Home again, home again

September 1, 2025

Greetings Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Sara’s Thoughts

Well, while it certainly felt as though we were on the road for a year, somehow the last month and a half has flown by. We had intended to send this newsletter out weeks ago, and yet there was always something else that needed to be done. And something else, and something else. Now, it is Labor Day. Our sons start school tomorrow, and Calla next Monday. We’ve mostly stuck close to home, relishing in having so much space for ourselves. Since returning home, the kids have attended various camps. Calla learned how to ride a bike and made her theatrical debut in “Bluey Comes to Dinner.” Simon is reconnecting his with friends, and reacquainting himself with his massive bookcase. Jonah got his first cell phone (no Internet, much to his chagrin), and is learning how to bake and cook. Both boys spent separate weeks with their grandparents in New York and New Jersey. I’ve picked up crocheting again, and started working with a personal trainer. Like the rest of the country, we’ve all fallen into the K-Pop Demon Hunters craze. Justin’s parents came to visit, as did my mother. Life is busy and noisy but sometimes quiet enough that we can hear ourselves think, reflecting on our time away. Slipping so seamlessly back into our routines, it’s sometimes hard to believe that we were actually away. I look back on photos from just a handful of months ago, and cannot recall taking them. The facts of the trip are there when asked, I am so readily able to narrate where we were and what we did and when. There were so many times on our trip I told myself, “Be here in this moment, even when it's hard, because this is the chance of a lifetime.” Now that we are no longer there, I find it hard to recall those feelings. The freedom of being all together, untethered, somewhere else in this great big world. The magnitude of it all – the fortune of it all - particularly when children were melting down or fighting. To sit with this, the knowledge that for the rest of their lives, my children will be able to say, “When I was 4/8/12, I traveled around the world with my family” is no inconsequential thing. This weekend, after living in Kirkland for a decade, we finally visited the Space Needle. After a year of playing tourist in other people’s cities, we thought we’d formally end our sabbatical by playing tourist in ours. I bought a magnet to hang on our travel board, reminding me that there are still adventures to be had even close to home.

Small things mark the passage of time – I took Simon to a back to school meet up at our local park last week, and was shocked at how much taller his peers have grown. Still further shocked, as well, when others commented on Simon’s growth. Simon? He has been right here next to me this entire time, looking as he has always looked. Calla’s friends – a year older, with longer hair and more complex vocabularies. Parents with new jobs. People moving away. Others moving in. The houses on our block that were under construction, now built and inhabited. Restaurants closed. Restaurants open. And our home, still standing and still ours.

 We have way too much stuff. The more we unpack, the more I want to throw it all in garbage bags and haul it off to Goodwill. There are also still so many boxes left to go, in part because I am dragging my feet on opening them. While I desperately want to get rid of things, I don’t want to be the one making the decisions, and there are still so many items I can’t locate – (how am I supposed to complete an 80’s themed 5K in a few weeks without my 80’s themed running shorts?!) While I certainly wouldn’t say that we traveled light, we definitely traveled with far, far less than is currently taking up space in our house and it’s an adjustment to have access to endless wardrobe options and toys and books and games and puzzle books and…and….

…and on the topic of “too much stuff,” supermarkets here are massive. On our second day home, I stared at rows and rows of pretzels, wondering why there are so many shapes and flavors and sizes. One strange thing I’ve noticed is difficulty adjusting to American food, particularly wheat. I’ve had to curtail my bagel habit as my stomach can’t seem to process them the way it used to. It’s slowly improving, but certainly makes me wonder about what’s being added to our food here.

