MAY THE WIND UNDER YOUR WINGS BEAR YOU WHERE THE SUN SAILS AND THE MOON WALKS. – Tolkien
We had the most amazing send off for our big road trip a couple of Saturdays ago. My parents flew in from Florida and co-hosted a camping- and fishing-themed send off for us with our neighbor besties Eric and Liz. It was the perfect way to embark on this great adventure and reminded us how lucky we are to have such a wonderful community in San Francisco.
Home Sweet Home
Well it’s official, we are off on the grand adventure. On Tuesday, we moved out of our apartment, took the final boxes and Ryan’s road bike to the storage unit, said farewell to a few friends who wanted to send us off, and we drove out of San Francisco. Not before stopping at Comcast to return our modem of course. No matter how romantic I’d like to make this trip, there are the practicalities of life to deal with. Like dropping off the modem.
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me – Walt Whitman
We are going on a road trip. For six months. We’ve taken leave from work, given our landlord notice and done our best to purge all of our extra belongings. And so begins an expedition of sorts, an odyssey to explore the West, see where an unstructured life will take us, and give ourselves time to exhale and relax and just be. Here’s why.
Why Not?! It seems like a no brainer – if you find yourself with the opportunity to take a sabbatical and put some wanderlusting into action, why on Earth wouldn’t you? Well, yes. But it’s so much easier dreamt than done. We, like most of you, have for years heard about those people who have cast aside their responsibilities, sold their belongings and quit their jobs and traveled the world. And we always thought wow, I wish we could do that. How lucky those people must be. And then it hit me about a year ago. Why not? For better or worse, I have always been someone who thought: if he can do it, I can do it. And so we started to really think about it and to think about what we would want to do with some time off.
Montana is a truly beautiful place. One of my happy places. It is peaceful and wild and free. I so highly recommend a trip to Montana if you are looking to spend some time in the great outdoors! This summer we took a week long trip with some of our friends to Montana, with half of the week in Ennis, in southern Montana, and the rest of the week in northern Montana at Glacier National Park.
Ennis is a quintessential all-American small town, a must if you are in southern Montana. It is quaint, wholesome and beautiful, situated in a valley surrounded by three mountain ranges. A place where you can spend your days exploring, fly fishing, hiking and day-tripping to Yellowstone, and your evenings cooking big family dinners, drinking wine or whiskey and soaking in the relaxation of Montana.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. – Edward Abbey
To travel is an essential element of life. It doesn’t have to be epic, cross the world, hop around from luxury hotel to luxury hotel kind of travel. To see new places, meet new people, learn about other cultures and experience things that you would never be exposed to at home – these are surefire ways to open your mind and live with intention. We travel often – many, many weekends out of the year are spent in little adventures around the west coast, but we also love to see the world when we can get away from work for a bit. Our most recent big international trip was to Patagonia, and one of our favorite activities while we were there was a fly fishing float trip down the Caleufu River in Argentina, near Bariloche (which I mentioned briefly here). After months of anticipation, R.Swig has finally put together a Go Pro video of that part of our trip! Read more
Part 2 of Crater Lake, Oregon – a quick Fourth of July trip to a beautiful national park. Saturday we again hiked down to the lake and hopped on the boat to take us to Wizard Island! A few of us hiked to the crater at the top of Wizard Island, while the rest of us hiked to the other side of the island for some fly fishing, a newly acquired (and quite tricky) hobby of ours. We caught rainbow trout and brown trout.
Welcome to The Pursuit of Life! I’ve been talking about this blog for ages, much to the annoyance of my hubs I’m sure, and have decided it’s time to put my words into action. I hesitate for a million different reasons, not least of which is because who has time for anything extra anymore?! But what a fun way to share the things that I love with anyone and everyone who cares to read about them, and so here we are. As I sit on the back deck of a house that we have rented with friends overlooking the Flathead River outside of Glacier National Park, in Hungry Horse, Montana, it seems like a good place to start.
At the very least this blog can be a way for our families to keep track of what’s been going on lately and what new cockamamie ideas we have sprouted and adventures we have sought. The ‘we’ here is my husband Ryan, our furbaby Coconut, and me. As a bonus, my day job lacks a creative outlet (which could be an understatement?), so I look forward to exploring the right side of my brain in a way that I’ve never allowed myself the time or energy before. And in striving to live my life with intention, to really pursue life and all of its joys, adventures, sorrows, feelings and experiences, perhaps I can bring some happiness, even if fleeting, to someone else.
Helen Keller said that ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.’ It is one of my favorite things to remember. We are all here for a short, finite period of time, so we should strive to make the most of our lives. The pursuit of life means a very different thing to each and every person. Through this blog, you’ll come to see what the pursuit of life means to me. Each day won’t be a daring adventure, but each day will hopefully bring a few of life’s joys. Read more
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