. Fingers crossed. Ready for the next chapter.
I’d like to chronicle this for myself and for our friends and family, I’m excited about what we’re doing and want to share it with the people we love. I guess it’s okay if strangers see it too, I’ve certainly benefited from other people’s experiences and use blogs and Tiktoks to research everything. I’d like to share the good and the bad, the fun and the challenges. This will not be an indefinite vacation, not only will we still be working but we really want to live a full life which includes all the regular stuff. Stuff like laundry, grocery shopping, social interactions, gym visits…you know, life. This is not day drinking on the beach, it’s going to be our best stab at living like the locals in whatever location we will be in.
This has not been an easy decision, we will miss our people. We will miss milestones; birthdays, hard days, exciting news…the every day minutia that makes up life and relationships. I know it will be hard, it already is. But hard is okay, I suppose. I trust that our most important people will be there for us and with us, even when we’re far away.
Right now we’re pet sitting in Seattle, this allows us to stay for free in a very cute house close enough to where our kiddo is settling into dorm life. It’s given us a chance to be close enough to make sure he’s got what he needs for his dorm, help him navigate the move-in, visit the financial aid office, enjoy meals and the city together. In exchange for free accommodation, all we have to do is love and care for two very, very cute pups. It’s such a win-win and we hope to include pet sitting in our travels. We want houses, not hotels. We want to cook, spread out a bit, be in neighborhoods, have the full experience whenever possible and trading pet care for that is a no brainer. When we can’t do that, we will rent apartments. Sometimes on Airbnb but we hope to find avenues off of that platform whenever possible. We’re avoiding the places that have had a lot of negative impact from short term rentals and places that simply don’t want any more tourists. We will endeavor to travel with some level of consciousness and will reduce our impact where we can.
We will focus on a region and spend a month or so in several places in each region, slow travel with the intention of making some connections and routines in each place. We are starting in Albania which I will write more about in the future. We have about 5 weeks in Durres, then another 5 weeks in Sarande, after that we go to Athens for December with a kid or two visiting. After that…who knows. TBD. We’ve got some ideas but we want to get started before we plan past that, we know there’s a lot we don’t know and we’d like to learn from a few mistakes before we put more plans in place.
I’ll try to update this regularly and include pictures, most of them will be from Craig because he’s so much better than I am at that. Let me know if there’s anything specific that you want to know about, I’ll try to keep it interesting!
The Next Chapter 