For the year or so before we left on our trip, we delayed major projects and expenses (e.g., a new car, Jonah’s Bar Mitzvah). I insisted on new towels for the house. After a year of AirBnb hand me downs and hotel multi-packs, eager I was for a luxurious, soft bath sheet. And oh, did Frontgate deliver. We also finally replaced our 16-year- old mattress, and upgraded to an adjustable bed frame. All this to say, I’ve felt more pressured to jump back into work than I’d originally hoped. To be fair, throwing myself back into my practice is much more appealing to me than unpacking and organizing the house. I have also really missed work. Justin and I set up my new office, and I’m eager to return to seeing clients. During my absence, my furniture was borrowed by a colleague, so the move in was relatively seamless. I’m in a quieter space, built as part of a larger construction project to develop two new offices and a new conference room in our larger suite. When I left for sabbatical, I was feeling…. not burned out by work, per se, but on a hamster wheel. To be fair, some of that stemmed from feeling like I couldn’t make changes to my practice structure when I was about to leave, and it was certainly a lot of additional work to transition clients elsewhere. Yet, I also felt like there was no time to do anything more. Little time for business development, especially as we prepared our home to leave for the year. My office suite – which was sparsely populated when I left – is brimming with new faces. My colleagues have created a warm and welcoming space for clients, with an added layer of playfulness. The other day, I walked into our conference room to discover that the table had been transformed into a DIY ping pong table. When I started my practice in the darkest days of COVID, I could never have imagined having in person coworkers again, particularly while running a solo practice. I feel very fortunate.

I’ve also prioritized seeing friends and making social plans. Some people have told me if they’d just been traveling for a year, they’d want to avoid people entirely. Not me – I’m eager to reconnect with the people I haven’t seen in so very long. Though I suddenly find myself with far more to do than I’d hoped to have immediately upon returning home, I think this is ultimately a good thing for me. I want to say I’m hopeful that once the kids are back in school full time I can breathe easier, take a little more time to decompress. I also know that life never quite slows down and that the only way to take a breath is to swim to the shore on your own.

Future travel? Yup, definitely already planning some. I’m looking forward to two trips with friends: One in September to New York City, where I will see shows and snuggle my best friend’s new baby girl, Lily, and one in February to Iceland with one of my dearest college friends. As a family, we’ll visit the Southwest in April, and perhaps New England over the summer. We’re still dreaming. But today… we’ll spend a quiet afternoon at Barnes & Noble and Salt & Straw. Tomorrow, Jonah will catch the school bus at the ungodly hour of 7:21am. Simon will walk down the street and stand with his good buddies as they await the 9:20am bell. Saturday, Simon and Calla will have their first soccer games. Monday, Calla will put on her “Straight Outta Kindy” hot pink jean vest – the one we bought months and months ago at a crafts market in Australia – pose for photos, and walk confidently into her kindergarten classroom.

Since we’ve been home, so many of you told us that you were quietly following along with our adventures this entire time. Thank you. It’s nice to know our friends were behind us every step of the way.

Justin’s Soapbox

When I first got home it felt like everything was back to normal. But now the feelings have become a little stranger and more complex. Coming back home has certainly been a continually welcoming experience, and I've felt very little friction returning to the old life and routine. I wasn't sure how much the house would still feel like home, or how I'd feel going to the same old supermarket, same old gas stations, same old camp drop-offs for the kids, and all the rest. But it felt surprisingly normal for the first few weeks. We were out there, and now we're back here. No big deal, right?

Well now it's starting to feel different for me, as the trip starts fading into the background. Every day that passes, our world tour becomes less and less the grand event that we based our lives around. We're now past "settling back in" and on to "preparing the kids for school" and "ramping back up at work." As a mile-marker in terms of how we exist as a family, it's no longer as relevant as it was a few weeks ago. Now we have to be forward-thinking again once more, and it's requiring more energy to do that than I had expected.

Looking back now on the trip, it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that we did that for as long as we did. The constant moving, the relatively sparse living arrangements, the continual flux of everything. It all seems like a very foreboding and unapproachable kind of thing now in retrospect, especially from the perspective of my home office where I'm currently writing from. During the end of out travels, we were all missing the comforts of home and predictability of routine, even as those were the things we intended to leave behind when we first struck out on the adventure. It's been nice to have a newfound appreciation for the lives that we temporarily left behind.

