Topeka to Colorado Springs

Well, it's been a long time since we have had WIFI,  pretty much since we hit Colorado - and I'm happy with that.  So, although we are now in New Mexico, I'm catching up on Colorado a few states later.  On the way there, we camped out in a western Kansas town, Goodland, where I attempted to make my first batch of cornbread in the dutch oven - big FAIL!  I thought the more coals the better - not so much! The nice Polish couple that ran the campground actually made homemade pierogis which they would deliver to your site on a bicycle so in hindsight that may have been a better bet.

Colorado Springs was a huge playground.  We extended our stay there by a few days but could easily have stayed longer.  We loved Red Rock and the Garden of the Gods, beautiful formations and awesome hiking and climbing (clambering).  We were camped very close to the Garden so were able to get in there a few times.

 The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were something that had not been on our radar but have actually become somewhat of a theme on our trip.  As we've explored the Colorado Plateau over the past few weeks, we have all learned about the Ancestral Puebloans and been to several cliff dwellings across the southwest now.

When we were at Manitou, Emily got to pet a rescue wolf which then led us to the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center .  The center is home to rescued wolves and also is active in wolf conservation.  We took the feeding tour which was later in the day.  As the volunteer took everyone around the center, she discussed each type of wolf and also gave a no holds barred discussion on the cruelty that occurs in the industry surrounding wolves (fur trade, photomills, etc...).  The kids (and we) learned a lot; watching the wolves eat was pretty awe inspiring as they just snapped right through big bones.  At one point the wolves all started to spontaneously howl, it sent shivers down my spine - so primal.

Our last day at Colorado Springs was at the Space Foundation Discovery Center.  It has a great children's program, and everyone there seemed very homeschool friendly, they took the time to answer all the kids questions, and gave them a free backpack with all their learning materials and 3D glasses when we left (the kids call it their space pack).  It is one of the best space  museums I've visited; the science on a sphere is an excellent way to depict abstract concepts, I think there are only 7 in the world.

We hit the road again for the Great Sand Dunes National Park - a place I'd never heard of before this trip and now one of our favorites.  They are the largest sand dunes in North America and to see them juxtaposed against the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range and Mendano Creek is absolutely bizarre.  We 'dry camped' there. In RV lingo we've discovered that means no hook ups - it also means far more natural settings and better fire rings!  We tend to alternate between dry camping for a few days then going for a KOA or such when we need showers and to do laundry.  The skies here were the darkest I've seen so we had fantastic star gazing; I will never forget seeing the Milky Way just striped across the sky as far as we could see.

We rented sandboards and sleds at the Oasis nearby (awesome pie and huevos rancheros there too).  Going down was easy but climbing up the hot dunes took some commitment.  Juni soon tired of it, Jeff wiped out 3 times and had ears full of sand and I got sandblasted on my solo trip.  Emily loved it though so she kept right on sandboarding.

We ended our Colorado trip at Mesa Verde National Park, right on the Utah border.  It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the largest archaeological site of the Ancestral Puebloans.  One of the cliff dwellings, the Balcony House, was a favorite.  It was a Ranger Tour and required some real cliff scaling to get up to it.  Needless to say the kids loved that!

Top 10 Rookie RVer Observations

What we've learned so far on the road:

1.  One bag of ice is never enough; neither is one tube of caulk.

2.  Never leave S'mores fixings in the cupboard - at least not in the Summer.

3.  Heated pools are never heated, despite what they tell you when you check in.  Always make the kids get in first.

4.  In bear country, always carry a flashlight to the dumpster at night .... or better yet,  just avoid it altogether.

5.  Pack an extra sheet, one of the kids will either puke or get a bloody nose.

6.  Always carry quarters, you'll need them for the laundromat (see #5).

7.  Putting up an awning the first time is akin to assembling a Rubics Cube. Don't worry though, eventually you'll look so pathetic other campers will come over to help you.

8.  It's a nice thought when fellow campers come over to 'assist' with backing in, but when there is more than one of them at a time it's best just to nod your head, act like you're listening and steer whichever the heck way you want.

9.  Don't google 'bears and RVs' before you go camp in the forest.

10.  Rain water will always find the path of least resistance into your RV, which inevitably is right above your forehead when you're sleeping.

Not Tornado Alley!

So maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to have shown Emily all those tornado documentaries last year, but who was I to know it would come back to bite me in the end?  Tonight, I got the map out to show the kids the route for our cross country camping trip.  Emily completely freaked out when she saw we were going through Tornado Alley, “No. not Kansas! We’ll die if a tornado hits us in our sleep!”  I reassured her that most tornados were in the Spring and early Summer, not Autumn when we are going, but I’m not convinced that message really stuck.  I think we will just have to get West of Topeka as quickly as possible before any of us will get any sleep… At least we won’t have to worry about sharknados that far inland, so we have that going for us.



We had our inaugural RV trip earlier this month, driving to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, which actually was able to live up to its naming aspirations.  It’s a beautiful forested gorge, home to bald eagles, with a 50 mile rail to trail bike path running along the canyon floor. We didn’t bike the whole thing, just until Michael’s legs got tired then we went into the very quaint town of Wellsboro which has many restaurants and shops, not far from our campsite at Canyon Country Campground, http://www.campinpa.com/ 

Getting ready to blow some glass

We spent 3 nights there, hiking and biking, and also incorporated a side trip to the Corning Museum of Glass in New York http://www.cmog.org/  It is a fantastic museum for kids, lots of glass making demonstrations and interactive displays.  You can even make your own glass sculpture or jewelry, which the kids and I loved.

RV wise, the trip was fortunately uneventful, apart from us having to do a very loud ‘drive of shame’ through the campground, the sway bars and hitch screeching with every bump and turn, as other campers stared and I slunk down in the passenger seat.  We were assured that once the paint wears off the sway bars, we won’t be quite so loud but we did go ahead and slap some grease on the trailer hitch ball, which took the noise down a few decibels.

Emily hooking up the electric

Michael loved to jack up the RV

The thing we were most worried about - the dumping - was fortunately a non-event, unlike the scene with Robin Williams in the movie "RV" that had filled us with dread.  We’d gotten some tips on dumping from a lovely little old lady at the RV store that had been RVing for 68 years, the best tip being dump the black water first, then the gray.  This eliminated any need for Jeff to wear a biohazard kit, and for me to have to help with any cleaning. 

 We have one more short RV camping trip coming up, then we hit the open road – destination Utah (all the parks) and the Southwest, heading West on and around I70 and back East on the Southern route, hitting the Great Smoky Mountains, every national park and largest ball of twine on the way.

Utah or bust!

Our Little Red Schoolhouse

As the regular school year draws to an end, I’m getting more impatient and more excited to start our homeschooling journey.  Over the past few months, we’ve been reviewing / selecting curriculums, assessing and selecting an oversight agency to use and getting ourselves plugged into local homeschooler networks in our area.  We have also gotten Emily involved in Girl Scouts, so when she is no longer at her local school, it’ll be another way to stay connected with school friends.  We plan to do the same with Michael and decided he would really enjoy YMCA’s Adventure Guides club, but we (meaning Jeff) would need to stand one up first in this area.

I’m not concerned about the “S word” (socialization as it is known in homeschool circles); it’s one that often crops up.  There are so many daily homeschool events and activities in our local area, the kids will meet plenty of other kids…..and non peers too.  Virtually all the Sportcenters around us (e.g. ice skating, gymnastics, climbing, trampoline etc.) have special homeschool hours during the week.  Michael’s Crafts offers art classes for homeschoolers, local nature centers such as the Howard County Conservancy and many museums such as Smithsonian, and the Maryland Science Center offer homeschool programs.  The Smithsonian and our local Community College also offer semester long homeschool courses.  So, Maryland certainly has a wealth of resources for us to tap into.  We have many field trips on the horizon!

Maryland is very homeschool friendly.  Every state has different guidelines, some more onerous or bureaucratic than others.  Maryland homeschoolers are governed by Code of Maryland Regulations 13A.10.01 .  In a nutshell, it requires that we provide “regular, thorough instruction during the school year in English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education at the appropriate grade level and include relevant materials and examples of the child’s work.”  That’s it.  We can choose specifically what and how we want to teach within each of those subject areas and add anything else we want – bliss. We don’t even have to keep attendance.

The County Board of Education will conduct one portfolio review during this time. We can choose to work directly with the Board of Education or through a 3^rd Party Agency that coordinates with them on our behalf.  As this is our first time, we have elected to use an Agency for the first year so we have a good idea of what is required for the review.  From speaking with veteran homeschoolers, it’s pretty straight forward to work directly with the County. 

The curriculums we selected will more than cover any review requirements with the documentation to boot.  We selected Moving Beyond the Page for Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies and Singapore Math (Goodbye Core Curriculum!). We will also develop our own “Unit Studies” around areas we are traveling to this year and other topics we want to dive into.

