Amy Conroy
Expanding the Expat Experience

“…This past February, my parents came for their annual trip over Chinese New Year, a propitious time to be with family. My growing spirit of adventure called and the warm beaches and clear skies of Vietnam seemed to be the answer. I was eager to spend this time of renewal and reflection with my parents. However, for me to look forward would require my father to revisit his past…something he had never wanted to do….”

Expanding the Expat Experience
Amy Conroy
Why Use Music to Start Your Bilingual Journey ~

“Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi?” on loop… that was my 90’s song from Patti LaBelle’s 1974 hit. Why that had to become my earworm to haunt my young adulthood says more about my aspirations than my reality, but it did pique my interest in foreign languages.

Flash forward a million years and I am a mother raising 3 humans in the 2000’s. I clearly went to the coucher 3 times, and it occurs to me that I’d really like my 3 citizens to understand that phrase above. Not exactly that phrase, but to understand French or Mandarin or any foreign language.

Why Use Music to Start Your Bilingual Journey ~
Redwood Forest, National Parks
Amy Conroy
Call To The Wild

Cheap & Cheerful road trip never to be forgotten! We chose our destination, the Redwood National Forest, and mixed accommodations, travel, and food, high with low. Nature emerged the winner - stunning, truly breathtaking. Hide and seek amongst five foot ferns with trees towering above, it felt like the land of the dinosaurs. Our imaginations went wild as will every Star Wars fan who finds themself in the middle of Episode 6, better known as the Tall Trees Redwood Grove. This land was made for you and me...

Call To The Wild
Italy, family travel
Amy Conroy
Family Vacation, Italy

Who says that travel is wasted on the young? I have never met a family that travelled whose children did not note the difference. Meet the Fitzgeralds... raising global citizens every opportunity they get. You can hear the experiences and empathy earned through their words and everyday actions. #TravelOn

Family Vacation, Italy
family travel, culture for kids, california culture
Amy Conroy
Surf 2 Snow, I ❤️ L.A.

Epic Day 2017: Malibu Beach, CA, to Snow Summit, Big Bear. Celebrating California culture and the people who rally. Who's in for next year? 

Surf 2 Snow, I ❤️ L.A.

family travel

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Call To The Wild

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Call To The Wild

Cheap & Cheerful road trip never to be forgotten! We chose our destination, the Redwood National Forest, and mixed accommodations, travel, and food, high with low. Nature emerged the winner - stunning, truly breathtaking. Hide and seek amongst five foot ferns with trees towering above, it felt like the land of the dinosaurs. Our imaginations went wild as will every Star Wars fan who finds themself in the middle of Episode 6, better known as the Tall Trees Redwood Grove. This land was made for you and me...

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Family Vacation, Italy

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Family Vacation, Italy

Who says that travel is wasted on the young? I have never met a family that travelled whose children did not note the difference. Meet the Fitzgeralds... raising global citizens every opportunity they get. You can hear the experiences and empathy earned through their words and everyday actions. #TravelOn

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Three years later, she swears that they still talk about this trip "literally daily". In June 2014, Melanie's family took the trip of a lifetime to Cape Town, South Africa. Led by the interests of their 11, 14, and 16 year old kids, they dove with sharks, harvested food with locals, and shared the views only seen by South Africans typically. They found it all in one township: wildlife, adventure, beaches, mountains, culture, history, food, and people... #hablalovestravel

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No Regrets Iceland!

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No Regrets Iceland!

The plan was a six-day adventure with my kids (ages 9 and 11) and my girlfriend with her kids (ages 8 and 10). As soon as we chose Iceland as our destination, my researcher-self took center stage. Blogs and other online travel sites were immensely helpful so when we landed on the beautiful and mystical island, I felt pretty darn prepared. 

While my research was fruitful, the focus of this post is to share information I didn’t find that would have been helpful so you, too, can leave with no regrets.

EAT WHAT THE LOCALS EAT

STAY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CITY

SEE AS MUCH OF THE COUNTRY AS POSSIBLE

THE BLUE LAGOON IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!

 

 

Art + Beach = Magic Miami

Art + Beach = Magic Miami

Thanks to PAMM, we took away this novel way to get to know other artists on our own, by researching and discovering the music that inspired them. Then, being brave and taking pencil or pen or pastel or paint to paper to see what comes out of us, could we hear the same tunes? What tunes do you think were Picasso’s fave? Or Warhol’s? What would be mine? What would be yours? And what would art would we make?

Magic Miami

Magic Miami

As the days rolled along, there was way more to why this vacation was feeling like a vacation….

When was the last time your bathing suit was your uniform? 

Or you felt a breeze across your belly and your back every single afternoon? 

Or didn’t bathe for days because the ocean washed you? 

Or didn’t brush your hair because the wind did?

Or felt the earth beneath your bare feet, between your toes instead of socks and shoes?

