Our Traveling Table

About six years ago, my husband, Alex, and I started talking about what we wanted to do when the time came for him to retire from the Army. I think we were missing the early days of our relationship when our time was completely our own. We traveled. We climbed and skied. We had a great time.

Then Alex and I stumbled onto our house, and tripped and fell into parenthood. Fortunately we have been blessed with two wonderful kids who seem to be patiently teaching us about how to be parents. Over the years we’ve weathered time apart, with Alex far away for long periods of time, either for climbing or work, sometimes both. We made it through a 15 month deployment and its aftermath. But one thing we’ve been able to establish, despite all our missteps as parents and time apart, is a routine of sitting down together at our family table.

So we’ve decided to take our family table on the road. We are celebrating the end of 26 years of military service for Alex. We’re also trying to buy back a little bit of lost time together as a family. And to be honest, we’re just doing it because we can. We figured out a way to make it work and we’re indulging in a little adventure, a little wanderlust.

Our original idea of roadschooling our kids for a year after Army retirement has been whittled down to four months, a time frame which seems more doable considering jobs waiting for us at home and our modest savings. So we feel like it’s time to take some time for us again and indulge a little bit as a family.

Our plan is to have no plan. We have a rough itinerary based on a general direction. First we’re headed south down the east coast to Florida, then to the Southwest before it gets too hot. I imagine we’ll head north towards Washington then make our way back to VT by the end of July. We’d love to hear from you if you’ve been somewhere or seen something in your own travels that you found particularly interesting.