Our drive leaving Mexico City presented us with some interesting stories to share, experiences that we had heard and read about, and now can personally attest to. These were both highlights and lowlights. Lowlights because of the inconvenience and unpleasantness of the experiences, but highlights . . . . . because, what a story to tell! (Click below right to read more . . . )
0 Comments
We came to Mexico City (Ciudad de Mexico, or CDMX as it’s known here) to spend a few days visiting our friends the Johnstons who we knew from the NL. They were very generous and kind to let us stay with them for a few days. While there, we got to see the highlights of CDMX. We broke the rule of not driving at night yet again. But driving in CDMX was very similar to driving in any other big city at night. Lots of traffic, confusing turn offs, and consequently, multiple wrong turns. Fortunately, the drivers were mostly polite and forgiving, and Google Maps has a critical “recalculating” feature, that we use over, and over again. (Click right to read more . . . . )
We’ve been in Mexico now for three days. The first day we crossed the border from Laredo into Nuevo Laredo, and drove to Monterrey. On day two, we drove from Monterrey to San Luis Potosí. We are now on the road to Mexico City, via San Miguel de Allende. I have begun to write this post while driving, since we’re stuck in a total traffic jam, trying to get by a large construction zone.
We’ll it has been, and continues to be a very long day. I’m writing this from the backseat of our Honda Odyssey. It is 8:14pm, and we’ve just left Austin, passing by an accident that slowed us down a good deal. Nathan is driving, Tera is next to him in the front passenger seat, setting up our family facebook site. Anna is on the far left middle row, sleeping. Jacob is playing his 20 minutes/day of computer games on his kindle fire. I’m on the far right middle row, typing this up, and trying to find a comfortable place for my feet, with the backpack, camera, snacks, and shoes in my ground space. This is much more cramped than an airplane. Megan is in the back seat reading on her kindle, and begging for us to start the movie. Tyler is in the middle, reading on his kindle. Emily is on the right, behind me, headphones in, talking to her friend back at BYU . . . . . . . . . Click below right for more. . .
We've been home for a week from Hawaii, and we're preparing for our 3-month journey to Guatemala and beyond. It is a much different trip to prepare for, we're used to 8 suitcases on a flight for 1-2 weeks max. Here we're talking about a car full of stuff for three months. Since we'll be gone for so long, we don't want to kids to leave behind all their routines, so we're adding some stuff.
(Click below right to read more . . . . ) Tera and I had spent time on Oahu before, Tera living there for a semester of school, and myself taking a trip there with my family, and with a singing group, when I was a teenager. I knew it was a great place to go (especially for the Polynesian Cultural Center), but I wanted to go somewhere else too, and the volcanoes of the Big Island were calling my name, so we planned the last half of our trip on the big island. Our trip to the Volcano National park was nothing short of breathtaking. But even more impactful was spending time with the relatives that we had here. They were not on my mind when I originally made the trip, but while we were here, Tera got a note from her dad, reminding us that Tera’s uncle’s partner was still living here (Tera’s uncle Jeff passed away about 4 years ago), and also Tera’s 1st cousin once removed was living on the island with his mother. We thought it would be a great idea to meet up with family, and let locals give us some of their local knowledge, so we set up a day with them, which turned out be the best decision we made.
READ MORE . . . . . . . click right We started out our year of travel adventure with a bang, heading to Hawaii. Tera and I had both been to Hawaii a few times in our teens, and Tera had spent a semester at BYU-Hawaii when she was in college. It was a "tough" semester for her, way back in 1994. She took one class, American Heritage, had a part time job at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and learned to surf, and scuba dive, and play the ukulele. Such is the Hawaiian life!
Our trip has started in Oahu. . . . . READ MORE . . click right Written by Erik, the Patriarch - 2018 is a year of tremendous transition for the Schaumanns. From a career and schooling perspective, lifestyle and life goals perspective, and living conditions and living location perspective, all will greatly change. Starting from the top: READ MORE . . . . click right |
Plan? What plan?Our first Gap Year was a fabulous "2017-2018 School Year" of travel: from the Netherlands to Jordan to Texas to Hawaii to Mexico to Central America to London and back to the Netherlands. Our "2018 Summer Vacation" took us all around Western Europe, back to the USA on a transatlantic cruise, a road trip through New York and into Canada, and ending up in Utah. We have now kicked off the "2018-2019 School year" with a trip to Asia. Follow along with us on our visits to new places, as well as revisiting some of our favorite places from our time living there. It's going to be great!!
Archives
March 2019
|