Costa Rica 2024

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Traveling with twins

I don’t think there is anyway to prepare someone to have twins. I also think that the experience between having a singleton and multiples is no comparison. The challenges are probably amplified more for my wife than for me. Like, “how do you change the diapers on one baby versus two babies at the same time in an airport?”  Or, “What do you do about their sleeping in strange places?”

The challenges of traveling the way that we used to versus the way that we travel now is different, but the concept is still the same, see everything you can for as long as you can.  We have been multiple places with the boys during their first 18 months of life, and every trip has been different. From Florida to Alaska, it has all be fun and challenging at the same time. You just make it work. You buckle down, make changes, and enjoy your time.

I’ll be the first to admit that the first 16 months was the toughest for me. As a man, you want to play baseball with your boys, eat beef jerky, and go on river boat gambling trips, but you just cannot do those things at that age. The last two months has completely changed for me, and I enjoy being a father more and more each day. Not to create sappy, heartstring tug post, but to hear “da da” when you walk in the door; there is nothing like it.

Guatemala was a chore, but looking back we made it work, and came out alive. We would do it all over again, just a little differently. Arkansas and Florida trips have been the easiest, and the boys tend to do fine if they get out and move around every 4 hours from long car rides. Alaska was the best trip by far, and we got to see and experience so much with them with great friends. I one hundred percent believe that those memories will be deeply ingrained in them.

To be able to let them walk along the beaches at Homer, watch whales in the ocean, eat fresh halibut and watch soaring eagles, was something special. I remember that first day of our trip to Alaska. We stayed with friends in Wasilla at their home. I took Sawyer outside to play in the yard, and he stared in amazement watching young eagles soar in the sky above him. It was a fresh reprieve from the hours of Baby Bum we just watched on the plane.

I guess the question we get asked the most is “How do you travel with two?” Some tips of the trade for parents of multiples are:

1. Go slow, much slower. You just want be able to hit up a new city each day, and that’s ok! Take time to relax and let everyone enjoy a place for 3-5 days.
2. Buy diapers and supplies in the cities you will be traveling and don’t try to pack too much. As we found out in Guatemala, you can take way too much stuff.
3. Your kids are going to scream on the plane. At some point in the trip, they will cry and lose their shit on the plane. Just apologize to everyone around and move on.
4. Always have a bottle and snacks on hand and ready. This is a key ingredient to saving a come apart for the boys and for dad.
5. Just enjoy the craziness. Morgan and I have always traveled different than most and we still do. Stuff always happens that is not planned and will always happen. Just roll with it, and make the best of it.
6. As long as you stay in a safe, dry, and warm place, most everything else will work out. With kids, safety is now a higher priority, but this is one thing not to be ignored.
7. See and do everything and don’t hold back because of kids or twins. Tote them on your back if you have to, we have done it. They will thank you later in life. Just see everything and go everywhere.

Guatemaaaaaala

They say that life has a ton of flavors, and we should enjoy and experience all of them. I think we got Baskin Robin’s 32^nd flavor on this trip, and it tasted like tears and stress. We have been all over the world, and this was the first trip that really just didn’t go our way. Of course, the only main variable that changed was bringing two small humans along, but we are typically very good with adjustments.

The airplane flights and 2 am wakeup call really were not even that bad. Boys did great, played with their toys, and handled airport security guards’ attitudes with ease.

“Yes officer, it is just a toy asparagus, not a real one.”

“No, we are not bringing illegal vegetables into Guatemala.”

“It is his favorite toy, please don’t take it.”

 The boys even acted like they had flown before, giggled on the plane, and slept most of the flight. Cooper got hangry (he is more like David), and wanted to try some of the tasty Biscoff treats that were awarded us for spending thousands of dollars on plane flights. Thanks, American Airlines. He gobbled them down only to see them come back up in about 5 minutes. His stomach was just not ready for the tasty biscuits.

We touched down in GUA, grabbed our bags and ran up to the AVIS ticket counter to grab our luxurious $452 rental car for 2 weeks.

“No cars.”

“Excuse me, but we have a reservation.”

