A year deferred

July 9

In 2019 we planned our travels with the hope of slowing down and spending more time with family. Be careful what you wish for. Here we are today, in July 2021, preparing to finally lift off. This has been a challenging year but we feel fortunate to have settled in at our home in Hudson. The extra year gave us a chance to explore the Hudson Valley and prepare for Interlude Artist Residency, which launched last week.

We had planned this trip in a different world, and our priorities have shifted. For one thing, we have decided to settle in for longer periods so that the kids can be in school or community with structure and friends. Many locations on our initial itinerary, like Southeast Asia, have travel restrictions. We have several months planned but the rest of our year is up in the air. 

Our first destination is Paris on July 12. We’ll be in France for just over a month, traveling in a big loop through Normandy, down the Loire, over to Bordeaux, across the Pyrenees, through Provence and Marseilles, up to Annecy in the Alps, and back to Paris. From there we will take the train to the Netherlands, where we’ll spend about 10 days based mostly in Haarlem, a sweet old city close to both Amsterdam and the coast.

At the end of August, we will fly to Kenya. We found what looks like a lovely school program and community outside of Nairobi, where Jasper, Lex, and Willa can attend for the Fall term. The school is situated in the tea plantation region outside of the city, and borders a forest where the school spends a significant amount of time. We’ve arranged to rent a house nearby that apparently hosts an organic vegetable farm and has some chickens, cows, and horses as well. We had already planned on a shorter visit to Kenya last year, and had postponed the one big splurge of our year--a week on safari--until 2021. The postponed trip falls precisely into the school’s October break, giving us the feeling that this was meant to be. 

Of course, if the past year has taught us anything it’s that we’ll need to be flexible. Whatever happens, it will be an adventure, and we look forward to sharing it with you here!