I had expected that the trip itself would feel like it went fast and flew by, but this isn't the case. If anything, it now feels like time is moving much faster now that we're back home. Our time away, yeah, that felt like what a year of time is supposed to feel like. But it's crazy to me that we've already been home a month and a half... it feels like 2-3 weeks at most. I think this has a lot to do with self-imposed expectations of what "needs to get done." While on the trip, things were often rushed and extremely busy, but very little was required from us in terms of meeting any deadlines or completing any specific projects. The trip itself was the project, and there was never really any feeling that we weren't "getting enough done."  Now that we're home we're back to dealing with 5,000 issues a day that need to get resolved as soon as possible: getting the house back in order, getting the kids ready for school, planning out fall activities for them, restarting our careers... everything is back on the clock, and it's moving at a dizzying pace. This is perhaps the one thing about coming back that has made me miss our travel time; the sense that wherever we were and whatever we were doing, it was always the right thing, and the right way to be spending our time. The trip was one big goal that we perpetually achieved over the course of a year. We were living out a plan well-executed. Now our goals are all in the future, distant things we are making new plans for, while living with perpetual uncertainty of how it will play out. 

Are we all that different, now that we've spent the year abroad? Are we better equipped to face these ongoing challenges at home as a result? I wish I could say it was all purely transformative and we're now all imbued with worldly superpowers of personal growth and deep insight, but that wouldn't be honest. The kids learned a lot, including how to be more flexible and adventurous. Sara and I also feel like we have a greater sense of independence and resourcefulness when it comes to making new things happen. But I think only time will tell how much the changes we experienced throughout the trip will translate into personal qualities that will improve our lives back home.

But I'm torn as to whether this is even the proper way to look at the trip, as if it was only intended to be some team-building and skill-honing exercise to make us cooler and more effective people when we return to our regular lives. We didn't do this just to "get something out of it." We did it first and foremost because we wanted a change to the type of life we were living at that time, and to provide the family with the opportunity to do something radically different for an extended period. And in this regard I think the trip was a smashing success. We set out to change our circumstances, and as a result we experienced great variety of, well, everything. So to start picking things apart and worrying if we didn't come back changed enough feels like haggling with oneself about whether we got our money's worth or time invested properly, and it cheapens the experience to suggest that this is the main way in which we should measure the "success" or "failure" of the trip.

All that said, I do feel like the trip had a significant impact on me personally. I do feel more motivated and action-oriented in my outlook now than I did before. I feel a bit more self assured as a parent and confident in my ability to deal with family dynamics. (If I can handle the kids causing trouble in the middle of the Moroccan desert, I can handle it anywhere.) I do think the practical necessities of the trip did make me a bit more of a stereotypical dad when it comes to trying to keep order around things, and it probably made me more grumpy about it as well. There are probably some habits like this which I will have to work on as part of our continuing readjustment here.

But the one thing that the family and I will always have as a result of this time is the unquestionable fact that we did this together. We took the plunge and made ourselves a permanent unit, out in the wild for a solid year, and pushed on through the good times and bad. We proved to ourselves that we can stick together and share in something special, on a grand scale. The kids will grow up, my hair will get more grey, and I'm sure all manner of troubles and changes await us ahead that we can't foresee... but the fact that we went through this together is something that can never be taken away from us. It's now a core part of our family identity, a permanent milestone in our own life's stories. So no matter what happens from here on out, we will always be able to say that for at least this one year, we were the Formidable Five, worldwide. 

Ed note: Of course, now that we’re home, our kids were understandably less enthused about writing final newsletter posts. All we can say is we tried!

Jonah’s Musings

This world trip has been an amazing experience and has left a good impression on me. I got to see things that most wouldn't, and experienced some amazing things.

But, I am also very happy to be back home.

I've missed this house a lot and I'm happy to be back. We're still unpacking and trying to find all our stuff. The feeling of being back is very nice, as I have  missed all our stuff, but I will never forget the amazing trip we did around the world.

Thank you everyone for joining us and reading about our amazing journey, this was probably one of the biggest experiences of my life and i'm so glad everyone else was able to read about this amazing journey that I’ll never forget.