“Yes I see your reservation here. Sorry, we just don’t have any cars at all in Guatemala.”

“Avis overbooked everyone.”

“Ok, well, what do you want me to do with my wife and 2 kids? “

“Sorry, I don’t know. “

“Ok, well can you check with your other car amigos, and see if they can find us a car? “

Man rambles away, and comes back 10 minutes later.

“Ok my friend says he may have a car in 10 minutes. I will let you know. “

“Great”

“Ok, so my friend who has this car company (no one has ever heard of) and he has a 4 door manual Solara. Do you want it? “

“Sure, I guess, we literally have no other option.  I have not driven in manual in 4 years, and it was a large Tree chipper truck. Sure, why not give this a try in a new country where we have never been. “

This was our basic convo, and after about 30 minutes of checking over this beat to heck Solara with tented windows and door dents, I loaded up our family and drove straight into the most intense traffic we have been in. I quickly learned my skills for driving this car were poor, and did not do half the due diligence I needed to know about the road conditions of Guatemala.

I took us about 25 minutes to hit the mountain roads with switchbacks and 25% grades, that I realized we were F’d.

I think the clutch blew out about mile 28, and there we were stranded on the side of a mountain road in Guatemala in bumper to bumper traffic. We were in a bad spot, a really bad spot. I flagged down some truck drivers and jabbered in Spanish back in forth for them to just tell me that I was screwed. Their trucks were broken down, and they had their own set of problems. Helping a gringo was not one of them. It was getting dark, and we had nowhere to go. I called my Airbnb host, and basically told him he had to help me. It took him an hour to get to us, and got our car towed wherever the car company told him to take it to. He was our savior. He even brought waters and chips plus his guitar so soothe our aching souls.

Morgan was busy feeding the boys in the back seat, and we loaded everything up in his car. He toted us to Antigua. We didn’t eat that night, and our nerves were shot. The only ones who didn’t seem to care were the boys. They were both smiling and happy. They had no clue what we all had just been through.

We woke the next morning, and everything was alright. It was a new day, and the sun was shining.

More to come on our adventures in Guatemala.

An Ode

It has been a haze of beeps, flashing lights, tears, and alarms since October of 2020. That is when we found out that we were having twins, and they had twin to twin transfusion syndrome. Needless to say, that is when Morgan became high risk and everything switched into a different mode.

A long story boiled down into one simple paragraph is that we did not know if we would be taking two babies’ home. For all intense and purposes, twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) is where one twin essentially robs the other twin of nutrients. One twin is larger, and one twin is smaller and struggles to get nutrients and survive. Sawyer is the small, stuck twin.  Cooper is the larger of the two babies who was getting all the nutrients. We chose a surgery in Houston, TX that would help correct this issue, and hopefully bring both babies to the same size and term. Fast forward 5 months, and both boys are here. I always tell Morgan that we got the best case scenario of the worst case scenario. When they tell you one baby is in the 50^th percentile and the other is the 1th percentile, it brings everything into perspective. Of all the worst possible outcomes, we got the best for our particular situation. That is an answer to many prayers.

The doctors due their due diligence and explain every worse case scenario that could happen: death, complications, health issues for mom and the babies. We were faced with them all. We were faced with decisions that we hope no parent ever has to face. The boys are here, and Cooper is at home with us. Sawyer is in the NICU, and should be home soon, once he can reach his milestones.

I think about our journey and how we got to this point, and there is always something that rings out in my mind that has made this extremely difficult journey somewhat bearable. I don’t think that we would have been able to bring Cooper and Sawyer here to this world without the unending support of the doctors and nurses who have helped us the entire way. I have lost count of how many doctors and nurses we have met with or who have taken care of our children. I would say at least 75 or more. From Doctor Papanna who sat with us for hours in Houston explaining the procedures in depth to DR. BK who made the call to deliver on January 10^th of this year. Every decision and conversation that was made, was made perfectly and in the right timing.

