Let's just go

{laotian baby on our boat trip down the mekong river, february 2008}

I did it. I said the words. And without having to say it, he knew that they would be followed by Bali or Bolivia or Guatemala, but he stopped me with just one look. The don't go there look. But that was a few days ago.

Today, I got the "I was thinking..." and when those words come out of my husband's mouth, I have learned to stop what I am doing and pay attention. This morning he stopped me in my tracks and I made myself comfortable on the steps leading downstairs. I have learned that the thoughts after those simple words often require me to sit down.

A bit of back story...

In 2008, I became pregnant just a few short weeks after we had returned from 10 months of traveling around the Pacific Ocean. In a decision that most called "adventurous" and only one or two called "foolish", we changed the course of our relationship, our careers and how we experience the world we live in. It is an experience that we reference at least once a day and it continues to be a source of inspiration, encouragement, joy and light when life feels a bit bleak. The decision to quit our jobs, rent out our apartment and travel together for 10 months changed our relationship, ourselves and our life outlook. Free to be where we wanted, when we wanted, we chose to travel when we did, because we knew children would be "next" and this type of travel would not happen with them.

Until we realized that it does. Or it can. Along the way, we met a family traveling with a 2yr old and a 5 yr old in the Galapagos, a family on a boat with a 7 yr old and many others along the way. They did not arrive in Lima for just one night without a hotel reservation or stay out until the morning hours in Singapore, but they traveled. And they experienced. And they were together.

While in Germany a few weeks ago I read the inspiring story of a family and their young boy, living temporarily in Africa - and the images of him in the wild have been etched into my mind. To read the story click here. And though the nugget and I only braved a short trip from San Francisco to Frankfurt, he proved quite adaptable and willing to play along with train rides and Spaetzle and all the new things we threw in his path. So Germany or Africa or Panama?

So today, as we gazed into the future a bit and saw a dog and a second child and maybe a house, we realized we have that need to experience again. To experience life outside our bubble and then find our way back home.

Today's conversation on the step was just that: about travel on the brain. Travel with the nugget on the brain. But that is as far as we got. For now.

If you are interested in our stories from afar, we kept an extensive weblog of our travels. You can see all of the Circle the Pacific Tour right here.