Simon’s Reflection

It's weird to be back and not moving around so much. I still sometimes refer to our house as the "hotel" because it's what I'm used it. It's also weird that I'm going back to school. Summer is over already?! We just got here! And we're still unpacking, it's kind of weird.

When we left for the trip it was almost like we were moving houses. Even though we've been back 2 months it still feels strange. I think it will take more than a year for me to get back to the right sleep schedule and get my bearings.

I'm happy to see my friends at school. I think it will be nice to get a break from all the moving around.

Most of the places we went to, I would like to revisit. I'd probably go back first to Italy because of the food. The gelato and pizza are what Italy is famous for.

On the trip I think I learned to wait in line and be patient, but just a little bit. 

One other good thing about being back is not having to go on planes too much. And I'm glad we don't have to wake up so early. Honestly, who can stand that?

Calla’s Corner

Dad: So what did you think about the trip?

Calla: Well, I think it's been great so far because I know it comes like a great position to be feeling happy and have a lot of time to be great.

Dad: Do you miss the trip?

Calla: No, not really.

Dad: How does home feel?

Calla: Home? Ha! So much better.

Dad: Did your room feel different?

Calla: A little bit because my high chair is different, toys are different. [Ed note: They are not. She just couldn’t remember all the stuff she owned.]

Dad: Do you feel like you've grown a bit on this trip?

Calla: Yeah I really did, I just turned 5 1/2, my favorite place was Venice and I had a lot of gelato there.

Dad: Why did you like Venice the most?

Calla: I don't really know. Now lets talk about my new school and my family. So, I have a new school, it's called Kindergarten. Lets just say Kindergarten is the best!

Dad: You're looking forward to seeing your friends there?

Calla: And they're building a new sand station in the sand field.

Dad: What other things did you like from the trip?

Calla: Ok ok ok, what I'm gonna say is, I can't believe I'm at a new school, it's pretty amazing. My new teacher is the best, seriously she is the best.

So, I went on this world trip and we went to Italy, we went to Morocco, Venice, a lot of places. And I love how it's amazing. 

Dad: What are some things you did on the trip that you've never done before?

Calla: First time things? Oh I know, a pool!

Dad: Well you did get a lot better at swimming.

Calla: And I learned to float underwater, and I got to see a pool because we don't have a pool here.

Dad: What about snorkeling?

Calla: Oh, it was way way way better than snorkeling before, like super way better. I saw a shark, I saw a nemo fish - you might gasp because I saw a shark, a shark with the big eyes. Ok I'm not gonna sing "Baby Shark", whatever just forget that.

My top ten favorite foods I had were kinda like dumplings and noodles and french fries and hot dogs. 

The world trip was pretty fun and I really liked all the things there. We went to kids museums and fun places. For my 5 year old birthday we went to an amusement park. And by the way, the world trip was pretty good. So byeeeeee!

The Schmidt Family Top Ten Lists

As promised, assorted top ten lists from the intrepid travelers

Sara’s Top Ten Fiction Books (in the order I read them)

I read a whopping 122 books during our year abroad, 118 of them fiction. I’ll also put in a quick plug for the two non-fiction books I loved (“When Breath Becomes Air” and “Relinquished”).

1. “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach

2. “First Lie Wins” by Ashley Elston

3. “Night Road” by Kristen Hannah

4. “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi

5. “Show Don’t Tell” by Curtis Sittenfeld

6. “James” by Percival Evert

7. “Bright Young Women” by Jessica Knoll

8. “The Bright Years” by Sarah Damoff

9. “The Names” by Florence Knapp

10. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Sara’s Top Ten Food Experiences (in chronological order)

1. Taking a boat to sample home farmed oysters and mussels (Ston, Croatia)

2. Italian Days food tour, where we visited factories making Parmigiano Reggiano, Balsamic Vinegar, Proscuitto di Modena, and ate a delicious family-style lunch (Bologna, Italy)

3. DIY gelato tour, sampling flavors from more than 20 shops around the country (Northern Italy)

4. Visiting Beta KL with Simon, where we enjoyed his first Michelin starred tasting menu (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