Every time I walk into the NICU, there are 50-60 babies in there at a time with teams of nurses there to help. Every doctor or nurse during this entire process has always been helpful, loving, caring, and have done everything in their power to help us and our children. We have had hundreds of phone calls over the past months with reports and diagnosis on our two boys. In a sea of nervousness and worry, the doctors and nurses have made us at ease. Our boys have been in good hands, and Morgan an I have the utmost gratitude for all that have helped bring them home. So, this is an ode to the doctors and nurses for Cooper and Sawyer. We thank you.

All the best,

-David and Morgan

Starting with the end in mind

I have found that if you start with the end in mind and work backwards, things seem to typically flow in the direction that you want them to go. All throughout life, I have tried this tactic, and it has proved to be successful. I have also proved that being radically truthful and transparent about life and all that happens can feel like a weight is lifted off one’s shoulders. That is what I intend to do with this post. We want to be a long-term travel family, and teach others how to do the same.  

About 12 years ago, I met the girl of my dreams, and we started our journey of life together. When Morgan and I started dating, she had told me about all the trips she had taken all over the world and the places that she had gone. I wanted a little taste, and went on two overseas trips by myself for a total of about 7 months. I was hooked, and we were hooked on traveling together, yet we had never taken any long term trips with each other. We were living in the wonderful town of Chattanooga, TN working jobs that we liked, but of course did not fulfill us completely at the time. We both had the same mindset of how we wanted to live life. We wanted to live a simple life. We both loved the outdoors, travel, and just being together. We did not have a ton of money, but that was alright by us. Our relationship continued to grow, and then we decided to get married and start a life together. We then concocted a plan to travel the world.

For a full year before we got married, we planned a 1 year long honey moon across the world together. We set a budget of $35,000 for the entire trip for 2 people. Planes, trains, automobiles, hotels, food, and everything else thrown in. We saved for a full year, and set aside this money to take the trip. I am sure most of you can tell that this dollar amount is hardly reachable back in the USA to live for a full year for two people. If anyone wants the Excel spreadsheets, I am more than happy to share.  All that being said, 15 days after our wedding, we set sail to New Zealand and began our year long trip here. I could continue to write for days and days about all the stories and places we went to on this trip, but just not enough time.

We can back from this trip wiser, battered, tired, excited and we had visited about 25 countries. We hit our budget of $35,000 and made it work. Now what?

Fast forward 7 years from this trip, and where are we now? Well, we have visited about 8 more countries since then.  We take a 3 week trip every February to a new country. We both own our businesses, and live in a nice house in the woods away from the bustle of Memphis, TN. We are soon to be the proud parents of two twin boys, whom will be loved dearly, Cooper and Sawyer.  

In all this time we have been together, there are a few things that we have found out:

• We love travel and we know how to save money.
• We know how to put together a budget and take awesome trips for next to nothing. We are kind of like the Dave Ramsey of traveling.
• Morgan is the artistic and creative person, who is best at picking out the places to visit on our travels. She is also the best at taking the photos.  
• David is the best at logistics and budgeting of trip costs.
• We want to live a simple, stress free and financially free life.
• We want to teach our children about how the real world lives, and how to life a fulfilled life.  

One may ask, what is the intention of this post? This post is intended to set the stage for our Vows to Voyage lifestyle as we enter into a new chapter of our lives with children. Morgan and I have an intentional year plan that we set in place back in January 2020. We have clear and concise goals of where we want to be with our personal lives, financially, and as a family over the next 7 years. We are 1 year in, and have hit those goals year to date, and will be sharing this plan in content to come. Vows to Voyage fits into this 7 year plan and beyond.

We are the Vows to Voyage family. We are a 4 person show that loves to work hard, save, be financially free, and travel the world the way that we want. We show families how to travel affordably every year and incorporate travel into their lifestyles. We are a minimalistic couple who are 100% honest and transparent about budgets and finances. We value travel and experiences over things, and we want to live our best lives together. We are here to break the societal norms of family travel.  

We are going to show everyone a family travel lifestyle that can be reached if they just budget for it and try. We are going to show people how to really travel. We are not going to teach how to live in bunk bed hostel rooms, the Ritz Carlton, or plan custom two week trips to Disney.  We are going to explore a realistic, family travel lifestyle. We will show you how to earn $40,000 a year, and still be able to save for a two week long trip overseas every year. We will teach how to zone out societal norms, and do what you have always wanted to do.  We will show you everything in between about family travel, and will document it the entire way.

