We traveled abroad to 18 different countries in the time Paavo was 4 months to 3 years, and every time someone asked us our favorite place, Melbourne, Australia always made the top of the list. It ticks all the boxes for us: great kid stuff, great running, and great vegan … Continue reading
What: Lots of summertime in Europe as well as some transition time to Fall Where: Paris, UK (its own post here), Chamonix, Annecy, Grachen (Switzerland), Berlin, and Barcelona When: A few days in July (Paris), then August 22-September 20th Why: Why not? Biggest pull was to be in Chamonix for … Continue reading
What: Summertime in Colorado 2018 Where: About a week in Frisco, a week in Winter Park, about 10 days in Keystone, and a few days here and there in Broomfield. In the middle, in late June, we also headed to Wyoming for Matt and Jeff to run the Bighorn 100 … Continue reading
We liked you UK, and though you were a bit rainy, we’ll (eventually) be back for more What: We spent a month in the UK (if you didn’t guess that already) Where: We flew in and out of Manchester, spent a week in the Lake District in the small town … Continue reading
We started our post-Seattle travels with six days in New Mexico. A running race provided the initial impetus (as usual) for this trip. Me, my brother, and our friend Alan all decided to run the Jemez 50 miler in Los Alamos. Everything else was built around that! We booked the … Continue reading
After our Boston and San Francisco trips (latter part of April), we headed back to the PNW for three weeks. We immediately headed south to Oregon where Julie ran the Eugene Marathon. We had a great time with some Team RunRun friends and were hosted by our friend Wyatt’s parents. … Continue reading
We had some change of plans and didn’t “need” to be in NorCal as we originally thought. But we had tickets booked, so we “made the best of it” and spent a week in the Bay Area! We love it here so this easily worked out for the best! Itinerary: … Continue reading
Like most stops along our journey, Boston had its ups and downs. We learned some new things to apply to future travels, we had some good times, and we had our fair share of grumblings (which we try to keep to a minimum!) Here are our highlights from Boston 2018! … Continue reading
Paavo had arguably the best week of his life! Nuff said. Itinerary: 7 nights in Raleigh, NC We were in town for the Umstead 100/50 mile races. I was running the 100 and my sister Emily was doing her first 50 miler. The entire family was showing up to support. … Continue reading
In looking back at all the locations of note on our Bellingham map, I quickly realized that the majority of our key spots were restaurants – lots of good eating! While there was more than just eating going on in our short Bellingham stay, eating was definitely one of the … Continue reading
The short: there is so much more to explore in New Zealand and we want to go back. Itinerary: 6 nights in New Zealand. 1 night near Auckland airport due to late arrival; 3 nights in Rotorua, 2 nights in Auckland We have always wanted to come to New Zealand. … Continue reading
While Australia hit it out of the park for us, connecting on all categories of interest, Bali was more of a mixed bag. And while we want to love Bali, and there are plenty of reasons to love it, there are some things that just didn’t do it for us. … Continue reading
We loved our three weeks in Australia. The entire visit here checked the boxes for us and we had a lovely holiday! Hands down one of our best trips ever. Itinerary: 1 week in Gold Coast, 1 week in Melbourne, 1 week in Sydney This has also been one of, … Continue reading
Melbourne was one of our hands down favorite cities we’ve traveled to. It checked all the boxes and felt homey to us from the moment we arrived. Some of my favorite memories that I don’t want to forget are: Paavo eating vegan gelato for dinner at Vegie Bar. It was … Continue reading
The Motivation I’ve been wanting to write on Urbyville again for some time. My main motivation is because I think it’s important to take time to reflect on what we’re doing with our lives, and blogging our story is good for that. I’ve also been wanting to write more of … Continue reading
Traveling in Japan was a completely unique experience. Not that we didn’t expect it to be unique, but we simply didn’t quite know what to expect at all. Well, we did expect to like it based on really good reviews from quite a lot of other travelers that had already … Continue reading
This post has been a long time coming and one that Matt and I think about all the time. What have we learned along the way while traveling with a baby? What would we do differently the next time around, or better yet, as we go along? I’m sure we … Continue reading
