We are Catherine & Troy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We’ve been traveling together since 2010 and have been blessed with many incredible experiences and new friends along the way.
Troy has a passion for photography as well as videography (mostly as an excuse to fly his drone).
We have two young children who are troopers, 99% of the time, when we set out on our grand journeys or impulse adventures.
The world is too beautiful, so brimming with adventure, and full of knowledge not to experience it.
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Saint Augustine
The Top 7 Reasons We Live for Family Travel:
If you’re reading this blog, we probably don’t need to articulate the craving for new places to explore, but some of our friends have asked us why we choose to spend our time and money elsewhere, so here is why.
1. The unexpected happens.
As a Type A extreme planner, I avoid surprises where ever possible. I’ll admit though, my favorite travel memories are when the plan completely falls apart and we enjoy (or endure) an unexpected twist.
My favorite example was landing on a small island in the middle of the South Pacific only to find that no public transport was operating that day. No one spoke our language, but through hand signals and a map, we found a teenager to take us from the airports island to the island of our pension. Or so we thought. He ended up dropping us off at an even smaller island where we were greeted at the dock by more French speaking natives who handed us beers and showed us to a table. In broken English, someone told us that the teenager would be back in 30 minutes to take us to our pension. Forty minutes passed and sure enough, he returned for us, but he didn’t take us to our place, he pulled up to “a dock” (someone’s back porch) on the opposite side of the island (a mountain).
Before we could really process what was happening, we were sitting around this family’s table with the teenager’s aunt, uncle, and cousins having a Mother’s Day meal! His uncle spoke basic English and was able to help us get ahold of our pension’s host who hopped in a truck and drove the hour to come pick us up.
The whole journey took about 5 hours rather than the 30 minute water taxi we were counting on, but this unexpected turn was the highlight, true local experience of our time in Taha’a, French Polynesia.
The unexpected doesn’t have to be drastic though, that joy is also in the moments where you’re following a map and turn a corner to find something breathtaking that you weren’t even seeking out.
2. Being in a new place offers endless opportunities (often without an option) to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.
3. Seeing the world provides new perspective. Each trip makes us a bit more humble, open-minded, and accepting.
There are much bigger things to the world than our lives’ concerns. We look at daily situations in a new light and have the opportunity to form relationships with people from many cultures and walks of life.
4. We learn more about ourselves, each other, and our own American societal norms than we do at home.
5. Food.
6. Wine.
7. Beer.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Neale Donald Walsch
We love to remember and share our adventures through photos, we hope you enjoy them! You’ll find that our travel style is fairly budget friendly. When we splurge it really has to be worth it. We also prefer to walk and explore rather than take city bus tours. If you’re similar in that way, we think you’ll like our “walking map” links that are available within many of our recent blog posts (especially for larger cities).
Have a nice trip 路順風 Bon Voyage เดินทางโดยสวัสดิภาพ