Thanksgiving in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Parker fishes as I read and sip bloody marys on the beach. We are officially on vacation!

Gulf Shores is 20 minutes from Florida. Alabama has beautiful white beaches that stretch for miles and miles. The weather in November is in the mid-60s to mid-70s. Dolphins swim 30 yards from shore and the sunsets are striking. We roll out of bed mid-morning, I run on the beach while Parker cooks breakfast. Then we head to the beach and set up for the day. What a life!

There were 16 of us at the beach for Thanksgiving. The family rented two extra condos. We shared an amazing four bedroom condo with Grandpa L.H., Mom Kat, Brad and Amanda. It was a very relaxing nine day holiday with family.

Life is soooo good!

FAQ

This blog was created for our family and friends as a way to stay in touch throughout our travels. We will attempt to post an update at least every two weeks. We hope our blog will encourage and maybe inspire others to also see the world on their terms. We hope our accounts will be enjoyable and some what entertaining to follow. Parker and I look forward to meeting up with you some where in the world in the next two years!

Please email us or write a comment if you have additonal questions!

What is Spot Tracker under "Track Us"? -It is a service that allows family and friends to see where we are in the world on google maps in real time. We can send our help signals (non-life threatning - local assistance) and we can also signal international 911 for evacuation for life-threating situations. We can not receive messages, it is only a GPS Transponder. It is essetially an emergency beacon with extra (and very important) features.

Where are you going? How long?
- All the way around the world for the next two years! We are following summer or warmer weather around the world when possible. Two years is how long we are giving ourselves, then it's back to our "normal" lives. We might come back earlier but we know we'll be gone at least a year. Four major issues will end our trip early 1)we run our of money (lived it up and partied too much), 2) we get seriously ill or injured 3) we are satified with how much we've seen and will continue our travels in the future, 4) I get pregnant and need prenatals (oops)! When it is time we will know when to end our trip.

Check out or itinerary.

Why are you leaving for so long?
- We want to experience different cultures by going around the tourist spots and by living locally. We plan on staying in most places for at least a couple of weeks to a month or longer. We have a lot of hiking/climbing around the world that we want to do which takes a lot of time. But in between our hikes we want to relax and soak in the sun.

How long have you been planning? - Since our Appalachian Trail hike (which took 5 months and 11 days), we have been saying we want to go on "one more trip" before we have kids. One big trip turned into two years of trips! - Five years ago, we knew that around this time we would be ready to 1) settle down and start a family or 2) go on our world tour. It seems pretty obvious what we would do but once we had the opportunity to make this decision, it was harder to make than we thought. - We live our lives with no regrets and this dream has been too much a part of us that we could not turn away from it. So here we are!

What did you do with all of your stuff?
- We down-sized our two bedroom townhouse and a garage full of gear into a 5x10 storage unit in Austin. This process was a lot more painful for me than for Parker. The rest was donated or sold.

What about your house?
- We did not own. We have been on a month to month lease for years, just waiting for the right time to make the move for our big trip.

What about your jobs?
- We both loved our jobs so we put in months of notice. Meaning: we quit in great terms.

Are you going to pick up jobs along the way? - We do not plan on working on the trip. Innitially, we did consider this but decided against it. We do not want stress of depending on odd jobs to fund our travels. However, if we are on a beach somewhere for a month or longer and we get offered free surf board rental to work a couple hours a day, then yes, this is something we would consider.

Did you win the lottery?
- No such luck, friends! We worked for every penny!

How can you afford this?
- NO Debt, NO Mortgage, NO Kids and SAVE,SAVE, SAVE!

No, really. How can you afford this?!
- We live fun and adventurous lives but manage to live below our means.
- Our cars have been paid off for years and we just do not buy anything we don't need.
- We have both been very lucky to have great jobs we enjoy and have never been laid off.
- We have only been on a "budget" for a year. With a huge goal in mind, it has been surprisingly easy.

How much is this going to cost?
- We have no idea! Actually, it's all an educated guess. We have a "budget" but really we won't know until we get out there. We started with researching major flights for the whole trip. We subtracted that from our trip fund and based everything else on each country's cost of living, time of year and whether or not we were trekking(cheap) or sight-seeing(expensive).


Where are you going to stay?
- It depends on what country we are in and what we want to do in each one. For example, in New Zealand, we are going to be in staying in cabins (they call huts) that are in the mountains and we will also tent as we hike. In town we will be mainly staying in hostels called "backpakers". In Nepal we will be staying in tea houses. But in Southeast Asia or other countries where we will be for an extended period, we will rent rooms, apartments or cottages, etc.

What are you going to do for two years? Won't you be bored?
- I thought this questions was not serious at first but enough people have asked the same thing. The answers is: we are going to do what ever we want! When we are not hiking/climbing we can do anything and everything or nothing at all! We have no problems filling our free time.
- I plan on doing a lot of reading. I don't want to take away from my experience but I will at least read a couple hours a day. This is how much I normally read at home anyway.
- We will be meeting people from around the world everyday.
- We plan on getting our dive certification in the Philippines.
- We plan on spending a month on an island just surfing.
- We will be sightseeing and exploring.
- We will siesta at least once a day.
- I (Celeste) plan on learning cultural dances as Parker taste test all the local brew.
- Parker wants to learn all fishing techniques and catch fish around the world.
- We will be running a lot to make up for all the eating we will be doing.
- An we plan going to a lot of festivals. Meaning: Party Time!
- We can go on and on but you get the idea. We will be hiking/dancing/surfing/fishing and eating our way around the world!