It’s Colombia, not Columbia* (Bogotá for Beginners W/ Kids in 2 Weeks)

It’s Colombia, not Columbia* (Bogotá for Beginners W/ Kids in 2 Weeks)

I ate a big but ant (salty!).

I nearly drowned myself in a mud volcano.

I dipped my cheese in hot chocolate and loved the savory-sweet juxtaposition.

I felt the graciousness of so many Colombians that it makes me take pause.

There are not a lot of tourists in Bogotá, and I suppose that is due to the prevailing reputation of narco-guerrilla violence leftover. But I tell you, it couldn’t be a nicer surprise. Arriving to Bogotá, we were greeted by the vast and sprawling city surrounded like a jeweled necklace of lush green voluptuous mountains. My girlfriend told me “me llenan”, they fill her, and I get it. They would be overwhelming if they weren’t so nurturing. The only thing that rivals these Andes are the constituents it protects.

Costa Rica: Landing, Part 1 of 3

Costa Rica: Landing, Part 1 of 3

“Magic,” my daughter whispered, gazing wistfully at the moonlit sea. “I knew fairy dust was real!”

Her older sister shoved her bare feet deeper into the day’s sand castle, readying to provide the scientific explanation for the sparkling water.  With a gentle but quick hand on her shoulder, she caught my look.  Don’t interrupt this moment of wonder, my eyes implored.  Let her be.

And so that is why the three of us, dressed in breezy linen blouses and sarongs on a warm evening, leaned back on damp towels on the inner curve of a long, palm-tree lined beach in Tamarindo, Costa Rica:  to catch the next sighting of fairies scattering twinkling dust across the ocean waves, gently lapping at the shore. 

Our First Family Trip to Europe

Our First Family Trip to Europe

I’ve always been nomadic. As a young adult, the idea of staying in one place for more than a few months, let alone a few years, was a foreign concept. The same can be said for my husband. Both individually and as a couple pre-kids, we’ve travelled to Southeast Asia, Australia, South America, and Europe. We hadn’t been abroad (except to Canada and Mexico) with our two children ever, and they were 8 and 10 years old! The time had finally arrived for our overseas adventure.

Why We Travel

Why We Travel

Travel makes the ordinary suddenly become extraordinary.

 

A trip to the grocery store means identifying what such a store is called, learning how to navigate the noisy streets to get there, recognizing products and discovering new ones, and fumbling at the cash register with unfamiliar currency.  Such a mundane, ordinary task becomes a pronounced victory, a savored moment of procuring nourishment in an unknown land.

 

I travel to remember what matters most to me.  

The Silver Lining of Being S.A.D. in the South of Chile

The Silver Lining of Being S.A.D. in the South of Chile

I believed the glorious nature of the South could help heal my heart and reconnect all the broken parts. Douglas Tompkins once said, “There is still a need inside of us to see not every square meter of earth has been humanized.” That was always true for me, and Chile offered that promise. I got the feeling that I was in on a secret world. There you were able to glimpse a fleeting moment in time. There you would find a trail between trees on which perhaps no human had ever walked before.  That would be the key to my reconnection.  

Laura Ingalls + Indiana Jones + Clark Griswold = My Selfie Self in Argentina

Laura Ingalls + Indiana Jones + Clark Griswold = My Selfie Self in Argentina

...My daughter did not want to leave Estancia Harberton, Calvin dreams of returning to Estancia Santa Teresita for a month, and Jack might join that crazy adrenaline fueled climbing community one day in El Chalten. The main towns, where we landed, Ushuaia and El Calafate, aren’t my favorites, but they serve a purpose and I am intrigued. I'd love to get to know Ushuaia better – my over-active imagination suspects a darkness lurking in this port town that is drenched in wicked weather for 6 months at a time. Much more going on there than I was privy to, and the mere mention of Malvinas, a.k.a. the Falkan Islands to you Brits, strikes an empassioned chord in the hearts of every local. El Calafate caters to the tourist, but off the beaten track is where it's at. Both are the gateway to my most cherished days...

Feliz Ano! #HappyNewYear

Feliz Ano! #HappyNewYear

...The graciousness and abundance that filled the restaurant and our hearts that night is surely a good omen for 2016...  but it hasn't all been roses and peaches and this is the face I most identify with, hmmm... pretty scary? funny and, ridiculous, like "Am I really doing this?"

We are back-packing, essentially, with three kids and that in itself is an art. We forgot to prep them and some of us are slightly less than organized... it's really hard to find clean underwear these days, for everybody. I'd be lying to omit that I stepped out on the stoop in the sweltering heat with a glass of cold chardonnay to debate verbally if this vacation was really the best idea in the world - and that was at the end of Day 1. One thing for certain, next time I will definitely ensure us an air-conditioned unit as was recommended when traveling south of the border mid-summer. Duh.

Alas, a good sleep and never mind, I've already come full circle! I may never come home! I am loving the intimacy of such travel with my family and yes, I feel totally blessed.