5. Time for Lime cooking class, which I attended sans kids, kicking things off with a delicious chili margarita (Koh Lanta, Thailand)

6. XO Food Tour in Ho Chi Minh, which took us on motorbikes through several of the city’s vibrant districts, alternating food stops with cultural excursions (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

7. Cookinn Taiwan, where all of us enjoyed making - and eating - soup dumplings (Taipei, Taiwan)

8. Our whole day with Walkabout Cultural Tours was exceptional, but all of us loved foraging for snails and spearing crabs, that were then cooked by our tour guide (Port Douglas, Australia)

9. Attending a pachamama - including cooking and eating a delicious Pachamancha or “earth pot” - was something truly special (Otavalo, Ecuador)

10. The tasting menu at Central was the best I’ve ever had (Lima, Peru) 

Sara’s Top Ten Culturally Unique Bites (in no particular order)

1.  Fergburger (Queenstown, Australia)

2. Chicken with lemon and raisins (Morocco)

3. Msemen (Morocco)

4. Boba ice cream (Sydney, Australia)

5. Ceviche (Ecuador and Peru)

6. Brownies (Mindo, Ecuador)

7. Crispy corn kernels and Choclo (Ecuador and Peru)

8. Egg coffee (Hanoi, Vietnam)

9. Cao Lau (Hoi An, Vietnam)

10. Lasagna (Tuscany, Italy)

Sara’s Top Ten Accommodations (in chronological order)

1. Tourist Farm Urska (Stranice, Slovenia)

2. Agriturismo Diacceroni (Volterra, Italy)

3. Avani + Fares Resort (Maldives)

4. Park Royal Serviced Suites (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

5. Borneo Rainforest Lodge (Danum Valley, Malaysia)

6. The Sebel Quay West (Sydney, Australia)

7. Galapagos Safari Camp (Santa Cruz, Galapagos)

8. Luis and Charo’s house (Patate, Ecuador)

9. Luna Salada (Uyuni, Bolivia)

10. Hotel Xcaret (Playa del Carmen, Mexico)

Justin’s Top Ten Man-Made Wonders

Ok now on to my personal top 10s, focusing on the big stuff! The man made, and natural wonders of the world that we had the privilege to see and experience firsthand.

1. Pula Arena

Built sometime between 27 BC and 68 AD, this arena rivals the colosseum in Rome. I hadn't really expected to see a Roman ruin that was so well preserved and large during our time in Croatia. I ended up watching Gladiator with Jonah right around this time as well. 

2. The Palace of Diocletian

Not as well preserved as the arena since the city of Split has essentially been built on top of it, but I found myself geeking out on imagining what this massive palace would have looked like as we walked around it and saw statues and pillars that still supported the structure of it. My limited knowledge of the Roman empire comes primarily from reading old Asterisk comics and listening to Mike Duncan's "History of Rome" podcast, the latter of which introduced me to the figure of Diocletian. I still think he's a fascinating character - basically the last Roman emperor who was able to hold the empire together before it started to truly crumble. 

3. Basilica of San Vitale (mosaics)

Skipping ahead a hundred years or so on the historical timeline, this ancient church in Ravenna, Italy, was built during the Byzantine era and had some of the most amazing mosaics I've ever seen. When it comes to ancient art I've always been a bit bored by mosaics - "booooring!" - but the level of detail they achieved with these really was incredible, along with the vibrancy of the colors.

4. Chefchaouen, "the blue city"

A true tourist's delight, this place was among the most photographable cities we traveled to. Every street in the city center was painted a gorgeous blue and made the whole place feel very dreamlike. Apparently this colorful tradition was begun (or at least reinforced) by Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, with blue representing the sky and thus connecting the city to the idea of heaven. Just a beautiful and friendly place to walk around endlessly.

