What's your first stop? Er.......

With 40 days to go until we leave the country we thought we would have more clarity about where we would be going, and when. Boy, were we wrong about that! So while we are making plans to get dentists visited, movers booked, and packing lists checked and double checked, we feel no closer to a reliable itinerary than we were a month ago. A week ago. A day ago. We are updating and moving things around pretty much daily, sometimes hourly, as we hear news of the world. Japan has been moved from September to next May, SE Asia has a fall back plan for spring if fall doesn't work out, and a few countries have been taken off the list entirely. Australia and New Zealand remain in question. We are learning to roll with it and have become pretty chill about having to make decisions and pivot on the road.

The good--we will still be able to visit most of the places we want to go. And we are learning patience and flexibility in this process. We are all vaccinated and will restrict our travel to where our tourist dollars can do some good and we won't negatively impact communities that are struggling with limited health resources or other issues.

The bad--there will be some countries from our original itinerary that we will be unable to visit. No Myanmar, no India/Nepal/Sri Lanka leg of the trip. No Pulau. No China. Hopefully we will make it to all of those places in the future. Right now, we will focus on the positives and where we *can* go.

And the not ugly--this world is incredibly diverse, interesting, and beautiful. No matter where we go, we will have adventures. We will get to have a wonderful experience and will get to spend (another) entire year together as a family. No complaints here.

So back to the title of the blog--what *is* our first stop? Well, as of today (5/2/21) we have plans to fly from Los Angeles to Heathrow and then on to Faro, Portugal. We intend to stay there a week and then head to Malta, Turkey, Greece, and Croatia before heading to Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. Portugal is not currently open, but we are hoping it will open soon. Malta has plans to open up to vaccinated people and Turkey was open but now is having some lockdowns so that is TBD. After spending the summer in Europe, we will head to the Maldives and Seychelles in September, followed by the Middle East. After that, we hope to head to SE Asia, with Australia and New Zealand rounding out 2021. 2022 should bring us to South America and travel that includes Peru and the Amazon, Rio and Carnival, Argentina and a cruise to Antarctica. Then we head back to SE Asia to head to any countries that may have been closed in the fall of 2021. Perhaps Philippines, Taiwan, Borneo, Bali. Japan in May. As of now, the plan is to end the trip at the Great Barrier Reef and make our way home sometime in July.

We will keep everyone updated as we know our plans. We are still hoping some of our friends and family will be able to meet us out and about in the world. If you want to put in for specific destinations or dates, please let us know and we can make something work. We are nothing if not flexible at this point.

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain

The journey hasn't even begun and we are already changed by it.