Another big life project complete – So what!? We made a “Life List” a few years ago in a search for personal meaning for our lives – heavy stuff! We had quit our jobs (early 2011), had hiked the Appalachian Trail, and were part way down the West Coast of … Continue reading
It’s a simple question, “How was your trip?” with a not-so-simple answer. It’s the post-travel question that everyone asks, and I find myself doing a quick assessment on every person that asks it, gauging how short of an answer they want, what sort of information they’d find interesting, and how … Continue reading
For a brief time I became the king of the bedtime routine. And while my kingdom has now become an oligarchy, with Julie and I sharing duties and power in the realm of food and sleep, I learned valuable Dad lessons during my time on top. I also had what … Continue reading
We have another guest post to share, from one of Matt’s runners, Daisy, who recently completed her first 100 mile race. We’ve also shared her White River 50 mile race report before and wanted to share yet another inspirational story, this time from her first 100 mile race. Daisy, we … Continue reading
***I wrote this post when Paavo was 5 months old and I was feeling very overwhelmed by motherhood, a feeling that has lessened now that Paavo is 9 months old. Every day is still hard, tiring, and full to the brim without much of a break, but that feeling of … Continue reading
If you can’t run it, crew it! Crewing for the 2016 UTMB race was a great experience, yet one that I couldn’t find much information on when Matt was preparing for the race this year. I wanted to share information on how we crewed for Matt, what stations we went … Continue reading
Summary: Options: Very few. None in Les Houches and a few in Chamonix with vegan options; nothing strictly vegan Proximity: If staying in Chamonix, the few places offering vegan options are within walking distance Value: Good at Monkey. 11 Euros for a huge falafel wrap and 4 Euros for a … Continue reading
I am more prepared for this race than for any ultra marathon I have ever raced. I’ve run hundreds of miles on the course. I have done race-specific training like never before. I’ve been running with this god-awfully heavy pack of required gear for well over a month now. I’m … Continue reading
It’s an important question. Why do we run? It’s not often that we’re able to capture the emotions and feelings that truly answer that question, which is why we wanted to share a race report with you that does just that. One of Matt’s runners, Daisy, ran her first 50 … Continue reading
Common question. Something that is often on our mind. Something that is rarely talked about. Money and finance. How do we do it? First, this is a topic that I’m really interested in. Second. It is a topic that we think about and are working on constantly. Lastly. It is … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Call me lame, I ran the same route both nights we were in Geneva, both times around Lake Geneva. I was also blown away by the place. Perhaps it’s because we had just spent two months in Mexico and Geneva … Continue reading
We left Seattle on March 23rd, spent time visiting friends and family in the Midwest in April, then started our Baby Abroad trip on May 1, flying to Mexico City. Since May 1 we’ve been to several cities in Mexico, including Mexico City, Toluca, San Miguel de Allende, Saltillo, Queretaro … Continue reading
Why we needed a mailbox solution We’re traveling indefinitely. We’re in our mid-30s with a kid. In the past we often used different friends’ addresses for receiving our mail, an option we’ve never really loved because our friends inevitably had to do work in taking care of our mail for … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Retiro Park – Within a half mile of our hotel and a determining factor in which hotel we chose for our two days in Madrid. We’ve run here before and finished a marathon in this area a few years back … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Right – In the hotel zone, you’re on a narrow swath of land with only two options, right or left. I went right (toward Cancun city center) on all but one of my runs. This proved to be my favorite of … Continue reading
Book Review: Daniels’ Running Formula by Jack Daniels I know reading books makes my life better. I was recently reminded of this when reading an article about successful entrepreneurs and how much of their days are often spent reading. I am diving into reading again and I’m writing about it … Continue reading
