AJ and I have rarely followed the “conventional” path, so it’s likely unsurprising that we are hitting pause on our current lives and taking a full year to travel the world. There is obviously no one direct route through life. For us, this has meant is choosing to live apart for the last two years while I worked in San Diego and AJ finished grad school in LA. Now that AJ is graduating and we are evaluating which city to put down roots in (hint: East Coast), we are taking full advantage of our transition time.

Affectionately dubbed the “baby bucket list tour,” this trip consists mainly of countries that we would not readily consider once we have children—because of timing, logistics, or practicalities. Western Europe? Too expensive. East Asia? Just throw the kid in a baby bjorn… Albania, Uzbekistan, Burkina Faso… now we’re talking.

While we are keeping the planning deliberately loose, we do have some idea of where we will be. We are currently beginning in the Balkans, heading up through the Caucasus and a few of the ‘stans, down to West Africa, then on to Africa’s east coast, followed by Southeast Asia to connect with some dear friends, and finally(?) South Asia and maybe Australia (My last continent!).

Stay tuned for more on our travels!