Our family has always loved adventure. Before we met, my husband and I had gone on various adventures of our own. He traveled Europe with his college choir and was a camp counselor in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota during summers in college. I enjoyed traveling and camping with my family growing up. When I was 15 years old I became one of only two females at an all boys camp in the Boundary Waters. I was an assistant cook at a camp with running water and electricity only available in the kitchen; the camp itself could be reached only via canoe or small motorboat. I spent the summers three miles via water from the boat landing that connected us with the mainland. We were remote. In college I headed, by myself, to Walt Disney World where I attended world-famous training as an intern and tour guide for The Walt Disney Company. We are not afraid to try new and challenging things.
Before we had kids, we decided to set out on another adventure when we packed up our home and traveled to Connecticut to live for two years. We knew nothing about the area, had no family to rely on and no one to report to. After living in the same zip code as my entire extended family for my whole life, this alone was a huge adventure. Living out east meant we were able to travel on the weekends with no one knowing where we were! I loved the challenge of seeking out a new grocery store, the location of the local post office and finding new and wonderful restaurants to try.
After kid #1 was born, we decided it was time to move “home.” Holiday weekends spent traversing the country and being stranded by snowstorms lost their charm with an infant in toe. In 1998, we returned to our native Minnesota determined things would be different. We wouldn’t live as neighbors to our family. We wouldn’t live in the same town. We’d discovered a new way of life and we were holding on to it. We’d move home on our own terms.
It was the middle of the housing boom. Houses couldn’t be built fast enough. No matter how many times we put offers in on houses, they were sold out from under us. Our declaration of freedom from family and common zipcode was quickly replaced by a need to live with my parents, at least temporarily. We kept looking, determined we’d find something just a bit further away. We wanted to be far enough away that visiting required advanced planning, but close enough that traveling for the holidays would work. We got close. Instead of being on same street as my parents, we found a house two whole blocks away. Not quite the independence we’d hoped for, but not their basement either. Funny how distance becomes relative over time.
The mission of our website is simple. We want to help families dream big and experience the joy, rewards and bonding achieved through family travel. Because we’ve found that sometimes the best place to find your family is far from home.