So, our books are in, the basement is set up as ‘homebase’ for our schooling, our trips are ‘planned’ (as much as we ever plan them) and we are ready to go.  The kids are as excited as we are, even once they found out not all the schooling will be in the RV!  Yesterday, school was closed, and they asked me in the morning to do homeschooling in the basement – so we read a book called “One Day in March” which talks about the different weather around the world, dovetailed that with astronomy and a geography lesson as they had to find all the countries from the book on our world map on the wall, did some relevant reading (for each age) and writing then went to the park for a long bike ride.  I know all days won’t be like that but to have them at all is a wonderful opportunity!

The Birth of a Business

Summit's second office location, the basement of our house:
Nora our Director of Operations with Jeff. The first office
was a picnic table in our living room.

Our last big adventure, prior to starting The Adventurers' Club, was a business that Moira and I started, built and sold. What an adventure that was! We had both worked for government contractors supporting the same government agencies for many years and had often talked about starting our own business.

This is usually how we embark on new adventures. Our adventure lifecycle is: discussion, research, plan and execute. Moira had the opportunity to meet quite a few small businesses while working for larger companies and noticed many of them just didn't do a great job presenting their capabilities or their companies. She always said: "If they can do it we can do it better!" However, I had thought that we needed some killer idea or piece of technology as a differentiator until I remembered something my father, himself an entrepreneur, had told me long ago: "It doesn't matter what business you're in, you just have to do a better job then 90% of your competition to be successful." 

We decided that we would focus on high quality delivery of high end competencies in engineering and strategic consulting within the Department of Defence (DOD) and Intelligence Community (IC) - the market where we had spent most of our careers.  We wanted to develop a company known for doing a job well, consistently and always delivering what we had promised, with a culture that took care of employees and not just the bottom line.

Moving to our third office location where we initially
rented one then two offices within a building. Moira's
Dad, Ron, helping with the heavy lifting.

Once we had agreed to start a business, laid out our vision, did our homework and saved some money, we now just needed the right opportunity to start our company. Meanwhile, we both kept working at other companies and kept saving. The opportunity didn't happen right away but, in late 2002, a colleague began supporting a project on which I had previously been involved. His customer remembered me and he suggested I set up an interview with his company. I was pretty happy on my project, but you never know where these things might lead so I did the interview. The interview went well and they offered me the job so we discussed pay and benefits. The verbal offer was basically a lateral in pay with slightly worse benefits. So I asked if they would let me work as a subcontractor. They said that they would think about it and get back to me.

After a week or two that company got back to me and said they would allow me to be a subcontractor to them and offered me a bill rate. I accepted and they went off to start the contractual process. Meanwhile, I had to get a company up and running so I could sub to them! First, I needed to set up a legal entity, a corporation or limited liability company (LLC). We also needed a name. Moira and I spent several weeks trying to think of a single word, something singular and strong like Titan or Conquest, but those names were already taken in our marketplace. Coincidentally, we had recently returned from our honeymoon cruise and happened to be visiting with Moira's father who asked us the name of the cruise ship. Eureka, that was it! The ship was called Summit. Perfect. The fact that we also loved the mountains made the name even better. We tried to register the name Summit, but it was not available so we added Solutions at the end and got the name.  Our new company, Summit Solutions, LLC, was created in December 2002.

Our fourth office location and the first real office space that we
had modified to our specifications. We were so happy to see
our name in the directory!

While I was waiting to hear back from the company to whom Summit was going to subcontract, I started my viability analysis by creating several financial models with spreadsheets. Most small business books and advisors say that you should start out by writing a business plan. However, I believe it is more critical to start out with a thorough financial analysis of your prospective business model. This analysis would not have been important if I was planning on being a one person consultant, but it was very important as we planned to grow the business.  We needed to know how our business would operate financially with one person as well as twenty and beyond. The rest of the business plan was in our heads and was simple enough that we didn't feel the need to write it down. Once my bottoms up financial model agreed with Moira's top down financial model we both felt like we had a good understanding of the business model and were ready to get started.

Our sign in our first and only lobby area in the last (fifth) office.

Throughout 2003 I was the only employee. Then in April 2004, Moira quit her job and joined me at Summit. We had $50,000 in savings and a $100,000 home equity line of credit at our disposal. With Moira on board we quickly grew from 2 to 10 employees by the end of the year and had invested all of our money in Summit. In fact, we were getting worried that we might not have enough cash to meet payroll. Typically, you get paid 30 to 45 days after the invoice is sent to the customer, but you need to have enough cash to make payroll in the interim.  Essentially, you pay your employees a month before you get paid.  We had saved a lot of money before we started the business specifically to have that buffer but accelerated growth was eating away at it very quickly. As we contemplated cashing in both of our retirement 401ks, we deliberately slowed our hiring pace so our cash flow finally had a chance to catch up and we could rebuild the cash buffer. Although Moira started at Summit earning nothing the first year, then $10,000 the second and third years, we eventually were both able to make decent salaries, and take our initial investment out and more over time.

Over the next 9 years, with the help of some absolutely dynamic key people, we steadily built Summit from 1 person to over 65 employees and estimated year end revenues of $23.5 million. It was a long, hard road with many ups and downs, many sleepless nights and hours burned. While we were building Summit we had a premature baby (Emily) born at 25 weeks, who was in the hospital for close to 5 months, we adopted our son (Michael) from South Korea, we had to terminate a few employees (never an enjoyable thing, despite the cause), we had to deal with difficult customers and we had to endure government funding issues just to name a few. At the same time, it was critical that we kept pursuing new work, writing proposals to win new work so that when other contracts expired, there were always options for the employees.  We always said, "if you are not growing, you are shrinking", and in the government contractor world that is especially true. We were always competitive and loved the uphill battle to win new work and topple a 'solid' incumbent.  It was fun, but it was also stressful and exhausting, and hard on the families of those of us putting in so many hours.   However, one of the most challenging things of all was to decide to take our company to market and ultimately close a sale.

The large conference room in our fifth and final office space.

Starting Summit was not without risk. Our family income went down significantly during the first several years. We could have lost our savings, our house and more. But we discussed these risks and decided the potential rewards far outweighed them. I remember sitting on the deck, drinking wine with Moira as we discussed this.  We both agreed that the worst thing that could happen was the business could fail, we would lose our house, our savings and our retirement.  Then we would rent an apartment, get a job working for someone else and start all over again....and we were both absolutely OK with that.  After all, what's an adventure without a bit of risk?

The Art of Packing

I was reflecting  on packing as we finished our latest adventure in the Rockies.  Packing light is a tenet of the Adventurers' Club and we've trained our kids on that from an early age.  They also pack themselves. Ironically I found that when I packed for kids I always took too much stuff, now we go much lighter.  I'm not sure I'll ever be as good at this as my brother and his wife who aspire to travel with all 5 of their young children with only carry-ons, but I have figured out what works for us.

The night before a trip, we pull out the suitcase and I let them know how much of each item to bring, " one sweater, 2 warm pants, 5 underwear...".  Emily and Michael love doing this and get to decide what they want to take with them.  The kids also each have a small backpack. They know they can only fill it half way and can't bring liquids or toy guns ( we had a close call once with soapy bath water packed in 'test tubes' as magic potion).  Typically the kids are so excited they start packing their backpacks a few days before we go and empty and refill them a dozen times, switching out toys and stuffed animals. It's  very amusing to watch.  The other hard fast packing rule is that they have to carry their backpacks themselves - the whole trip.  Sure they had their moments when they were younger, and I held their backpacks threateningly over the airport trash can, but they are pros now. Travelling as a family when everybody chips in makes for a far easier trip.

On the way home, we fill a garbage bag with all our dirty clothes, stick it in a suitcase and dump it straight in the laundry room when we get home....where it languishes for a while.  And those half empty backpacks? They are always full on the way back - typically with rocks, brochures they've collected and a souvenir or two.

 

Risk Defined

Risk- it means so many different things to so many people but judging from my daughter's report cards, that's not always clear.  Ever since Emily has been at school, she has always gotten a big X in the Unsatisfactory box for " takes appropriate risks". When speaking to her teachers, they point to things such as not talking when in the limelight ( standing in front of the class ) and things of that nature.  I don't deny Emily does this, and that's the side of her the teachers see, but I don't think in the grand scheme of life that this is the only meaningful measure of risk a person can take.

The infamous Bowl

Social risk is one thing, but physical risk and mental risk are another, and they're underrated.  The other week my 9 year old daughter pushed herself to ski the bowl at Big Sky Montana, a black diamond run. She even picked a steep line that my husband said made him a little nervous.  Emily was determined and took that risk; it was her goal to ski the bowl and she did it....and she felt great as a result.  So, does my daughter 'melt' when in the limelight in a social setting? Yes, although she does get better with age. Will she keep getting that big fat X on her report card? Probably.  So be it. But does she take risks in many other aspects of her life? Absolutely, and that's a heck of a start to leading a happy and fulfilling life.  