We hope you stayed tuned for more about Vows to Voyage and are excited about passing on our passion for travel to the families who need it the most.

-David and Morgan

Colombia Part Dos

The next 8 days were a blurry of wake up at 4 am, eat breakfast, ride off into the sunrise with Pacho, fish until about 12, eat lunch, crush a beer, sleep for two hours, fish again until sunset, eat dinner, and pass out. I love to fish, but after this trip, I was even tired of fishing at the end of some days.

The stretch of river we were fishing, name to be left unknown for the secrecy of the guides and lodge was about 12 hours by boat from its mouth with the Orinoco. We were nestled in this small section of river that honestly most people just couldn’t reach or didn’t want to reach because it took too long. The entire time we were there, I didn’t see a single piece of trash in the river, a stark contrast with most of the river systems in the United States.

Morgan and I were mainly fly fishing for peacock bass all day long, but we did some spin fishing on occasion when we were just too tired from slinging 12” flies all day in the 100 degree sun. Pacho kept us in line with the banks, and we casted deep into the bank shadows and lagoons of the river. We were averaging about 20-30 fish in the mornings and 20-30 fish in the evenings. I would say all in all, we caught about 600 fish during our trip. The lagoons were the most fascinating part of the river to me. We would motor back in a small inlet, and that would open up to massive lagoon systems you wouldn’t ever know were there. The peacocks loved these areas, and they would explode on topwater flies in the mornings and evenings. We also fished the long river sand bars in the evenings where the peacocks cruised for fish in sometimes less than 6” of water. We did take a couple of side trips to two other rivers to fish for some different species. One was a tight, almost trout stream like river, and the other was the Orinoco, which is bigger than the Mississippi River. We were greeted with an abundance of fish and more stories to tell. Morgan did end up with the second largest fish of the whole group, an 18.5 pound peacock, while Bernard beat us all with a 20 pounder.

I say all this to say, the fishing was phenomenal, and there are stories for days about the fishing excursion. As I have gotten older, and somewhat less “hardcore” as an angler, I have begun to enjoy the other side of fishing. We enjoyed wonderful meals of local fare, conversations with our host family and other anglers, and just took in all the unadulterated scenery. Before, I would fish into the night. Now, I enjoy the boat ride back with Morgan or a nap in the afternoon. I am still catching fish, but I am just enjoying the other things that made this trip so wonderful.

Towards the end of the tip, we said goodbye to the guides, host family, and our friends that we fished with. We made our way back to Puerto Carreno where we spent one more night before flying to Bogota. Victor, who was the host leader was a horse rider and cattle roper, so we all got to see him at the rodeo festival in Puerto Carreno on our last night. The guides got to come and enjoy the rodeo, and all had new slick new haircuts and cowboy boots they got with our tip money. We all watched as Victor and others race down the track doing their thing.

We finished out with fishing on the Orinoco the next morning catching the infamous vampire fish, and then flew back to Bogotá. The other 5 anglers went home, and Morgan and I stayed for another 10 days touring other parts of Colombia. Those adventures will be in the next post.

Until next time,

 

David and Morgan

Colombia, the beginning

This morning, I woke up and decided to drink my coffee that I had purchased in Salento, Colombia. The coffee was bought straight from the farm, and I can vividly remember seeing the farmer package it up. I decided to finally blog on our recent trip in February to the wonderful country of Colombia. I have been putting it off just because of all the challenges that our world is facing, and honestly I didn’t think anyone would want to read about how much fun we had doing something that no one can really do at the moment.  I sat and thought, may we never take our travel for granted again. It is hard to believe that just a month or so ago, we were traveling freely from country to country with not a worry in the world. Now, this virus has us confined to the borders of our homes. This pandemic will bring our lives and what we do every day into a real perspective, as hard as it may seem.  I want to focus on our wonderful trip to Colombia, because it brings me peace knowing that there are these wonderful places to be seen again one day. The distance now we will make it all the better when we can see them again.