5. The Petronas Towers, Malaysia

Our arrival in Kuala Lumpur finally injected some modern urbanism into the trip, which to that point had largely been dominated by the museum cities of Europe and ruggedness of Morocco, and nothing encapsulated this dynamism like these two silver towers. Like most of you (I assume) I first learned about the Petronas towers thanks to Sean Connery and the forgettable Y2K movie "Entrapment." Seeing them in person and getting a great view of the city from their top floor observation deck helped solidify the feeling that our family really was seeing a broad spectrum of the world on this trip.

6. Batu Caves - Outside Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia gets two entries here, thanks to its vibrant diversity. The rainbow steps are part of a Hindu temple complex that also features a giant statue of the god Murugan as well as a temple complex inside a massive natural mountain cave (which is what the steps lead to). Malaysia is a muslim majority country yet still has large buddhist, hindu and christian populations which collectively make up about 1/3 of the population. Part of what I found so interesting about this site was that it was not some ancient historical place but it was first established as a holy site back in the 1890s and is actively used today. 

7. Hobbiton

What more can be said about the joys of Hobbiton? A thoroughly charming place that, in my view, counts as a historical site since that is how they are preserving and treating it, even if it is film history. Second breakfasts for all!

8. Valparaiso

Almost everything we saw in the Chilean city of Valparaiso seemed designed with some unique artistic intention behind it. There were of course the endless street murals in the bohemian district, but also the variation of architecture throughout the city made it feel like it had been home to curious and creative minds for generations. 

9. Virgin of El Panecillo - Quito

The city of Quito was also an artistic gem. This massive statue at the top of a central city hill was only created in 1975, and as a result its look is much more contemporary than your run-of-the-mill christian iconography. Its style is considered "Ecuadoran Baroque" but I also detect hints of cubism and other modernist traditions in its angular visage. I wish we had more giant semi-modernist statues on top of hills in U.S. cities.

10. Machu Picchu 

This list could not be complete without our crowning historical site which I saw on my birthday and largely served as the capstone to our trip. Truly a historical site that emphasizes "location, location, location" as the guiding principle. Atop a steep emerald green mountaintop and surrounded by other steep emerald mountaintops, it does make you feel a bit like royalty to ascend to it and look out on the landscape.

Justin’s Top Ten Natural Wonders

1. The Moroccan desert

Stark, clean, calming, endless-feeling. It really rewired my brain to move through this minimalist landscape.

2. The Maldives, reefs and ocean

This was like swimming inside a Sapphire gem. The water here was so incredibly blue and the islands so beautifully simple. It was impossible to not feel continually relaxed.

3. Ha Long Bay

While the weather did not always cooperate on our short cruise through the bay, the archipelago of islands that make up Ha Long bay were a marvel. Felt like traveling through some ancient hidden world.

4. Queenstown hiking - New Zealand

Pound for pound, I think we saw more incredible landscapes in New Zealand than any other country. Every hike paid off with a spectacular view in the end, and our mountaintop finish line outside Queenstown was particularly memorable.

5. Milford Sound - New Zealand

On this bus / boat / plane day trip, it was like every view kept surpassing the last. A day full on nonstop towering mountains, waterfalls, and natural beauty that seemed like it was curated in some way, it was almost too perfect.

6. The Mars Valley sunset - Chile

The Mars Valley was itself incredible to see, but it also provided us with what was hands-down the most beautiful sunset of the trip. Possibly the most memorable sunset of my life?

7. Uyuni Salt Flats

The most otherworldly place we went to on the entire trip. Felt like being in some alternate dimension or on Neptune. 

8. Galapagos snorkeling

Never had snorkeled alongside sea lions, swimming iguanas, sharks and giant turtles all at the same time before!

9. Cotopaxi

Our hike around the mountain of Cotopaxi took us from windswept plains to hidden ponds and steep hillside passes, all with the imposing but serene sight of the ancient volcano in the distance.

10. Paragliding valley - Banos, Ecuador

If not the most impressive view of the trip, it was certainly the most incredible way to get a view. Gently coasting on the wind and looking below, the massive valley looked like a background painting brought to life.