 

Skiing in Big Sky, Montana

It's not everyday that your son gets stuck on a snowcat ladder while asleep but it happened to us last week in Montana.  This incident was several years in the making.

Teaching young kids to ski is not for the faint hearted - much schlepping is involved. On with the long johns, the layers, the snow bibs, hat, mittens, goggles, helmet and the dreaded ski boots, you finally step outside and, " I have to pee". So back inside, do it all in reverse then start over again. Do a run or two on the bunny slope then back inside for cocoa. A parents' best friend with a toddler on the slope is a packet of Skittles or jelly beans; we've found a sugar high is critical in this learning stage.  But the payoff for all this effort is huge, and one day, they are schlepping their own gear, putting on their own boots and you are following them down the mountain. This winter we are at that stage with both our kids so we decided they were ready to ski out West. Skittles in hand, we headed to Big Sky Montana.

We had flown out for the extra long MLK break and arrived to gorgeous blue skies.  Bighorn sheep perched on rocky slopes as we drove up the canyon from Bozeman. Our destination was the Summit Hotel at Big Sky. A wonderful, friendly place to spend the next 5 days, about 20 paces from the chairlifts. Big Sky recently bought adjacent Moonlight Basin, and is now the biggest ski resort in the United States, having stolen the title long held by Vail, Colorado.  The vibe is 180 degrees from Vail however, and that's  a good thing.  No fur coats and face lifts here, just really friendly people that love to ski and love their state. 

We met so many transplants here too, people that had moved to Montana decades ago and just never left.  It's an outdoor lovers paradise.  In fact, that's one of the things that brought my grandparents to Butte, Montana back in the 60's, my Grandpa Tom was an avid hunter and fisherman.  On this trip, I had come full circle - bringing my kids back to the place where I first learned to ski when I was 12.  I still feel bad for my very patient Aunt Rita, and my understandably antsy Uncle 'Eddie' who took me skiing for the first time.  I spent half the day trying to make my way down a slope slightly higher then a 3 story building.  I was too old for Skittles and cried the whole way down; I cringe thinking of it.  This is the real reason we started our kids skiing at 3 and 5; 12 year olds have too much attitude!

Fortunately things went much better with our brood.  The slopes were plentiful, the runs were varied for all levels, both groomed and ungroomed. There were several trick parks where Emily practiced jumps and Michael practiced peeing in the trees.   We took the tram up to the top of Lone Peak and had such clear skies we could even see the Grand Tetons of Wyoming over 200 miles away.  You can actually ski down from the tram.  However, once the guide told me not to attempt this without knowledge of self arrest techniques, I was quickly back on the tram for my trip down the mountain, doing the walk of shame past the queue of expert skiers as I disembarked at the bottom.

Big Sky is definitely my top U.S. ski destination so far. The slopes, the access to base camp, the restaurants, and the vibe all make this a perfect family destination. But the best thing? No lift lines! It was amazing and something you would never encounter skiing on the East Coast on MLK weekend. 

After 5 beautiful 'bluebird' days we decided to celebrate our last night with something special, a Montana Dinner Yurt - which brings us back to that cold winter night with Michael asleep hanging from the Snowcat. 

We climbed in the Snowcat our last evening, winding upwards through the woods to a yurt near the top of the mountain.  After 20 minutes of picturesque and occasionally nerve wracking climbing, we arrived. We had hot soup then went outside to the torch lit sledding hill. Due to the lack of fresh powder, it was much closer to skeleton or luge rather than any sledding I've done before.  You slid down the icy road left by the Snowcat and slammed into a snow berm at the first hairpin turn. Slammed into it I should say if you were lucky, one couple actually launched over the berm into about a 15 foot drop through some pine trees. Amazingly they all walked out.  After a fun filled hour watching various people get injured as they smashed into the berm and playing in the snow, we headed back inside the yurt for delicious grilled steak and chocolate fondue. 

On the way home, we climbed up a steep 10 foot ladder to the roof of the Snowcat, where we got comfy with pillows and blankets. For me, this was the best part of a very fun night, like a hay ride with snow. As we rode our way back down the mountain, under the vividly starlit sky, a coyote in a nearby clearing stopped and watched us, then meandered on its' way.

