“WHY would you want to move HERE??” “You’re from California? Oh I’ve always wanted to go there. Wait, why would you want to move here!?”
Those are the two sentences we hear the very most living abroad! Obviously, after they ask you where you are from, that is the immediate response by almost all. Why do you leave San Diego and America. Because we CAN? That seems to be my immediate response in my head. Because we wanted to. Because there is SO MUCH more out there that we have to see. Time is short and there are so many cultures, foods, sights, sounds and we want them all. Oh, and unknown to us, WE have accents, ha ha. For some reason people guess Canada first then America.
“1000 Places to see before you die” is my Bible and my guide. A friend bought it for me back in 2000 and I have drooled over it and carried it with me on every trip ever since! As a guideline of areas/places I would have never thought of, never even heard of; it enhanced my already wander lust and made it my burning desire to ensure I highlight every page before I die! (I use a yellow or pink highlighter and cross out destinations, each time we go somewhere in the book.) A deep sense of satisfaction comes over me with every area highlighted. Thanks to this book we have had some crazy adventures like our road trip to Oklahoma and going to “Truth or Consequences, New Mexico” because it was in the book. (pretty sure Darren tried to burn the book after that holiday. Sorry to New Mexico and the book, but that is one page/stop we can help you to skip!)
But other amazing adventures have been had due to the book leading us there. San Miguel De Allende is one of those places. Spectacular.
And Amazing New friends are met, that you would have never known if you stayed in one place.
Back to why we would leave California and San Diego specifically; really for me, its because my feet feel like a gypsy. Travel is my drug, its what gets me excited, its what got me thru the worst economic collapse where we had to Fight to stay alive and keep our houses and business going. The reward was always the trip at the end, the money to get to go on the trip. Until I realized, 2-3 weeks per year just wasn’t enough to get it all done and I wanted to get started before I couldn’t hike, sail, jump on trains, etc physically any longer. I wanted to see it all and it was always my answer when I asked the question: “If you were told you had 1 yr left to live, what would you regret the most?” My answer was always, “all the things I missed seeing, all the places I didn’t get to go”. My bucket list was HUGE for travel so I had to get started Now! There was a time that we thought we would never leave California, but with each and every destination and trip we took, we realized regardless of how nice California is, it was time for us to get going thruout the world and of course, EUROPE was our go to destination, as it is for most people. Where else can you road trip to other countries not just another state? Until we can cross off all those countries off in THE book, we are UK/Europe tethered. I want to be at a cafe talking to other ex-pats and when they say: “have you been to …….” I can say YES, and we find that common denominator for all world travelers; Great stories of those exotic places you have both been to. Fabulous stories of the locals, the food, the smells and the joy of discovering something new and being able to share those stories with others that have gypsy feet like me. We can’t wait to see what each new destination brings: people/food/experiences. You never know when you are on a random island and someone asks you to crew on a 160 foot Yacht! Never know when you find yourself at dinner in Champagne, France with an entire group of non English speaking people, using your iPhone to translate an entire dinner conversation and it works! You never know………..there are so MANY adventures awaiting and we are so excited to see what that might be.
The incredible adventure of having No Idea what is around the corner, that is really Why you leave the comforts of home, the love of family and holidays together. Those smells of a new city, the feel of a new guidebook in my hand, learning new languages and more, that is why we we left and how do you explain that in one sentence when someone asks? Why would you leave California?
You can do it too, even if you start as a one week traveler at a time, who knows when the gypsy bug will bite you and you too will say, How can I leave and do this full time? The question from us to you? Why Not? and When? Come join us at some point on the journey, we would love to see you! And the great news, if you find its not what you want to do forever, Home is always where Family is, and you can always go back!
Looking back at our original posts we had such hopes and dreams of being in Europe in 2013; well that plan got delayed. Don’t you love when you Think you Know what is going to happen and it goes totally different?
Well in this case the house did Not sell like we thought right away. Well it did, in that we got an offer, opened escrow and buyer backed out. We never got another offer and finally pulled the house off the market 🙁 Took a break from all the house showings and making the house perfect and had to take a mental break.
Instead we decided to explore America since we couldn’t get to Europe, so ROAD TRIP here we come……wooohoo.
Oklahoma was the final destination But with a lot thrown in: Vegas, Zion National park, Four Corners, New Mexico, Colorado and parts unknown. We road trip’d down the Great Route 66 part of the time and saw the craziest things on purpose and some as total surprises. Thanksgiving in Durango, Colorado was Gorgeous; Christmas time in Santa Fe and Taos NM was awesome. Mind numbing highways of brown dirt/mesas led to crazy singing and driving on the Real live but hugely abandoned Route 66 in some places.
It was tons of fun, seedy motels as we had no itinerary or dates and therefore no reservations, crazy food eaten and Bella Rocked it all the way. Rolled into my college town of Norman Oklahoma – GO SOONERS GO BIG RED and had a great time hanging with family. On to mom and dads house for the GREAT CHRISTMAS ICE FREEZE of 2013!!!! HOLEY COW I might have been born in Oklahoma but this girl has been in California for 20yrs and I don’t LIKE cold! However, I did like finally be in Tulsa for the holidays with family as it had been YEARS.
All wasn’t fun and games and food, we also stayed and built mom and dad a brand new Master Bath in 9 degree temps!! Although it turned out fabulous I might say, we won’t be doing that ever again in December.
Fact: you can only touch the stones at Stonehenge 4x per year! Normally there is a rope holding you a football field away as the site is now run by the Historical Society and there are rules in place. No more just showing up. And you have to park far far away and take buses into the site now. Very Disneylandish.