We stepped off the plane in Bogota at midnight, tired and wearied from the long international flight. It never seems to change. We are always beat and worn out from every time we fly.  We always seem to arrive at either 4 AM or midnight. We never arrive at like 10 AM, where we have time to adjust for the day.  We were greeted by our warm hosts, Pierre and Alejandro, who said, “alright, we have to be on another plane at 4 AM.” “We have to be back at the airport in 2 hours. Let’s go to the hotel, get some sleep for one hour, and do it all over again!” What’s the point of even sleeping? We crashed in our room, ate some food, and were back at the airport for our one hour flight to Puerto Carreno, the small fishing town on the Venezuelan border.

We went on a 10 day fishing trip to the eastern part of Colombia, and stayed with a host family at a lodge with a group of 4 other fisherman from the States. Pierre was our organizer from America, and Alejandro, the local host and guide was from Colombia. All of us were jazzed to be there, but as we got off the plane we were hit with about 95 degrees of heat. A stark contrast from Memphis, TN weather.

We stood in line at the one carrousel baggage belt. We literally could touch our bags as they got off the plane, but these people were super proud of their one belt and insisted they use it. We got through the one room greeting area, and loaded our gear onto two Landcruiser trucks for our 2 hour car ride to our lodge. The truck ride was long, windy, and one of the roughest of my life, but we were heading to fish! We got to the lodge around 3 pm, and no one wasted any time. We were greeted by the warm family who owns the lodge. They are cattle farmers, and run this lodge during the fishing season, 5 months out of the year. The husband, wife, children, grandparents, all play a part in keeping the rooms clean, food cooked, and fishing guides on call. We dropped our bags, still dead tired, and hopped on our boat with our guide, Pacho. We soared up the river and within 15 minutes were fishing for Peacock bass in the middle of nowhere on one of the prettiest and cleanest rivers in the world. The entire time we were there, we only saw one other boat. That evening, we caught about 15 fish in two hours, and knew it was going to be a good 10 days. We always fished until sunset, and my favorite part was the sundowner beer on the boat ride back to the camp when the last fish was caught. Morgan and I would put our feet up and let Pacho take us back home. There are more fishing stories to come and much more about our other 10 days in Colombia, not fishing.

Until next time,

 

David and Morgan

Jordan Part 1

Jordan was one of the countries where I didn’t expect much, but was extremely surprised. We took a bus from Nazareth to Amman, and started our Jordan trip here. I would say that there are not as many touristic sites in Jordan as other countries, but they are all absolutely stunning.  Amman was like any capital city, busy and big. We took a taxi to the center and spent one night there visiting local ruins, historical sites, and eating street food.

Jordan is a predominately Muslim country, so the difference from Israel to Jordan was quite drastic. Our hotel in Amman was an actual hotel, and not our typical guest house stay or Airbnb. Our fist morning, we went and got another rental car and toured the northern city of Jerash where we visited the ancient ruins of a city from the B.C. era. Jerash is about an hour from Amman in the north, and as we got closer to Jerash, we kept seeing road signs for the Syrian border, only about 15 miles away. We were glad to not make any wrong turns in this area.

One is able to drive from the top of Jordan to the bottom of Jordan in one day. I would compare it to the size of Tennessee. After vising Jerash, we drove our car down along the Dead Sea to visit the ancient city of Petra. There is a long National highway in Jordan, and every 10 or so miles, there are police stops. One is required to pull over and they check your car. You arrive at these checkpoints after a series of mega sized speed bumps. The scene would go something like this.  Open your window, “where are you from?” We are from the USA. Look at us oddly, smile, and bid us farewell. It was during this time that Morgan was doing some driving, and for a woman to drive in a Muslim country was quite unheard of. There were always scowling faces from the men.

Petra is the most famous site in Jordan, and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It sees millions of visitors each year, and of course is where they filmed one of the Indiana Jones’s movies. We got into Petra late at night, and stayed with our kind host at our Airbnb. We ate a huge dinner with his family, declined his offer to smoke week, and drank tea for a couple of hours. He then led us to our small hut for the evening in separate area of the property. Our host was also a horseback guide in Petra during the day, and promised us a tour the next day when we arrived at the gates.

