New York! New York!

Parker and I wanted to start off our trip with a major US landmark for our kids, New York City. NYC is our first major destination. The two of us have visited before and we were excited to show the kids. It was going to be a quick couple of days to play tourist so we hit the ground running. 

    

We checked into a lovely hotel on 32nd St., The Martinique. It was beautiful and right behind our first tourist destination, the Empire State Building.  It was a short walk over, there were a lot of people but since it was early afternoon, the line moved quickly. We enjoyed the exhibits on our way to the top. Cruz especially loved the King Kong exhibit. The Observatory on the 86th floor was really busy but we enjoyed it. After going around a couple of times, we went up to the 102nd. It was spectacular up there with its 360 degree views and floor to ceiling windows. It was fun to see the city from the top of the world before exploring it.  

***********

Central Park was easy to spot from the top. We decided to walk through the city to get to the park. It was sweltering in the city, in the 90s, but felt like over 100 degrees or more. It was fun being in the middle of the busy side walks, dodging cars, and taking snack breaks from vendors along the way. The kids loved climbing the boulders throughout the park and ran through sprinklers, that may or may not have been broken. Either way, it helped cool them down.  After Central Park, we headed to Time Square.

2004 to 2024!!!

In 2004, twenty years ago to the month,  Parker and I were 1,500 miles into our  Appalachian Trail hike. We were 24 and 25 years old. Since I had never been to NYC, we decided to take a few days to explore the Big Apple. We had been walking through the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, at 2-3mph. Being in the middle of the city was very intense. Parker was told a couple of times that he looked like Jesus, ha! We wandered the city, ate a ton, but couldn't wait to headed back to the same spot on the trail to complete the 700 miles we had left.

It was great going back after all this time and to watch our kids take it all in. My childhood friend Lyn, met us at Times Square. She is a New Yorker and she became our tourist guide. Thanks Lyn! We were in and out of the stores to cool down and ate plenty of ice cream and stayed hydrated.  This side by side of us, twenty years apart, gave us a good chuckle. Time flies!

The next day we slept in, then made our way to Battery Park. The kids loved getting on the ferry and walking around Liberty Island. We loved our quick visit to New York City. It was a great start to our trip and gave us good practice for public transportation. We headed to the airport to catch our over-night flight across the pond!

Thank You!

We spent our first two weeks of the trip on the road visiting family and friends in the States. Those two weeks gave us time to visit and sort through our backpacks, before finalizing what we are taking for the next year.

To my mom, thank you endlessly, for being our biggest supporter. You always encourage us to follow our dreams and cheer us on, every step of the way. Thanks to you and Ron for helping us with our last minute preparations. Mahal Kita!

Thanks to the Kaesers (Amanda and Brad) and the Browns (Olivia and Sam) for hosting us and storing some of our things. We really needed the lake time and we enjoyed Long Bell Brewing.

Thanks to Katy and Doug for hosting us on our last days in Texas, as we wrapped things up and for an epic slideshow of our 20 year friendship. Last but not least, thanks to The Hillis Family and the most amazing neighbors ever, for hosting a great Farewell Block Party.

All of the dinners, happy hours, and parties meant a lot to us. Thank you!

NomadRichardsons 2.0

Welcome Back to our Blog!

Parker and I are fulfilling our dream of traveling the world with our kids!  For the next year or so, we will be home/travel/world schooling Kaia and Cruz.

This blog was created during our first trip around the world, in 2010 and 2011. It was a simple way to keep in touch with our family and friends. So we thought we would get it going again. 

You can read through our last trip. There is also a link to our Trail Journal of our 2,174.1 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

We have packed up our lives in Texas. This past school year, Kaia (11) completed 5th grade and Cruz (9) completed 3rd grade. They are the perfect ages for long term travel: before she starts middle school and gets too involved with friends/activities, and while Cruz is old enough to keep up and enjoy the demands of the road. This is the perfect window for our family and we are going for it.

Our plan is to show the kids some big landmarks and then stay for a few months in one country. Our itinerary for 2024: New York City, London, Paris, Spain, Portugal, Egypt and then the Philippines. We will do a quick tour of NYC/London/Paris. Then we will make our way to southern France to begin our Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We are walking 500 miles from Southern France and Northern Spain. We will be giving ourselves two months to complete this walk. After Spain, we will make our way to Portugal, Egypt and finally the Philippines to visit my family for the rest of the year (October/November/December). While we're in the Philippines, we will  see how everyone is feeling and assess if we need to adjust how we are traveling. Our general itinerary for 2025: Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and then Central/South America. We will post on our blog maybe once or twice a month. 

 

Our goal is to teach Kaia and Cruz how to confidently move through the world. We are also looking forward to seeing the world through their eyes.

FLASHBACK TO MAY 2011! Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam

Flashback to May 2011!!! We did not post about Europe.

Flying in from Mumbai, India to Paris, France was a culture shock. We were in Europe for two months. We stayed in Paris for six weeks. We stayed with Parker's Aunt Kris and Fiancé John. They were generous hosts and showed us all the fabulousness of Paris. They got married that May. Their family and friends from around the world came to celebrated them. It was a special time for everyone.  

We made a quick visit Antwerp, Belgium on our way to Amsterdam to celebrate Queen's Day. Our friends Ken and Allison met us there. The four of us had a blast wandering around the city for days. 

Parker and I decided, after 18 months of traveling, that it was time to go home. We were ready to start our family. It was the end of an incredible adventure and the beginning of another. We knew one day we would head back out in the world again.