The Adventure Has Begun!

We have landed in Sayulita Mexico. After months of planning, organizing, and pulling my hair out, We are finally here. I am starting this blog to share our time here and to help me remember this journey. I am a little anxious about writing, knowing that I have readers. Please know that I am anything but eloquent, so bear with me. 


In some ways we began this journey while we were sailing in 1996.  We immediately fell in love with the wandering bug while sailing Texas, Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.  Both Ron and I loved the adventure and unexpected experience of exploring new places, meeting new people and generally getting out there.


While sailing, we met and sailed with some amazing people who had made what seemed like exciting choices in their successful and busy lives.  Tom and Mary on Carpe Diem and Terry and Ursula on Integrale took us under their wing (or sails) and taught us much about cruising, marriage, hammocking, friendship and how they had made it all work.  We were also fortunate enough to meet Dave  on Morgan Stern who was young and fun and made it all look easy.  Dave and Heather's (his sweet wife) influence has helped us find our way to Sayulita, in particular. 


When we returned from sailing and began our life in Everett, we talked about taking a year off.  We would talk about taking our (then nonexistent) family sailing, and getting lost for a year.  We wondered aloud about what kind of experiences we wanted to give our kids.  We were full of future plans.  


Of course, 16 years, four kids, and a crazy busy surgical practice later, we got distracted and almost forgot to find a way to get it done.  When we visited Sayulita in the spring of 2008, with a good portion of the my family, we began to think about it again.  I'm not sure I  thought we could really make it happen at that point, but it was fun to consider it again.  Now, Rory is an 8th grader, Reilly 7th and Regan 6th it became apparent that our window of time before high school was closing quickly.   


Thank God for Ron who continued to chip away at working out the details.  In July, we came to Sayulita while the kids were at summer camp and began to look for a place to live for 6 months.  Little did we know how hard it would be to find a long term rental, but we kept at it for 6 days and eventually met Angie (the property manager of Casa Conchita).  It took another month once we returned to Everett to figure out most of the details, but the wheels were set in motion..................


The past few months have been difficult as Ron and I began to ready the troops for departure.  We each worked on things we found important, and often we were not on the same page.  But somehow we got through it, and on Friday evening, November 12, 2010 with four kids, two dogs, and a 16 foot trailer behind us, we drove out of our driveway at 6:42pm and headed South.  


This is how it begins..............