The next morning I opened our door to find a blizzard of snow with almost 2ft on the ground. Morgan was still sound asleep in her bed, and I yelled out, “hey it’s snowing.” She had to get up to see for herself. We couldn’t believe it. We just came from 90 degree weather in Amman, and we had snow 4 hours away. Our guide was out in the snow next door in his flip flops and vintage 70’s Mercedes car about to crank it up to drive to work. He waved, and said he would see us soon.

Since we drove in the dark into Petra, we didn’t really know where we were in comparison to the ancient town. We were staying on the high side, and we had to drive down to the city center to enter the site. It was a series of switchbacks and winding mountain roads to the bottom, about 3 miles worth.  Morgan, our fearless Montana driver, said no fear, I can drive us safely to the bottom. As we started out on the snowy road in our Honda Civic, two wheel drive, I began to feel anxious, even with my confident wife at the wheel. The roads were covered in snow in ice, and it was long before our car just wouldn’t stop. We glided around the S- curves with no options for stopping along the way. We somehow stopped at the bottom of the hill almost 1 mile from the top. It was a miracle we didn’t slam into the mountains or guardrails. There were still 2 more miles to go to reach the entrance gates. We actually stopped at a police barricade, and they were ushering drivers to stop driving until the roads cleared. Our delightful host continued to whiz by in his Mercedes without a care in the world and waved at us. The police essentially laughed at us for driving, made us park our car, and told us we couldn’t go any further until the roads cleared. We got to another hotel, ate breakfast, and waited for the snow to clear, which took a few hours once the sun came out.

Finally, once inside the Petra gates, it was warm and sunny. I had not seen weather like this since New Zealand. Petra did not disappoint, and we spent over 5 hours in there just wandering around the ancient city carved out of sandstone. It was about 4 PM when we decided to leave Petra, and drive another 5 hours to our next stop of Wadi Rum, in the southern part of the country. This is where the story gets more interesting.

Stay tuned next week for more.

 

 

Until next time,

 

David and Morgan

Israel

This seems a little late to write about our trip this year to Israel and Jordan, but over the past 9 months, we have been able to reflect over the trip. The memories keep flooding back about our 2 week stint in the Middle East. I would like to share about our time in Israel first, and then talk about Jordan in a separate post. Two totally different countries and just too much to write about in one post.

 

All in all, the trip cost us about $4000 for 17 days in both countries with airfare, car rentals for the entire trip, food, excursions, and all the above. Honestly, I was expecting Israel to be slightly cheaper than it was. It had more of San Francisco and New York prices compared to our typical budget traveler destinations. Fortunately, we had budged enough for our travel, and were able to spend about $100 a day to live in country. Also, at the end of the day, we were already there, and we were not going to pass up on seeing Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, or Palestine.

 

Our first stop was Tel Aviv, and we got in country around 11PM our first night as usual, and crashed in our Airbnb. We woke up, visited some local markets, and got lost for a few hours trying to find the bus station. We then finally caught a bus and made our way over to Jerusalem. The first thing I noticed about Israel is how small it is, how technologically advanced it is, and how much they have jammed packed into one country. Their commerce, trade, businesses, military, were all top notch. Of course you are in the Middle East, but most people who go here understand Israel’s history, and know how protected they have become. We felt safer here that back at home.

 

Once in Jerusalem, we stayed in the most Orthodox section of the city that one could stay in. Shabbat was soon upon us, and we knew that everything would close down Friday and Saturday night. We were starving so we went to get pizza at a nearby shop. Morgan orders a pizza and what appeared to be sausage pizza. Of course it wasn’t sausage, but was mushroom, and we had our first….. “Oh yeah, they don’t eat that here moment.” We did all the typical things in Jerusalem and the Old City that any tourist or traveler could do. We visited the Jaffa Gate, Tower of David, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, King David’s Tomb, Room of the Last Supper, Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, and walked the Via Dolorosa. There was so much history in one area, in just a few square miles, that it was mind boggling. I noticed so many different people from so many different religions all reacting to these sites in so many different ways. How people responded to seeing these places and historical pieces was very interesting. You could tell that some people had spent all the money they had to visit the spot where Jesus was said to be buried. Jerusalem is one of the greatest historical cities in the world for people to visit, religious or not.

