Our Trip Around the World: The Details

Hello Friends and Family. Welcome to our travel blog! Our family of four - myself, Jon, Ben and Charlie - ordinarily live in Berkeley, California. Ben and Charlie (14 year old twins) attend Prospect-Sierra middle school and Jon and I are co-founders of a retreat center in Boonville, California - Whispertree (Whispertreeretreat.com). From December 13th, 2023 to April 30th, 2024, we will be traveling overseas to 16 countries on a round the world voyage that has the goal of un-doing what we know and opening our eyes to a world beyond our familiar, Northern California bubble. They leave behind their Cattle Dog, Luna, their friends and extended family and are blessed - unlike many immigrants today - to be able to trust they have a home to return to. Karin attended Semester at Sea in Fall of 1988, while a student at UC Berkeley. It changed her life. For years after, she had consecutive dreams at night when she found herself on the ship, again, traveling aroudn the world and added up the consecutive number of voyages in her dreams. It is a real-life dream, this time, to be actually traveling on Semester at Sea with her family. Our trip will include a different itinerary, largely due to political circumstnaces (we will not be visiting China, Russia, and other destinations Karin was able to visit.) We will also be traveling with a program that has matured by almost 35 years. Out trip begins with a stop-over flight from SFO to Vancouver, Canada, followed by independent travel as a family in Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. Then, embarking from Bangkok, joining SAS along with a cohort of fellow "Lifelong Learners," 500 college students, and the ship's "Staculty." We will take classes on the ship related to the following countries: Malaysia, India, Kenya, Mauratius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Portugal, docking in Bremerhaven, German. Finally, when we leave our shipboard community behind, we will visit Berlin, Brussels and Paris, before returning to Berkeley on the April 30th.  Beyond our excitement, trepidation, and a few plans, here and there, each of us is leaning in our own way into unknowns: unknown cultures, shipmates, itineraries, routines, unknown food, unknown accommodations, and much more.   One big unknown is this blog, itself! Who knows what will be published here?!, whether the stories will cohere, or if we will even have time on our whirlwind travels to keep this blog up! Our goal is to post photos and reflections from Jon and the boys and the occasional deeper dive from Karin. No doubt, somewhere along the way. something truly un-anticipated will happen.  For better or worse, that is likely, when the adventure will begin.  Here's to the perils and joys of living in the unknown...