It’s hard to believe that two months have passed since we arrived back on the continent and took up residence in this little green cottage by the sea. It has been a great time for our family. A time of re-entry, readjustment and reorganizing of life. We’ve settled into a new routine that includes some work for Daddy, some school for the children, and plenty of walks with the sand between our toes. It has been a time of asking “what’s next?” and spending plenty of sunsets discussing the possibilities. It’s been a time packed with visits from friends and family, all of whom have participated eagerly in the discussion and added their two cents worth to our life. The general consensus of the sunset sessions with the counsel of loved ones is that our trip is not over, we’ve merely switched continents again.

We were not even a week off the plane before we had purchased books on cruising catamarans. Not two weeks before we were seriously looking at camping trailers to pull behind the van that we didn’t buy until three weeks after that. This morning I bought the Lonely Planet guidebook to Central America. We’re quite eager to continue our journey, to see where the road leads next. Of course Tony is working hard and looking for things to do from the road. The kids and I are dreaming big dreams of kayaking the Amazon in February and hiking the hills around lake Titicaca, of particular fame in our family as a place visited and loved by Grammy and Gramps just before my birth… I think I remember it from in utero! Our friends heave a collective sigh, followed by a laugh and hands thrown in the air. They expected as much. One set is plotting to join us for the kayaking. Another set seriously contemplating the Yucatan. We’ll drive this time (with bikes tethered to every square inch of the van) and it probably won’t take us a year, but who knows.

Sunday we’re heading to Canada. Wolfe Island in June is the loveliest place to be… especially in my parents’ log home overlooking Big Bay. Gramps has been collecting canoes of various sorts which, added to the sailboat and the rowboat that the children call White Swan, bring the boat count to a number significantly greater than the grand child count… he thinks they need a selection. He’s also been hiding treasure all over the seventy acres to provide hours of pirate joy… assuming that metal detector works better in Canada than it did in North Africa!

So, after two months of rest and rejuvenation, the edventure continues. We’ll write this year of adventures closer to home and the joy of exploring our own continent and the next one south. If you have any suggestions for us, things we MUST see, or places we MUST go, feel free to contribute your two cents worth. We look forward to seeing some of you along the way and we invite you to join us in dreaming big dreams!