 

We did get scammed once in Jerusalem when we ate lunch outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. No prices on the menu= they get to charge whatever they want. A $15 meal turned into a $75 meal. Oh well, it has to happen at least once on the trip. We ended up staying in Jerusalem for 2 nights, and then got a rental car, and traveled over to the Dead Sea area. We finally found the Budget Rental car location around 9 AM in Jerusalem. We told them our route, and where we would return the car. Only rule, don’t drive into Palestine.  Jericho and Bethlehem were off limits. For those who don’t know, Palestine contains the West Bank (bordering Israel and Jordan) and Gaza Strip (bordering Israel and Egypt). The State of Palestine has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. Palestinians and Israelis don’t really get along, as well as the Israelis and Jordanians. None the less, there is highway 90 that runs north to south through Palestine, but is Israeli controlled and you can drive on it. Just DON’T get off that road they said. We took highway 90 down to visit the Dead Sea and Masada National Park. We climbed the mountain and took in the sites all around us of desert and history laden mountains. We spent a day in this area, and then drove the car north along the Dead Sea to Tiberius. While on the way to Tiberius, we stopped at the Baptism site in the River Jordan. I wanted to take some water from the Jordan, but all I had was an empty airplane bottle from the plane flight over. I now have some water displayed at our house in a Smirnoff bottle. It was the best that I could do at the time.

 

Tiberius sits up near the Sea of Galilee. By far, I think this was my favorite part of the country. The scenery, history, and people made it the best. The Sea of Galilee is where Jesus spent most of his ministry, and we got to visit all the major sites. We went to the Mount of Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount), Capernaum, and Tabgha (where Jesus served the bread and fish). We stayed in a great Airbnb set up on the hillside operated by such a gracious host. She took us horseback riding one evening, and was there to help when we got a flat tire on the side of the road. One of my most memorable mornings was when I drove down to Tiberius and ran 6 miles along the coast of the Sea of Galilee as the sun rose over the water. Very cool and energizing experience.

 

From Tiberius, we took small day trips to Safed, an artsy town, and also hiked some nearby mountains. From Tiberius we took our car over to Nazareth and spent one day checking out the city. It was not my favorite city, but we at least got to see it. We dropped our rental car off here, and took a bus over to Jordan. I will skip over the Jordan section of the trip, but we did pop out of Jordan and ended our trip in Eilat along the coast of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. It was in Eilat that we laid out on the beaches overlooking the Red Sea, and relaxed for a few days before returning to Tel Aviv. Eilat is the beach town of Israel where a lot of people go to relax. We drank wine, laid on the beach, and just took it all in. We were a stone’s throw from Egypt and Jordan.

 

The last part of our Israel trip was spent in Tel Aviv where I ran the Samsung Tel Aviv marathon. It is the largest sporting event in Israel with about 40,000 racers, and starts promptly at 5:30 am almost in the pitch black. It was such a cool event, and the race took us along the coast and through the downtown area. Morgan was of course my biggest cheerleader, and I finished the race in decent time. It was my first time running overseas, and would definitely do it again.  The last day in Tel Aviv, we walked along the coast near Jaffa, ate seafood on the boardwalk and just relaxed. It was time for us to just be in the city and not have any plans. The next morning we flew home.

 

I would suggest traveling to Israel for anyone who is deeply involved in history and religious events. Wherever you go, there is just a feeling that something big happened in this country. Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or other, you feel this.  It is surrounded by so many countries and people that want it destroyed, but yet you feel so safe, and you know that it is a protected land. It was definitely one of the top countries on my list.

