Good Advice from Great Friends!

We wanted to share some good advice we got last Saturday night at a really fun "Bon Voyage" party given by our Malibu friends the Thacker's, Peterson's, Kinsella's, Jackson's, Sidley's and Montgomery-Duban's! We had a blast. Here's a sample of what we learned...

From Davis Thacker:

In German "fahrt" means trip or journey. So when someone says "gute fahrt!" don't think they are complimenting your passing of wind, they're simply wishing you a good trip.

An "entfahrt" is not your uncle's wife at a Mexican restaurant, it means to elope!

You may think "kommen fahrt" means a run-of-the-mill stinker, but it really means to leave or get going!

A "braunfahrt" is a trip to the tavern, although it sounds like a fart that can't be trusted. And similarly, a "fahrtstuhl" is not a poot followed by something more solid. No a "fahrtstuhl" is actually an elevator!

Thanks, Davis.

From Kevin Montgomery-Duban comes these "must do's" around the world:

When in...

Canada- sing a Celine Dion song in French
Austria - look out for the singing family dressed in curtains
France - ask the waiter for ketchup with your filet mignon - they LOVE that!
Egypt - go to the King's chamber in the Great Pyramid - the Queen's chamber is overdecorated and full of attitude!
Kenya - find a watering hole on Safari and get the real experience and just take a sip.
India - just relax, it's so quiet and peaceful there.
Japan - tell them thanks for the great sushi and for helping out with our real estate.

(there were many more hilarious thoughts Kevin had to share, but I'm afraid they are not fit for this "G" rated blog)

From the Sidley girls:

- take a batik class in Bali
-eat poutine in Quebec
-crash a Big Fat Greek Wedding
-get a henna tattoo in India
-ride on the hard seat on the train in China
-fly a paper airplane off the top of the Eiffel Tower
-on Thursday morning, watch camel races in Dubai
-hire a river boat for a two hour cruise along the Tonle Sap and up the Mekong River in Phnom Penh
-walk across the country of Monaco
-ride a camel in Egypt (a definite must)

In addition to the great advice, food friendship and laughter, Charlotte Jackson colored us a "Flat Stanley" to take along on our travels (thanks Charlotte - we missed you). Look for Flat Stanley on our blog website as we travel around the world.

We've had a combined total of twenty shots, purchased fifteen prescriptions, had check-ups, teeth cleaned, braces removed, hair trimmed, and several practice packing sessions! We leave in just eleven days - and we can't wait.

Love to all...
the Toledo Family

The countdown continues . . .

Three weeks from today we'll be enjoying the wonders of Winterfest in Quebec City and getting ready to fly from Montreal to Dublin. Some of you have been asking about the amount of time we'll be spending in each country along the way. If you do the math (170 days divided by 29 countries) it averages about six days in each country! That probably sounds pretty ambitious! The real story is that of the 29 countries, there are several that we really plan on only spending a few days in. For instance, Poland, is just an overnight to visit Auschwitz. We spend four days each in Canada, Dubai and Amsterdam, leaving a little more time in some of the other countries. The real goal is to get a flavor of each place we visit, without moving around too much. We do, however, plan to travel extensively in France and Italy. Alex is most looking forward to exploring Egypt and Tibet. Matt's place of interest is Israel (he's already traveled around the world in 1990). Madeline loves the food and sites of France and Italy (though she's really looking forward to safari in Kenya) and I'm probably most looking forward to Thailand/Cambodia/Viet Nam and Nepal.

We push off from Malibu with open minds and open hearts. We know there will be challenges along the way (but, hey, there's challenges if we stay home for six months!) Our problems will be of the best kind - one's we are happy to resolve knowing we're on an incredible adventure together as a family.
Peace.

Here we go!

Only four short weeks left before we board our first flight for our trip around the world. We are so excited and the planning is going really well. Matt has been brilliantly handling all the travel arrangements (Visa's, shots, tickets, etc.) and I've been manning the home front and the education side of things. We've been planning this for so long that things are coming together really well and we actually have time to visit with friends and family before we leave.

We began the New Year with a ten day sail around the Caribbean with our good friends, the Freedmans. We sailed on a really cool trimaran (the largest in the world) called the Cuan Law. She's been in the Caribbean seas for 20 years and everyone knows her! We visited St. Martin, St. Bart's, St. Kitts, Saba (our favorite), Salt Island, Cooper Island, Virgin Gorda and Tortola. We kayaked, Hobie'd, snorkled, scuba'd, hiked, wakeboarded, ate, relaxed and laughed a lot! The girls made some new friends and we all fell in love with our seven crew members of the Cuan. What a blast. Definitely a great way to kick off our travels and just one more place on the planet to add to our adventures.

Check out the photos from the Caribbean and keep checking back!
Love To All.
The Toledo Family