Join us as we plan and execute our year of travel

The Wandering Koi

About US

The Wandering Koi Family

The idea of exiting our normal routine and spending an extended period of time traveling the world as a family first began to form in my mind when our daughter was about a year old. I caught the wanderlust at a young age and always dreamed of a life full of adventures, new people, cultures, places, and extraordinary experiences. It is natural, I think, to want to share this deep love of travel with those most important to me.

Parents

We are two surgeons who met in medical school. I completed residency in 2012 and my husband completed his training in 2017.

Progeny

Our daughter has been traveling domestically since she was a few weeks old and internationally since she was one. She has an artistic nature and enjoys singing, making videos, and drawing. She will be 12 at the time of travel. We are hoping she will provide you with a unique insight into the experiences of traveling as a middle-schooler.

why now?

While we could have picked any time, I specifically picked our daughter’s 7th grade year for a few reasons.

  1. I wanted her to be old enough to remember the trip.
  2. I didn’t want to interfere with high school activities in case this might hinder her preparation for college.
  3. 7th grade can be an especially emotionally challenging and personality-forming year.

Where are we going?

I made a huge list of potential spots collected over years of reading travel books, following travel blogs, listening to stories from friends and family and joining Facebook groups. So many amazing places I would love to visit.

While a whole year might seem like a very long time to travel, I have found it is far too little time to make any significant dent in my list of interesting places. Additionally, I don’t want to miss the culture and people while “ticking off boxes”. We have committed to a slower kind of travel which will allow fewer places, but hopefully a more in-depth experience.

I hope to share my original list as part of this journey with how I am narrowing it down with time and financial constraints.

One teaser for now though… I am not a “winter person” and we will be chasing the seasons of spring, summer and fall as they move across the globe.

The other stuff

Travel is great, but there are a lot of logistics to account for. We plan to cover:

  1. Financially planning for a year away from our normal jobs
  2. How we plan to school our child during this time
  3. Insurance considerations