Dear Readers,

It is time to give you an update on our travels and our future plans.

As our blog entries have fallen behind of late, our delightfully dedicated fans have begun to ask whether the trip has ended.

We say, “Oh, no, it’s just beginning!”  We love our time on the road and we intend to keep it going.

We left San Francisco on February 1, 2016.  Since then, we’ve visited Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, the Canary Islands, Spain, Morocco and France, then returned home to the U.S. for a wedding, then visited Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, and then returned once again to the U.S. in late September.

We don’t know when we will end our travels, but we hope to continue for at least another year.

Where Are We Now? – We are just finishing up an eight-week stay in Philadelphia, where Frank was born and raised.  After a fall in her home, Frank’s mom spent the past couple of months recovering in a nursing home.  We took advantage of our itinerant lifestyle to come stay in a variety of Airbnb houses in the Philly area, and, along with Frank’s other siblings, help support Frank’s mom in her recuperation.  Against difficult odds, she made enough progress to be discharged to home yesterday, November 30.  Her 93rd birthday is December 31.

 

What’s Next? – On Sunday December 4, we are scheduled to fly to California, to await the arrival of grandson #2 (due date is 12/14).

We plan to remain in the San Francisco area to celebrate the holidays with family and friends — and with grandson #1, two-year old Benson. We are planning lots of trips to the park with Benson.  We expect he will want some special grandpop time, away from his new baby brother!

And Then What? – We are thinking of spending six or eight weeks exploring the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand, starting in January 2017.  After that, we will probably head back to Europe for six months, taking us through the end of summer 2017.  After that, maybe Southeast Asia, we’ll see.

 

On the Topic of Blog Timeliness – Having a blog is a lot like being in college and always having about six term papers overdue, but without the advantage of a deadline hanging over our heads.  Currently we lag in describing our recent visits to three European cities (Amsterdam, Berlin & Prague).  Plus, the last eight weeks in Philadelphia.  Yikes!

Almost like a New Year’s resolution, we pledge to be more timely in writing and posting our blog entries as we move from place to place.  Let’s see how well we do.

When the Trip is Over – What will it look like when we eventually come home again?  We are not sure.  We might continue to lease out our house (we have wonderful tenants who love it), and live for a time in apartments around the Bay Area.  We might buy a fixer-upper so Brian can play with a remodel project. (Frank says, “What??!!”)

We’re not entirely sure what’s ahead, but we do very much like the downsized, possession-free lifestyle we have now.

Thanks to all of our blog followers!  We have had around 23,000 visits to our blog.  More that 2,400 different people have read the blog thus far, and 90 who get an automatic email with each new post.  Look for a couple of new entries this week (trying to simulate a deadline).

We love receiving comments on our blog entries, so please keep those comments coming.  Also, dear readers, please feel free to introduce the blog to your friends via email, word-of-mouth, Facebook, mental telepathy, etc.

Love to all,

Brian & Frank