I love a good gear review when it comes to thru-hiking, so I thought it would be worthwhile to compile a list of our gear for our travels thus far, along with why we brought it and how it fits our needs. First, How We Travel With our thru-hiking background, … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Parque 2000 – I literally ran here for all 70 miles while in Queretaro. I ran the 4+ kilometers too and from our airbnb place in the central historic district on some of the days and on others we took an … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Trails just outside of town. On day one I ran with new friend David on a 5k loop just outside of town. There was minimal climbing, but that was on purpose because he was tapering for a 100k a couple days … Continue reading
Vibe of the city: Bustling nearly all hours, friendly, crowded, some pockets more laid back than others, where there are parks, coffee shops, vegan/vegetarian restaurants, and people strolling along down tree-lined streets. Why did we choose it: We always want to improve our Spanish, we have some connections to Mexico … Continue reading
“Lets do this” the email from the race director said, capping off a wild Thursday, full of new adventure plans concocted by David and me. And while battling conflicted feelings, Julie could not help but admit that this was one of those life opportunities presenting itself to us, we just … Continue reading
-Where did you run? – specific routes or areas Chapultepec Park – This place is easy to find. Look on a map of Mexico City and you will see this huge green space on the West side of the city. There are lots of entrances and lots of parts of … Continue reading
June 7th marked Paavo’s 6 month mark and I’ve been thinking back to my first realizations of motherhood during the first few weeks of his life, and reflecting on what I now think about this whole motherhood thing. In short, it’s still really hard, I still haven’t slept much, and … Continue reading
Before deciding to go to Mexico City, we repeatedly had the thought, “What will we eat as vegans?” We assumed most street food and restaurants would be off limits and that we’d be doing most of our cooking at home. While we did in fact cook at home a lot, mainly because … Continue reading
First off, what the heck is a baby box? If you want to know the full story, read this, but the short story is that these boxes date back to the 1930’s when Finland’s government gave expectant mothers a cardboard box as a baby starter kit, and the baby could … Continue reading
May 1st marked an important milestone for our family– Paavo received his first passport stamp when we arrived in Mexico City, where we’ll be staying for the next two months. For at least the rest of 2016, we will be calling the world our home, as we have left Seattle … Continue reading
In packing for an upcoming trip in which we’re trying to take as little as possible for ourselves and for Paavo, I’ve been thinking about what items helped us survive Paavo’s first 3 months of life, and what I’ve come to call my “newborn survival kit.” Before Paavo was born … Continue reading
I owe an apology to all my mom friends out there. Ok, apologies to dads too, but this one’s especially for the mothers. Not only did I not realize how exhausting it is to raise another human being, I also did not realize how badly I was silently judging moms … Continue reading
I’m just over 4 weeks into this world of motherhood and I’ve not only run the gamut of emotions, from extreme joy to extreme sadness, with tears accompanying both, but I’ve also had some stark realizations that I was completely unprepared for. Even with people telling me their own stories, … Continue reading
War is a terrible thing and people fearing for their lives is awful. Last Days in Vietnam captured the feelings of the South Vietnamese during this time period and transmitted their feelings to me via this movie. Their faces were the heart of the story. Fear and desperation were clearly visible. … Continue reading
We finally watched the movie Wild. The inspiring aspect of the movie: I connected with the idea of going for a long walk, an adventure, and the outdoors to create a better life. I have never seen my hiking trips as a means of getting away from something but instead, … Continue reading
Being pregnant these last several (+) months has been a unique, exciting experience that I’m in no hurry to end. From the beginning, I’ve had it easy. No morning sickness, no strange sense of smell, no cravings, no heartburn…such few symptoms that one of the only signs reminding me that … Continue reading
What happened? I literally went from feeling like I was “putting on a clinic” – this was the actual thought going through my mind at mile 80, to “this might be the worst suffering at a finish I can ever recall”. I haven’t even wanted to write about this, let … Continue reading