Jonah’s Top Ten Animal Encounters (in no particular order; this does not include animals seen at zoos or wildlife refuges)

1. Wolf in Italy: very majestic pure white wolf walking into the forest

2. Huge saltwater crocodile in Borneo: very menacing

3. Mother orangutan and baby: very cute

4. Coatis in Mexico: they’re related to raccoons and were traveling in a group 

5. Agouti in Mexico: related to mice but much bigger

6. Andean fox in Bolivia: not actually a fox but sure looks like one

7. Rheas in Bolivia: large flightless bird related to ostriches

8. Guanacos in Chile: they’re like llamas and are very cool

9. Vicunas in Bolivia: related to guanacos but much smaller 

10. Giant Galapagos tortoises in the Galapagos: very large tortoises

 Simon’s Top Ten Weird or Bad Things That Happened

1. Getting trapped behind a flooded road [Morocco]

2. When I stubbed my toe at a hotel and they did not help me even though it was bleeding a lot [Morocco]

3. On a boat ride we had a very weird guide. Let’s just put it like that. [Australia]

4. Forgetting our key to the Airbnb in Cusco and getting locked out [Peru]

5. My tablet getting lost [Morocco]

6. Jonah and me fighting too much [Everywhere]

7. Going to a school in Thailand and having to wear a uniform

8. Terrible pizza at a hotel [Morocco]

9. A kid with a sword who was trying to hit us all the time named “Sword Kid” [Peru]

10. Ghost girl - a girl who has died many thousands of years ago who talked weirdly like an AI. She did not seem to understand modern technology and that just creeped me out. She was haunted. I have nightmares about it. [Australia]

Calla’s Top Ten Favorite Things

1. Well, I do like the gelato and Venice

2. And I did like the dumplings and noodles and a lot of other places

3. I did like also corn and potatoes

4. My most favorite thing on the world trip was my birthday. My birthday was at an amusement park that my family took me to. That was the best.

5. So, now I also like my whole family taking me to exciting events. The beach and stuff. Going for bike rides.

6. I learned some new stuff like big kids can do like doing monkey bars and going down crazier slides.

7. And also, I also did paragliding when I’m five years old. And guess what? They [once] had a 3 year old on there! I am so shocked.

8. Alright, okay okay. So, so I really liked ziplining. I did a water ziplining. I did straight into the sea.

9. So, one time I went to the sandboarding place and it was like more than one hour. So, I went sandboarding and I didn’t went on the big drop hill, I just went on the little hills ‘cause i was scared, but I worked it out.

10. One time, I went to a special special special event with my mom. And I had a good time and we had chocolates and cucumbers and I got a new stuffy.

The Schmidt Family’s Worst Ten Ailments

1. COVID – Sara and Justin (and maybe Calla and Simon), Vienna, Austria

2.  Eye infection – Calla, Split; Jonah, Maldives

3. Ear Infection – Justin, Australia and Galapagos

4. Scratched cornea – Justin, Atacama

5. Altitude sickness – Justin, Jonah, and Calla – Bolivia/Uyuni

6. Food Poisoning – Simon, Atacama

7. Stomach…adjustments – Thailand, everyone

8. Migraines – Justin, Italy

9. Pulled Achilles – Sara, Peru

10. Sliced toe - Simon, Essaouira

The Schmidt Family Top Ten Adventurous Things We Still Can’t Believe We Did

1. Skydiving - Sara, Abel Tasman, NZ

2. Nevis Swing - Sara and Justin, Queenstown, NZ

3. Rafting the highest commercially white water rafted waterfall - Sara, Rotorua, NZ

4. Paragliding - Everyone, Banos, Ecuador

5. Motorbiking on the backs of tour guides’ bikes - Everyone, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

6. Sydney Bridge Climb - Sara, Justin, Jonah, and Simon, Australia

7. Scuba diving - Sara, Justin, and Jonah, Koh Lanta, Thailand

8. Small plane out of Milford Sound - Everyone, NZ

9. Feeding Tigers - Justin, Jonah, and Simon, Australia

10. Traveled around the world for an entire year!!!! - Everyone, everywhere

 xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla