All posts by mmrobins

Two Months on the Road

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We’ve been on the road for over two months now, and it’s been an amazing experience for my family and me.  We’ve seen lots of family and friends, hiked through lots of beautiful nature, learned about all kinds of science, and perhaps most importantly become much closer as a family.  As anyone who’s traveled with others knows, sometimes the most difficult part is just getting along with those you travel with.  The fact that it was so much fun to travel with Kim is a big reason I wanted to marry her, and that continues to this day with our kids.

During the last two months I’ve spent close to the same amount of waking time with my kids as the rest of the year combined.  A big part of taking this trip for me is to get time with my kids while they’re young, impressionable, and don’t mind hanging out with their parents.  By far the most common thing I hear from grandparent aged people when they smile at our children is how fast the time goes and how we should enjoy it now.  I’ve even had a lady say that to me while Xena was having a meltdown because she couldn’t find her special rock, and all I wanted to do was hand her off and tell that lady to enjoy it herself, but I understood what she was saying nonetheless.  During this trip I’ve had

the privelege of bonding with my daughters over setting up a campsite, tying knots, learning about astronomy (eclipse and otherwise), reading lots of books, singing songs, and answering countless questions about the world around us,

mostly beginning with “why”.


Geneveve and Xena have really bonded too, and it’s incredibly special to see their relationship as sisters be so close.  They play together in imaginary worlds in the dirt for hours.  Most of the toys that we brought with us in the

car went untouched as sticks, rocks, dirt, and each other became everything they needed or wanted much of the time.  They’ve learned how to better resolve conflict with each other, when the other needs help, and when to give each

other space.  I’m sure if we’d had them in Portland for the summer that they wouldn’t have been forced to the same level of closeness as they have on these travels.  I hope these bonds and lessons keep them close in the years to come.


I certainly meant to write more during our travels, but lack of internet for much of the time was a convenient excuse for me to stay more present.  I have things I wrote on paper and in offline media that I’ll be transcribing and backfilling to our family travel blog, and hopefuly some time for reflection between when the kids start school again and I start my new job, whatever that ends up being.  There really is a profound difference in mental state when you’re disconnected from the online world and spending time with loved ones.  That’s not to say I’m going to renounce technology and go live in the woods, but I highly recommend

taking the time to disconnect with your family when you can.

Starting a 2 Month Camping Road Trip

Summer 2017

It’s been over a year since we got back from our big Mexico trip, so naturally I started to get antsy for a new adventure.  Kim and I talked and were both missing time in nature, something that with a 3 and 6 year old we felt was becoming possible again.  Maybe the 10+ mile, overnight backpacking trips we used to do weren’t possible yet, but car camping while driving to Mexico was so successful and fun with a 2 and 5 year old that we wanted more of that.  Also this is a kind of travel that can easily include Ubu, our almost 10 year old dog.

Based on our finances we figured 2-3 months in the summer was doable, now we just needed to figure out the details: work situation, house rental, finishing house projects, packing, itinerary, using up our fridge and freezer, and many more details.  As usual, we made a list of things to do months in advance and started tackling them as we could.  Having done this once before for the Mexico trip along with the fact we were only planning to travel for a few months instead of the better part of a year I’d say things were easier.  That’s not to say they were by any means easy, there’s a lot of effort leading up to the day we hit the road and left for our camping adventure.

One of the hardest details for me was the work situation.  Despite having “unlimited” vacation time, 6 straight weeks was apparently too much for my current company.  That combined with the fact that Walmart, a company I have no desire to work for, acquired my company made it so that for this trip quitting my job was the route to travel freedom.  Working in software in a good economy means I’m fairly confident that I’ll find good work once we’re done traveling, but this will be the first time I’ve ever quit a job without having something certain lined up next.  It’s both exciting and a little bit scary.

The kids’ school year went a little longer than normal this year because of all the winter snow days, so as they finished up school I finished up work, and we all finished packing up the house for our short term renters to move in.  Our plan is to head to Montana just like we did on our Mexico trip, but this time go north along the Rockies into Canada.  We have a very rough itinerary with nothing booked ahead.  This is a feeling of freedom from routines and responsibilities I don’t think I’ve come close to feeling since before having kids.

San Miguel de Allende – House and School Hunting to Car Robbery

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hot air balloons are in the sky most mornings
Hot air balloons are in the sky most mornings

Phew, it’s been a busy first week in San Miguel de Allende.  The biggest items to talk about are that we’ve chosen San Miguel de Allende as the place to spend the next few months, found a place to live and a school for Geneveve, and just a couple nights ago had our car broken into, lots more details on all of that to follow.

We arrived in San Miguel de Allende on Día de la Independencia, but that didn’t seem to make traffic or anything worse, although the steep, narrow, and bumpy cobblestone streets don’t make getting around the city center very fast.  After a brief mixup about the address of our house rental, we quickly found it and unpacked.  We found the place for pretty cheap on Airbnb at $300 a week, and it had an amazing view.  The views of this city will quickly win you over with its beautiful churches, dazzling sunsets, hot air balloons floating through the air and lakes and mountains in the distance.  And since it was independence day we were treated to some fireworks on our first night there.  Unfortunately we were also treated to some fireworks before dawn on our first morning, and randomly for the next few days too.

Continue reading San Miguel de Allende – House and School Hunting to Car Robbery →

Guadalajara

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio
Hanging out in Parque Expiatorio

After leaving the hot and muggy Pacific coast of Mexico we drove inland to Mexico’s 2nd biggest metro area of Guadalajara.  This is another place we’re considering to spend the winter, and by the end of our stay it’s a definite maybe.  We like the weather and the number of things you can do that come with being in a big city.  However, we’re not really big city people, at least with kids, and traffic here is kind of intense.  Traffic is intense all over Mexico in it’s own way if you’re not used to it, but here things like 4+ lane roundabouts, constant traffic slow downs and busy, frequently merging multi-lane what you might call highways take it to a whole new level for us.  I’m sure this has nothing on Mexico City from what I’ve heard, but it was stressful enough for us.

We decided to stay a little ways outside the center of the city at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the Plaza del Sol, partly because it was hard to find dog friendly places and this one was, partly because it had a pool which has been a savior of a feature for us to wear the kids out for bed, and partly because it looked like it was closer to some neighborhoods that I’d read might be quieter and better for long term living.  This put us farther away from city center than I expected, but that didn’t seem to matter a lot since it seems to take at least 15-20 minutes to get from any point in the city to any other.  Even when things looked fairly close together on the map, it would end up taking us 20 minutes to get from point to point when you take into account traffic and parking. Continue reading Guadalajara →

Sayulita

Mexico Here We Are, ,
Hanging out on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
Hanging out on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

So far it’s looking like Sayulita probably isn’t the place for us.  One big factor is we seem to keep forgetting we’re not really beach people.  Kim and I both enjoy a visit to the beach, but every time we go to some tropical beach Kim and I both end up only wanting to be there for a day tops before we want to do something else.  It’s happened us in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Peru, Thailand, and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and possibly other places I’m forgetting where we invariably end up heading for mountains or forests after a little bit of beach time.  I don’t think either of us are the kind of people who can just sit quietly in the sun or shade with or without a drink in hand while we watch the waves – and that was before we had kids.  Now going to the beach is controlled chaos where we’re trying to make sure the kids don’t drown and Ubu doesn’t run too far away or get into trouble while still switching off duties so we can take turns going in the water ourselves for brief periods. And then there’s the whole mess of after the beach you’re covered in salt and sand and just want to get somewhere to shower off and put on dry clothes.  Maybe we could get used to it if we took up surfing or something again like we did in Huanchaco Peru, but to do something like that we’d probably need to take turns or find someone to watch the kids and dog while we did.

Besides that, we’re not sure we can handle the atmosphere.  Continue reading Sayulita →

Heading to Puerto Vallarta – Or Not

Mexico Here We Are,

Our trip from Mazatlan to the Puerto Vallarta area started off with a big drama. We thought we had booked a screaming deal on a luxury resort for a week and were all set to kick back and relax when we arrived. Kim’s parents had very helpfully found this deal online for us, and even called the place to make sure they took dogs and ask other questions. So we figured it would be OK to get in a little late since we could check into our two bedroom luxury condo and relax.  We stopped in Sayulita, about 40 minutes north of our destination, for dinner since that’s one of the places we’re considering spending more time.  Then we drove on toward Puerto Vallarta to check in.  To start we went to the wrong place because there’s multiple places called “Luxury Resorts” and I had picked the wrong one on Google maps. By the time we figured that out it had gotten dark and begun to pour rain, so we ended up driving around in circles trying to find the correct place.  It turned out their sign was barely lit at all and wasn’t what we were expecting.  We finally followed the poor directions in our confirmation email and pulled up at the guard house to the place.  We told the guard we were looking for Luxury Resorts and had a reservation, and when he said Luxury Resorts were here we yelled for joy since everyone was ready to get out of the car.

