Nobody believes me when I say that the 80 days thing is a coincidence. But it is.
We leave the day after Isabel's last exam and return the day before the first full day of school. 80 days.
Actually from take off to touch down at Winnipeg International is 79 days and 20 hours, but door to door from our house... precisely 80 days.

And a bit about the backstory. In 1993 after three years in veterinary practice Lorraine and I quit our jobs and backpacked around the world for eight months, doing everything from living in a cave in Greece (a very nice cave mind you) to camel trekking across the Rajastani desert to celebrating Christmas in Hong Kong to island hopping in Thailand to volcano climbing in Indonesia to living with a family in Samoa to... well, the list does go on and on. Everyone said, "Wow, that was the trip of a lifetime!" To which we responded, "Nooo! It can't be the only time we do that! It just can't be." We swore we would do something similar again when we had kids. It's 22 years later. Isabel is 13. Alexander is 10.
It's time.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Day 52 Wherever You Go, There You Are

There you are. Travel may change you in slow and subtle ways, perhaps even in  profound ways given enough time or intensity of experience, but you do not get to escape yourself. Whatever weaknesses you have at home, you have those away as well. Whatever your family argues about at home, it will argue about whatever version of that is available away as well. Whatever pathology lies in your heart or DNA, you cannot leave it in a drawer at home.

So, in the Outback or on the Zambezi or here in fabled and fabulous Istanbul, Alexander still has raging ADHD and talks like a machine gun about video games and jumps around blindly into danger. And Isabel is still profoundly shy and anxious to the point of having panic attacks. And I am still a bit of a control freak, a little too pleased with my own opinions. (And what about Lorraine? I may be a fool, but honestly...!)

In keeping with the "reality check" theme of this post I have dug into the vaults for a couple of shots from Bali that illustrate it best.

Ironically I write this while gazing out across the Bosphorus in utter peace with nobody acting up, whining or complaining. Not even me.

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