 

Until next time,

 

David and Morgan

Truths

The intention of our blog, Vows to Voyage, was never intended to be a platform for rambling or essays without purpose. Of course, we are not traveling as much anymore due to our careers and paths in life. I enjoy blogging. I enjoy sharing our travels and truths/realities that I encounter in life. I hope to continue blogging more this year, and the topics may be geared less on travel and more on our lives together as we move forward with other exciting endeavors. Morgan and my relationship was founded on travel, and we have made a commitment to make this one of our core focuses in life. With that being said, we do have other goals and ambitions, and I want to share those as well. I just want to bring things into perspective for me and others.

 

This post is about truths. Some truths are great, some are very basic. Some truths are happy, and some are hurtful, scary, or avoided. I tend to unearth and understand most of the truths when I travel and am on the road. Everyone has their own truths or things that they hold dear and certain. These are just mine. As mentioned before, I try to live my life off of 4 main concepts and two of these being radical truth and radical transparency. I try to share exactly what I believe. I don’t want this to be a bullet point post, but rather a conversation on some truths that I find truly real, satisfying, and sometimes tough to discuss.

 

Life is tough, has always been tough, and will continue to be tough. We need to pick our battles, and focus on what we want to worry about. Hold on to what you love, and just do what you want to do at the end of the day.  I was watching a movie the other day, and a husband and wife had bought a van and traveled around the country for a year. They talked about it for 10 years, and every day they found excuses on why they couldn’t do it. One day, she said to herself “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid.” Then she did those things. I always remind myself, there are 7 billion people in this world, who cares what most of them think. I have been all over the world, seen sunrises and sunsets, hiked mountaintops, swam in the oceans, and have done so many things. The world is beautifully and wonderfully made. I just can’t fathom that there is not some higher power behind our planet and the experiences we get to have.

 

There is never a right time to do anything. If you keep waiting for the right time it will never come. The right time to start a business, to start a family, to travel to the next country. You will always find an excuse that deals with time, money, health. Just do what you want to do, and roll with how it all plays out.

 

We are all going to die, and it will not be long before this happens. I lost both of my grandparents in the past 9 months. I remember standing at my grandad’s wall where we laid his ashes. It was in a small gravesite at a church with about 20 other capsules in a wall. All of the memories we had with him: the good times at the beach, dinner at the club, golf outings, etc. They were all packaged in a little container and put in a wall. It was sad for me, but the truth. It made me want to live every day to the fullest.

 

People all over the world are generally good and will help you. I have found this out traveling across the world. Most Americans have the perception that everyone hates us and wants to blow us up. This is just not the case. On our last trip to Jordan, we ate dinner with a Muslim man and discussed 9/11, Donald Trump, and George Bush, and had a civil conversation about the whole thing. We both parted our separate ways, and shook hands at the end of the night.

 

There is the good stuff in life. The good stuff is the stuff that I sit back and realize that these are the things the really make life worth living. For me it is the first cup of coffee in the morning, the smell of a new country coming off a 14 hour plane flight, or the fog lifting off the river early in the morning when fishing. Everyone has their own good stuff. Just do and have more of it.

 

I have come to find that 95% of what I have always worried about has never happened. All the stress, lost sleep, and worries about everything from business to health, has never led to anything. 2019 was the year I was to change my relationship with stress, and I have done quite well with this. When is enough, enough? How much money, stuff, cars, homes, etc. do we really need to be happy and content? I have struggled with this like so many other people all over the world. If I can just make another $5000 a month, I can do XYZ. But in the end, we spend more time making money and getting things that we never have time to use in our lives. It’s a tough concept to grasp.  Hands down, the most content and happy I have ever been was living off of $20 a day overseas in scenic, calm, tranquil places. There are so many other truths in this world that I have discovered and could share, but just don’t have the time to write a book right now.

 

One final message, that I feel is important to end this post. Do what you need to do to make you happy. Find your passion in work and life, do those things, and true contentment and happiness will come. Life is too short not to do these things. Be kind to others, worry less, experience more of your good stuff, and enjoy life. I have been at the polar opposite ends of these points, and it was tough for me. Understanding some of these truths has helped me live my life better.

 

In the coming months, I will be sharing our posts on Israel and Jordan trip from February 2019, and our fall trips to Montana and Paris. Thanks to those who follow and read.

 

Until next time,

 

David and Morgan