By all accounts, we are incredibly lucky people. We both have wonderful, fulfilling jobs where we spend our days fighting to protect and restore the incredible beauty and diversity of the Pacific Northwest. We both come home everyday to a loving and supportive partner. We own a house, live in an amazing city (hey, Portland!), and have good physical health.

Yet, when Erin turned 40 in 2013, she had what you might call a mid-life crisis. Ten years into her career as an environmental attorney, she felt burned out, exhausted and a bit depressed. Something was missing but she wasn’t sure what, but she definitely knew she needed a break…a break from running her own business, a break from responsibility, a break from the daily grind. She took to the internet, wondering what others in her current state of “crisis” were doing to resolve it. And she found a blog that set this whole thing in motion, a blog by someone who also lived in Portland (or did before starting her own adventure) who sold everything to travel the world with her husband. And then she found more blogs, dozens of them, describing people who felt just like her and took a career break to travel.

She’ll never forget that evening when Alex walked through the door after work and she sprung an idea on him to take a year off to travel the world. And she’ll never forget how quickly Alex said yes, “I think that’s exactly what we need to do.” And so it began, nearly two years of plotting, planning, researching, saving, budgeting, and downsizing in preparation for what feels like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something amazing while we are still (relatively) young and physically fit.

Our friend Amy coined the title of this blog and we borrowed it because it perfectly represents what we hope to accomplish this year, remove the pressure to do it “right” and just have fun.

Check out Kim Dinan’s awesome blog that got the ball rolling for us: http://www.so-many-places.com