As we started our England adventure flying to Philadelphia, we were bumped from our flight and flew in late, arriving around 9pm when we were suppose to have arrived at 12pm the day before! We got our rental car and headed to Salisbury which is closest town to the stones, About 1.5hrs away from Heathrow. We couldn’t just show up at our B&B at midnight, so we decided to go on to the Stones and sleep in our car! Having no idea if you could actually do that, if it was legal or what, but we didn’t have a choice really so off we went. Darren driving a car on the right side steering wheel on the Left side of the road for the Very First Time! pitch black, 10pm at night with SatNav telling us how to get there! Its a wonder we didn’t wreck or die!
Arrived at midnight and managed to find the entrance in the pitch black dark and pulled right up to the gate and parked. With about 50 other cars parked along a country type lane in the middle of the field, we could see in the distance some gates and buildings but had no clue what they were. We could see people walking about and some out tailgate style of the cars, with fires and singing songs but all very calm and quietly, not a big Party scene so we settled in to our car to try and sleep after 2 Very Long Days of travel. But we had Made it, Universe and Airlines be damned, we made it to Stonehenge for Fall Equinox as planned.
At 6am everyone started stirring about and more cars started arriving. The guards wouldn’t let anyone in early, so be prepared as the restrooms are Inside the gates! And no services are open so no coffee either! By the time they let us all in, there were about 150 people and many Druids dressed in style: top hats, Highland costumes, bagpipes, drums and more! We all marched in together to the beating of the drums and the wonderful bagpipes piping. What a surreal feeling.
In a typical UK fashion, there was falling mist, it was still dark and rainy but no one seemed to mind, we just all bundled up and away we all went. Straight up to the stones. Amazing experience but no wonderful sunrise this morning unfortunately. No great photos of lights thru the stones that we had seen on the internet, but many fun times were had and we got to walk all around and touch and feel the stones.
We finally made it across the pond and to London, our first trip and we packed it all in, in just a few days. There is so much to see and so much to do. Everything you’ve seen in the movies and there you are! The double decker buses, the black taxi cabs, Big Ben and Parliament, its all in front of you and so bizarre and we Loved it
We are about to start the second half of our life with a BIG adventure of becoming Flex Pats living in Europe as American’s! Europeans think nothing of “hey lets move to the U.S” and yet very few American’s think, (except for backpacking college kids), I want to move to Europe and learn/live a different way.
Well Darren and Darla have talked about this for YEARS and now we are finally going to go for it. We have an advantage of moving there and being able to work in two ways: Darren is a British citizen due to his father and grandparents being born in England, making him an automatic UK citizen. We have worked on finding about all of this for years, and finally secured his UK passport 3 yrs ago and still have not used it! Well now is the day and we are on the beginning of our adventure.
We are selling our house in Carlsbad as Major Step 1. So wish us luck as we will be listing it this week. We’ve been prepping, upgrading, beautifying for a few weeks and this is the week to go live on the realtor MLS. Wondering how long it will take and whom will love our house as much as we do?
We joined a UK online tutorial group of a married couple in London who have traveled and worked abroad for 6yrs. They are hopefully going to share and teach us the pitfalls, pros and cons of how to do all of this, and how to work and travel as well.
Our first adventure travel, is we are going to England for 10 days this Fall/Sept/October to check it out and work on getting our credentials for living in England first. Setting up bank accounts, getting their version of Social Security #s etc etc. and identifying WHERE in England do we want to become our home base for a minute.
But first things first, and that is selling this house, selling our cars, and most all our furniture and possessions as I don’t want to lug anything across the pond. we will start anew. So if you know anyone that wants a beautiful ocean view house in Carlsbad CA and furniture to go with it? just drop me a line!
This was where we began to dream of letting go of most of our worldly possessions (and good lord we had ALOT of stuff) and taking up the mantle of “World Travelers”. Our beautiful home in Carlsbad Ca/San Diego. Two people with a burning desire to explore the world and evolve into our higher selves through open communication, meeting new people/cultures and shared experience. Learning all along the way thru experience. Taking a 10 day holiday once a year or even twice a year just isn’t enough anymore! Join us as we do our best to document this incredible journey.
But other amazing adventures have been had due to the book leading us there. San Miguel De Allende is one of those places. Spectacular.
Travel is my drug, its what gets me excited, its what got me thru the worst economic collapse where we had to Fight to stay alive and keep our houses and business going. The reward was always the trip at the end, the money to get to go on the trip. Until I realized, 2-3 weeks per year just wasn’t enough to get it all done and I wanted to get started before I couldn’t hike, sail, jump on trains, etc physically any longer. I wanted to see it all and it was always my answer when I asked the question: “If you were told you had 1 yr left to live, what would you regret the most?” My answer was always, “all the things I missed seeing, all the places I didn’t get to go”. My bucket list was HUGE for travel so I had to get started Now! 
There was a time that we thought we would never leave California, but with each and every destination and trip we took, we realized regardless of how nice California is, it was time for us to get going thruout the world and of course, EUROPE was our go to destination, as it is for most people. Where else can you road trip to other countries not just another state? Until we can cross off all those countries off in THE book, we are UK/Europe tethered. I want to be at a cafe talking to other ex-pats and when they say: “have you been to …….” I can say YES, and we find that common denominator for all world travelers; Great stories of those exotic places you have both been to. Fabulous stories of the locals, the food, the smells and the joy of discovering something new and being able to share those stories with others that have gypsy feet like me. 
We can’t wait to see what each new destination brings: people/food/experiences. You never know when you are on a random island and someone asks you to crew on a 160 foot Yacht! Never know when you find yourself at dinner in Champagne, France with an entire group of non English speaking people, using your iPhone to translate an entire dinner conversation and it works! You never know………..there are so MANY adventures awaiting and we are so excited to see what that might be.