The ride was a little bumpy and it was very late so Michael had, true to form, totally passed out on the drive down the mountain. We couldn't wake him up to climb back down the ladder so I stood on the Snowcat treads while Jeff hung Michael over the roof. I was finally able to grab him around the waist and pulled, but to no avail.  I tugged, then tugged some more, assuming he had woken up and was grabbing the ladder with his hands, " Let go Michael, you've got to let go." I said as I kept tugging, my view obscured by his butt in my face.  Two other Dads then jumped in, " His coat is stuck on the ladder, I'll get it loose". They got him loose and helped me hand a jostled but still sleeping Michael back down to the ground and the end of our Big Sky adventure.  

Time For A Change

2014 is shaping up to be a life changing year for The Adventurers' Club, a catalyst year.   After much research, thought and discussion over the past 2 years, we have decided to homeschool our children for the coming school year (1st and 4thgrade) and have a ‘Grand Adventure’ while teaching at home and on the road.  

It’s amazing how many homeschoolers are out there, both faith based and secular.  It seems to be a growing trend as more people are moving away from schools (public and private) that prioritize memorization and testing over critical thinking, a world view, and character building.  Additionally, we will have the ability to choose a curriculum that embraces the hands on and visual learning that works so much better with our children.

We have been happy at our school and the care they have given our kids, it’s very highly rated.  We just have a different life philosophy that we want to share with our kids as we explore the world together.

It’s such a wonderful feeling to think that as we point the RV to Maine and Canada at the end of this Summer if we don’t feel like coming back and want to keep on going, we can…

Inaugural Post of The Adventurers' Club!

Welcome to The Adventurers' Club blog!

The Adventurers' Club is not an actual club, but rather an idea or concept; life itself is an adventure. The idea is simple: living life to its fullest, each and every day, taking risks and trying the unknown, results in the most fantastic, awe-inspiring, spiritual and fulfilling experiences one can imagine.

The Adventurers' Club was born this past summer while on vacation in the Canadian Rockies. We had been traveling around Canada for a couple of weeks having a great time exploring when I noticed that our kids, Emily (8) and Michael (5) were really having a blast doing all of the activities. We went on several hikes, some fairly short and easy while others were 6 to 11 miles round trip and considered intermediate by the hiking guides. We did a couple of canoe trips and got soaked in a downpour on one. The kids played in lakes and caught frogs and tadpoles. They studied animal tracks and scat as we hiked, looking for bear prints, elk rubs, coyote scat.  They smashed rocks hunting for fossils on the top of a fountain, creating their own 'science lab' on a boulder as they studied the fossils.  We did a couple of ATV rides discovering that they always put our 5 year old to sleep, which made for an interesting ride on high mountain switchbacks. We rode in gondolas and chair lifts, spying grizzly bears from the top of one. We drove hundreds of miles and stayed in six different places. We went on a boat ride and a bus tour; explored a ''French" city and climbed on top of mountains.


In doing all this the kids really enjoyed the exploration. Emily became the official wildlife spotter and catcher while Michael became the official scat spotter and identifier. On top of a mountain they became archaeologists looking for fossils in the rocks. On trails around lakes they were intrigued by different plants, flowers and berries.


They experienced the sense of accomplishment, pride and fulfillment that comes when they pushed themselves beyond their comfort zones, overcoming their fears to do something new. We weren't just traveling, we were exploring. This wasn't just a trip, this was an adventure!

Usually after such a long trip away from home (20 days) the kids, not to mention the adults, would have been ready to head home. On our last night before flying home Michael actually started crying and said he wanted to keep traveling. He didn't want the adventure to end and neither did anyone else. And so, somewhere in the Canadian Rockies, while hiking along a trail, we came up with The Adventurers' Club.

The Adventurers' Club is not just about traveling though. Oh, sure, we'll have plenty of that, but adventures and exploration can occur right at home, at school or anywhere. It is really a mindset, a way of looking at life, rather then the physical act of traveling. Although we do love traveling.

The rules of the Adventurer's Club are simple yet often elusive rules:

1. Recognize each new day as a gift and live it to the fullest. This is the hardest one to do on a regular basis.
2. Never stop learning. Be curious. Continuously seek knowledge and accumulate wisdom.
3. Push yourself out of your comfort zone from time to time. For some, this might mean jumping out of an airplane. For others it may simply mean being more spontaneous on occasion.
4. Be introspective from time to time. Knowing who you are and feeling comfortable with yourself is, in itself, a life-long journey.
5. Never worry about trying to conform to a perceived norm; life is what you make it for yourself...and it may look a lot different from someone else's.

So, that's it. Welcome to The Adventurers' Club where every day can be the beginning of a new adventure!