However, Continue reading Heading to Puerto Vallarta – Or Not →

Mexican Border to Mazatlán

Mexico Here We Are, , ,
Our good old Forester takes a break to watch the sunset in Mazatlán
Our good old Forester takes a break to watch the sunset in Mazatlán

Phew, we made it into Mexico, and we’re blowing through the north part of it to get closer to somewhere we can settle down a bit longer.  We entered Mexico on Tuesday, and we’ve been driving almost everyday since to get farther and farther south.  It’s more driving than I expected, but it’s also going better than I’d hoped.  It’s definitely hot, but surprisingly green for what I expected to be desert landscape.  Apparently there’s been a lot of rain here this season, so it’s not normally so green.

The border crossing at the Nogales truck route was easy – almost too easy.  At the border itself there was a sign that said to stop and wait for someone to inspect you.  We did so and two cars drove around us, and there was nobody in sight to actually do anything, so we kept driving too.  We knew from research that most of what we needed to do happened around kilometer 21, so we kept going until we got there.  Continue reading Mexican Border to Mazatlán →

Phoenix Area to the Mexican Border

Mexico Here We Come, ,
Ubu exemplifies how I feel about the heat
Ubu exemplifies how I feel about the heat

After leaving Sedona we spent a few nights in Scottsdale right outside Phoenix.  It seems like Phoenix might be a somewhat interesting place to visit, that is if it weren’t almost 110 degrees outside.  None of us are accustomed to or fans of this kind of extreme heat, so all we wanted to do was sit in the AC in our room or in the pool.  Our dog Ubu can’t be left in the car for even a brief time anywhere regardless of shade, and even though she’s pretty good left in a hotel room on her own, we’re not supposed to leave her like that and try not to leave her for a really long time.  We definitely haven’t spent enough time doing stuff in the city to judge very well, but it feels a lot like Florida but with dry heat, which I prefer to stifling humidity.  Kim has a cousin living in the area, so it was nice to visit her for one dinner one evening.  If she hadn’t been in the area to visit we probably would have moved on after one night.  We also had to get a rabies shot and letter from a vet to prep Ubu for her border crossing. Continue reading Phoenix Area to the Mexican Border →

Sedona Arizona

Mexico Here We Come, ,
Matt jumps off the red rock cliffs into Oak Creek
Matt jumps off the red rock cliffs into Oak Creek. Note the red life jacket marks how far I needed to jump to not hit rocks. Ubu looks worried

Kim had read about the energy vortexes (which as far as I can tell are pure BS) and the new age vibe surrounding scenic Sedona, so it made sense as the next stop on our itinerary after the Grand Canyon.  The drive from the north through Oak Creek Canyon certainly is an impressive entry.  I never expected to see this much greenery juxtaposed with the red rocks in Arizona. There were more than a couple campgrounds along the canyon drive, but we didn’t stop until Manzanita campground since it was the smallest and tent only. We got a sweet site right next to the creek, with a nice cliff lined swimming hole just a minute walk away.  This may win for being one of our nicest, most peaceful campsites.  The campsite in the Sawtooths was more scenic, but this one felt more comfortable with the tree cover and nearby babbling brook.

We went into town for the evening, and at first enjoyed and then were overwhelmed by the touristy atmosphere. There were helicopter, trains, jeep, hiking, and yoga tours of the surrounding red rocks, and more artsy, trinkety jewelry shops than I could stand.  It was all surrounded by gorgeous scenery though, and there were was some pretty good food and ice cream.  Continue reading Sedona Arizona →

Grand Canyon

Mexico Here We Come, , , ,
The Robinsons at the Grand Cayon
The Robinsons at the Grand Canyon

This was the only definite thing I had on our itinerary before we started the trip, and now I’ve seen it. It’s definitely an impressive site, and I hate for there to be a but, but it wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped given the hype and some of the rock formations we had recently seen. Part of the lack of being amazed could have been that I was just getting over a cold and grumpy, or that we’re close to 3 weeks into a road trip and getting a little road weary, or maybe it was the Disneyworld kind of atmosphere for what I believe might be the most visited national park in the country. Whatever it was, it still definitely worth seeing and something I’m glad I saw, just not the standout highlight of trip so far. Continue reading Grand Canyon →