Goodbye Austin Texas!

This is it! There is no turning back . We left Austin on Monday, November 16th. It has been a fun and crazy month of packing,appointments,dinners and happy hours. We have enjoyed the last 6 years and will miss our wonderful friends and our running, paddling, fishing and book club buddies! Austin has been good to us and there is a pretty good chance we will come back. We had our last breakfast at Jim's and headed out to visit family for the next 6 weeks.

The next 6 weeks involves a lot of driving around the country. The plan is to visit Amanda and Brad (Parker's sister and her husband) in Tennessee, then his Mom (Kat) and Grandparents in Montgomery Alabama. The whole family is going to the beach for Thanksgiving. We will spend 9 days at the family condo at the Beach Club in Gulfshores, Alabama. After the beach we will spend another week in Montgomery. Then we are off to Dallas and Oklahoma to visit friends, my family and the Richardsons for Christmas.

Here we go, folks!

Itinerary

Today was a sad day. It was probably the last time I will go fishing in Austin from my kayak, at least for a while that is. This a short clip from the start of the day of my buddy Steve "Catfish" Dudley. Mmmmm cold beer on the lake, it doesn't get much better than that!

Lake Travis is about 35 feet low in this video as you can probably tell from the waterline.

I am working on getting a link set up to our itenerary for the trip, but it isn't working out as easily as I would have liked. I have decided instead to post a written list of our intended plans for the next two years.

Jan '10 to May'10 NEW ZEALAND:

We Plan on hiking('Tramping' if you are a Kiwi) the entire length of the country of New Zealand. The approximate distance is 3000Km. We will arrive in Cristchurch, NZ at 2:55 pm on New Years Eve 2009, and plan to be in the country until mid-end May. This is about 5 months of pretty intense activity and we will ready for a much needed break!

~May '10 to June '10 AUSTRALIA

While we are in the area(other side of the world :) ) we are going to 'swing in' to Australia to climb the highest mountain on the continent, Mt. Kosciusko, as well as see the great Ayers Rock/Uluru. Our plan for now is to rent a Wicked Van(these are basically cargo vans outfitted with 2 captians chairs and a double bed in the back for about 30 dollars a day.) and drive to the center of the continent to see Uluru, then on to either the Great Barrier Reef or Sydney, depending on where we fly in from, and on to the Philippines.

~June '10 to Mid. Oct. '10 PHILIPPINES

The Philippine islands are going to be the first "real vacation" part of our trip. We plan on getting fat, tan, and happy during our stay here. Unfortunately, there will be that whole rainy season thing to contend with but I am sure we will be content just not having to hike anywhere for a while. We have some extended family in the southern pacific islands and are looking forward to spending some time with them and getting to know the area outside of the normal tourist attractions.

Mid. Oct. '10 to Dec. '10 NEPAL

The Himalayas! Seeing these Mts. has always been a dream of ours. Spending a few months walking around in them is going to be great! We will be trekking from Jiri to Everest base camp and back to Lukla. We are planning on climbing Kala Pattar before going to base camp and taking the route through Zatr La on the way back. Before we leave Nepal the plan is to do a multi-day rafting trip out of the mountains. It's gonna be cold :)

This will effectively be the whole first year, and is the portion of the trip that we pretty much have all of the details worked out on. Well, as much as you can for a thing like this. The second year will be a little more improvised, but we hava general idea.

New Years Eve 2010 to Mar. '11 MAINLAND SE ASIA

This will be another rest and relaxation stop. We would like to experience this area of the world during the tourist season, as we will have seen the South Pacific Islands during the rainy season.

Mar. '11 to Apr. '11 AFRICA

Keeping with the theme of climbing mountains we are going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro on the Kenyan border in Africa. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the continent of Africa and is the largest free-standing mountain in the world. There is a spectacular glacier on top of Kilimanjaro and the views are supposed to be breath taking, as well as the altitude. From here we will travel to Cairo to see the great Pyramids. We don't plan on spending too much time here but seeing the pyramids should be a lot of fun, and it might be our only opportunity to travel on the Nile River.

Apr. '11 to Aug. '11 EUROPE

This is about as far as we have come with concrete-ish planning. We are going to follow the pilgramige route to Santiago. El Camino de Santiago. This famous walk is said to have been travelled by millions of people over the course of time. The route we are going to take starts in the Pyrenees Mountains at the Spain and France border. We are expecting to spend a couple months on this trek. While in Europe we will also more than likely climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. We are also planning to tour the major cities in Europe.

Sept. '11 to ??? SOUTH AMERICA

Wish List: Patagonia, Chile, Machu Piccu, Inca Trail, Buenes Aires, etc. etc. If budget allows we will try to fit in South America. We will see how it goes!