Greetings, friends!
5 jobs...
4 kids...
3 moves...
2 decades...
1 chance.
We took it. The "World Trip."
After months of epic planning, we departed Hawaii on June 9, 2018 to experience the world and its people.
For lodging, we participated in home exchanges, which allowed us to stay in other people's homes for 1-3 weeks at a time while they stayed in ours. Home exchanging is a more intimate way to travel, and enabled us to live as locals wherever we went.
Hilke homeschooled Tily and Pomai, our 2 younger children, while Charles worked remotely for his company in San Francisco. Our school and work schedules kept our weekdays structured, but opened our evenings and weekends to socialize and explore.
And explore we did!:
Roadtripping through Washington, Oregon, and California
Meeting our beloved Ko family in South Korea
Running up mountains in the countryside of Japan
Gazing at the sunrise in a Balinese ricefield
Watching New Years Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour
Exploring beaches and islands with old and new friends across Australia
Discovering magic in New Zealand
Feeling at home in Mexico
Living "pura vida" in Costa Rica
Eating some of the world's best food in San Francisco
Backcountry hiking with family in Alaska
The best part of our World Trip? All of you! If you're reading this, then somewhere along the way we made a wholehearted connection, and we want to share our journey with you:
Note: each photo has a caption, so it's best viewed on a desktop or laptop, but you can also "swipe up" on your phone to read the caption.
Mahalo nui and a hui hou — with much thanks and until we meet again
Love and aloha,
—Charles, Hilke, Tily, and Pomai
P.S. We've only just begun, more to come...