Our Story

A little bit about us

So here's the gang - our happy little family of four. There's Chris (aka dad) and Shirley (mama) and Annie (lil' monkey) and Owen (buddy). We're from beautiful North Vancouver, Canada - and while we know we are lucky to live in such an amazing part of the world, that hasn't stopped us from dreaming of seeing other far flung corners of the globe. 

So our dream is now a reality, and we hope you can follow us for the next six months while we travel across the world.

Six months away from work - what the....?

I'm lucky enough to work for a company which offers a sabbatical leave - and over the years I've known a few employees who have taken advantage of this program - usually to embark on a journey abroad, and always returning rich in experience and family time. Shirley and I wondered whether we could pull off something similar - and the more we thought about it, the more it seemed doable. So I signed up.

From that point it has taken 4 years to get to where we are today - and that was by design. The sabbatical program is set up so that a portion of each paycheque has been set aside by my company - effectively a 'forced saving' scheme. 

This has given us time to save the money for the trip, and it has also allowed our kids to reach a better age to handle some of the challenges of a longer budget-oriented trip. They will turn 11 and 9 years old during this trip - such a great age to be with them, so we think the timing couldn't be better.


Won't you go crazy being together 24/7 ?

Maybe, but that's a challenge I'll happily take on. Life is short, and childhood is even shorter - one thing I know for certain is that I don't get enough (relaxing) time with my kids in our current routine. And we think our children are of the age they will appreciate being with us the most - so easy or not, we're gonna see a lot of each other over the next six months.



Moreover, they are wonderful children and a lot of fun to be around - so we're very much looking forward to discovering new places together, and trying to look at this great big world from their perspective.




Travelling isn't for everyone

But it seems to work for us. We've done our fair share of travelling over the years - first as a couple and even more recently with our kids. Granted, until now these have been relatively short trips which are a bit easier to pull off, but the downside is that they always seem to be over before they really get going. 

We took the kids to Langkawi (Malaysia) in 2010 and then to China in 2012 - and they handled it so well. We learned that they are willing to eat almost anything, sleep almost anywhere, and ride almost anything. Those experiences whetted the appetite for longer and more adventurous journeys.

Here's a shot of mama and the kids in Taiwan (Shirley is originally from this beautiful island) last year:



And here's another picture of all of us when we were in Beijing in 2012. 




What about school?

What about it? It will be there when we get back. Our children have excellent teachers who have taught them how to observe, ask questions, absorb and learn. I have an electronic version of their math textbooks. That plus about a dozen countries should cover the lost class time.


Where are we going?

Lots of places. Click on our itinerary page to see the list of destinations.