Photo Gallery Update... Finally

We're not up to date yet, but we have posted more photos of the UK and added France. More of the year to come -- soon. Really. No, I'm serious.

If you're unmotivated and don't want to go all the way up there to the 'Photos' button, you can just click this link to go to the UK and Scotland photos. Or, here to go see France.

The Family Trippers: Audio Blog

Listen to this March 10, 2010 interview we recorded with Ian and Anne Pilbeam en route to York from Edinburgh. They're a family of four who decided to travel for a year, the year before we left. They were still settling back into life near Edinburgh from their July 2008 to June 2009 journey when we first connected with them in November. Here's what they have to say about it all...

Farewell to Scotland

We rolled into Scotland fresh off the boat (really -- we drove off of a ferry and onto the left hand side of the road) back in October. The autumn light was amazing. It made our snapshots look like photographs.

We decided that the hearty Highland Cows are maybe the coolest looking cows on the planet and that we like the sheep with the white fleece and black faces best. We yelled, "SHEEP!" and, "HORSES WITH COATS!" whenever we drove by, well, sheep or horses in their winter blankets. Later we just said it, not yelling. We started counting pheasant roadkill, but decided it wasn't really very challenging. We learned to carve turnips, and the differences between red squirrels and grey ones (aside from the obvious color!). We learned to ride the buses, and the rails. We drank hot tea at lunch. We made new friends and visited with old ones. We saw more of Scotland than many Scots will see in their entire lives. We made homemade tablet and mince pies, and sampled other local delicacies -- some I can recommend, others... not so much. We found words like 'bit' and 'wee' and 'brilliant' entering our vocabulary. We figured out how to

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Our Latest Move Includes Indoor Weather Patterns

Our New Digs!Last week at our cottage in Perth, we woke up to the sound of ducks laughing. This week we've been waking to the sound of seagulls and the morning busses going by. We're loving it!

We've moved to Edinburgh for two months and we're living in a 4th floor walk-up in the port area called Leith. It's a 10 minute walk from the Forth of Firth, and a 10 minute bus ride to Princess Street -- the heart of the city.

We're loving living in the city again. Our neighborhood is "being gentrified" as they say

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Another Goodbye

It was obvious as we moved out of our home in Los Angeles, sold our belongings and packed our suitcases, that the mother of all goodbyes was at hand. We said group goodbyes, private goodbyes, e-mail and Facebook goodbyes. We had dinner goodbyes and party goodbyes. At work I started hearing, "Haven't you left yet?"

I've always been a bit of a sappy sentimentalist, so it was all pretty difficult for me, but watching my kids say theirs was really hard. They each had a small gathering with a few friends and, afterwards, as their guests and their parents drove off I'm not sure who cried more -- Owen and Ella or me.

One of the things that wasn't immediately apparent as we planned this year of traveling was that for each new place, each new friend, favorite spot; there is yet another goodbye. Duh -- right? This revelation occurred to us in Serbia; our first goodbyes from the road. (I'm writing this as I sip the homemade rakija given to us by our friend Zvonko.)

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