For our trip around the world in 2011-12, we went to Borneo, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia. THen we switched to South America and saw Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia and Costa Rica. These travels were all charted in our blog http://dixons.tumblr.com In August of 2012 we returned to America and […]

It has been quite a stressful week. I have gone to the Chinese embassy three times and still don’t have a visa – Monday it was closed (who knew the masses still celebrate May Day?), Tuesday the line was out the door and up the street so I chickened out. Took Wed off because it […]

Ireland My favorite part of the trip was Dublinia, a Viking Museum. It was interesting and fun, you could dress up as a Viking or a 14th century peasant. We learned about the Black plague and fairs in medieval times and it wasn’t boring. My second favorite thing was Granny Gertie’s birthday party because I […]

Notes to self re. our practice run Vincent lost his wallet containing all his credit cards and, more importantly, his green card on the london underground. We learned a) we should not be carrying the same cards since when he canceled his, my debit card still worked and b) that he (and I) should only […]

This has been a lovely, lovely trip. We have had a fabulous time in Ireland seeing family, especially the kids getting to see and really play with all their cousins. We celebrated his mother’s 90th birthday with a formal luncheon for 100 in a castle that is three times older than the United States of […]

“Mommy, the museums here are amazing! They make the ones in New York seems pathetic! Can we move here?” This was the general consensus from all three kids, even, unbelievably, my normally museum hating son. I’m definitely taking the downgrading of NYC as good thing since anything that makes leaving easier is a positive thing […]

Vincent’s mother is turning 90 this year and so the entire Dixon clan are throwing a huge party. In a Castle no less, the actual 600 year old Butler Castle in Kilkenny. Should be quite a show. Anyway, it turns out to be perfect timing, right smack in the middle of 3 out of the […]

It is amazing to me how devil-may-care I was the first time I went off on a trip around the world. I temped in an office for a few months, made about $2,000, went to a tiny little hole in the wall bucket shop and bought a RTW ticket and got on a plane. And. […]

We are going to London and Ireland over our Spring Break. It is Vincent’s mom’s 90th birthday and the whole Dixon clan is getting together which should be lots of fun. We are starting off in London to stay with my sister-in-law and visit my sister then fly to Ireland. After the big birthday bash […]

Of course the first thing people ask me when I tell them we are taking our kids around the world is “are you going to teach them yourself?” with a tone somewhere between “are you insane” and “thank god that’s not my problem”. I usually give a pretty flip response that we are going to […]

it’s approximately 5 months till the trip and I’m sad. I’m sad because I’m leaving my friends and going an entire year nonstop with my annoying little sisters. But I do get to see panda bears and go to places like Borneo and Singapore. I’m going to be home schooled by my mom and dad […]

I am going around the world with my family. I can’t wait! First I am going to Borneo. Then I am going to China. In China we are going to see the biggest Buddha in the world and it is good luck to rub his nose. We are definitely going to see an opera because […]

The part I am most excited about is Borneo. There are lots of cool and interesting animals there! There is a monkey with a giant nose that looks like a droopy water balloon. They are called the proboscis monkeys. They also have a Deer Mouse that looks like half deer and half mouse. It is […]

It is unbelievable how many blogs there are out there. There are probably thousands of people writing or have written about their own personal trips around the world. Even narrowing it down to families traveling around the world it still even feels like hundreds- big families (blogs.bootsnall.com/kiwifamily), small families (travelswithanineyearold.com), families on bikes (familyonbikes.org), families […]

OK, we’ve dropped Russia. Our friends who were going to take the trans Siberian Express with us couldn’t make the trip and we quickly figured out that skipping that section would give us four more weeks in South East Asia. Ironically, one of the reasons it was so easy to pass on that train idea […]

January first, a new year, only 7 months till we have to leave. Yikes! OK, maybe we should try something different, set out a list of all the things that need to be done in the order they need to be done. This month’s resolutions: 1. Get M. into college. Admittedly this is something she […]

It was a lovely one. From this point on everything will be marked as the last …. to be had in New York City since when we return from our RTW trip we will be landing in our new house in Radnor, PA. But literally everything went so beautifully. Our annual Christmas party, where we […]

I am worried about lots of things. Most importantly, will my kids be bored, will they be fussy and miserable, will they hate us for taking them out of their school and away from their friends? Will they want to go home two months into the trip? And then, how will we cope when they […]

OK, let me now be a downer. I assumed there would be bumps in the road. I just thought we would be on the road when they happened. We have this plan, which we thought was pretty well thought out, of traveling around the world. And one of the great reason for doing this was […]

I am so not impressed with One World. Their RTW website is terrific, just click on a map and seemingly all your dots are connected. But then when you get to the nitty gritty of picking flights it all goes to hell in a handbag. To get from India to Thailand you have to go […]