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. They have three grown boys, but they kept all their toys. Paavo was in heaven. They opened the toy room to him and for three days, he dug through tub after tub of trucks and cars! It was a great time for him, and fun to be with such cool people!
Wyatt, Julie and Stephanie after the Eugene Marathon
We then headed north to Vancouver, WA where we hung out with some long time friends for a few days. More kids for Paavo to play with, friends for me to run with, and lots of meals crammed into a short time period!
Next, it was back to Seattle to really prep for some longer term travel!
Most of our travels over the past few years have been more like a pinwheel, with Seattle as the center. We go somewhere, we come back. We go somewhere else, we come back. Our time in Seattle is almost always busy. It’s the good kind of busy because we have so many good friends and runners to spend time. It’s also usually a whirlwind of activity, which is good and also tiring!
Fun at the Woodland Park Zoo
This time around, we decided to make a more linear travel path to cut down on travel time and flights. This meant that we needed to be really ready to travel, to have our kits dialed in, and to have our remaining stuff put away thoughtfully. So we spent most of our two weeks in Seattle prepping. Huge thanks to the Granbys and Choreys for hosting us as they so often do. They open their homes, and their guest room to us. They put up with our weird routines and idiosyncrasies (we’re at home working most of the day, Paavo stays up until at least 9pm most nights, we eat only plant based foods…the list goes on!) They make it easy for us to live our nomadic lifestyle and we’re super grateful!
Forever grateful to the Granbys for letting us stay in their home. Paavo’s pretty happy about it too.
The end result was that we left town on 5/17 with 7 plastic tubs of stuff in the Chorey’s garage. We also decided to keep our car. We left it at a Public Storage ($34/month). We unplugged the battery, had it detailed and cleaned really well, put a cover on it, and said so long!
The Plan
We’re heading out of the PNW without a return date for the first time in forever! Below is the general path we’ve laid out. Things can always change. Certain aspects of the plan are set in stone, others are wide open. We’re excited and we’re ready. We’re also thankful to all our friends in the PNW who help make our fun lifestyle possible. Having strong roots makes it easier to branch out to take risks. We know we can come back home and be accepted with open arms. Knowing this makes it easier to go exploring this awesome world! Onward!
Borrowing scooters like a boss, including the helmet!
First, we’re spending a couple months in the US. We have 6 weeks in the Rocky Mountains, mainly in Colorado, but also with time in New Mexico and Wyoming. It’s then off to Ohio 2.5 weeks with family.
Then we’re off to Europe! We have tickets to Paris (free with Delta miles!). We’re there for a few days before heading to the UK for a month. This part of the trip isn’t planned, with the exception of a 50k I’m signed up for in the Peak District on August 5th.
We fly to Geneva, Switzerland on the 22nd of August and will be in the Alps until September 12th. I have a 100k race (CCC) at the end of August, and then we’re likely going to travel around the Alps visiting other friends doing exciting trail races in the mountains. We are super excited that many of our PNW friends are making trips to Europe to hang with us during this time!
We have Berlin on the calendar in late September, and Spain in November. What happens in between is still wide open! And that’s a good way to be! Cheers to adventure and to living in this awesome world!
Channeling his inner Moana, “One Day I’ll Know, How Far I’ll Go!”