Ever found yourself reminiscing about the milkshake that was almost too decadent to finish, or the euphoria of an unexpected academic win? That's where we kick things off in our latest episode. We swap stories about Mac's journey with stylish new braces and how his grades took a surprising leap, revealing our secret strategies for school success and the curious twists of the education system.
Special guest Anthony Quill from Tent to Takeoff joins us to discuss the magic of traveling with tots and turning every trip into a treasure trove of global memories. He sheds light on how adventures can deeply impact our children, teaching them to embrace diversity and adapt to minimalist living. We get real about the challenges of parenting outside the comfort zone, from dealing with picky eaters to finding the balance between screen time and the great outdoors, ensuring safety, and fostering a love for nature in our little ones.
We wrap up the episode with stories that show the humorous side of parenting on the go and the unexpected lessons we learn along the way. Anthony shares more of his family's experiences, and we wind down with personal musings ranging from pet antics to the nuances of driver's education. This episode is a blend of laughter, parenting hacks, and heartfelt discussions, perfect for anyone who's ever faced the wild ride of raising kids or is itching to see the world through their eyes.
Anthony Quill
From Tent To Takeoff - Family Travel and Adventure Blog
www.facebook.com/fromtenttotakeoff
www.instagram.com/fromtenttotakeoff
Magic Mind has a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code BESTBEHAVIOR20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://www.magicmind.com/bestbehavior
Ever found yourself reminiscing about the milkshake that was almost too decadent to finish, or the euphoria of an unexpected academic win? That's where we kick things off in our latest episode. We swap stories about Mac's journey with stylish new braces and how his grades took a surprising leap, revealing our secret strategies for school success and the curious twists of the education system.
Special guest Anthony Quill from Tent to Takeoff joins us to discuss the magic of traveling with tots and turning every trip into a treasure trove of global memories. He sheds light on how adventures can deeply impact our children, teaching them to embrace diversity and adapt to minimalist living. We get real about the challenges of parenting outside the comfort zone, from dealing with picky eaters to finding the balance between screen time and the great outdoors, ensuring safety, and fostering a love for nature in our little ones.
We wrap up the episode with stories that show the humorous side of parenting on the go and the unexpected lessons we learn along the way. Anthony shares more of his family's experiences, and we wind down with personal musings ranging from pet antics to the nuances of driver's education. This episode is a blend of laughter, parenting hacks, and heartfelt discussions, perfect for anyone who's ever faced the wild ride of raising kids or is itching to see the world through their eyes.
Anthony Quill
From Tent To Takeoff - Family Travel and Adventure Blog
www.facebook.com/fromtenttotakeoff
www.instagram.com/fromtenttotakeoff
Magic Mind has a limited offer you can use now, that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code BESTBEHAVIOR20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://www.magicmind.com/bestbehavior
Hey guys, welcome back to Our Best Behavior. You're here with Mac and Kelly.
Speaker 2:What's up, mcmaster? I can't even talk. I was going to say Mix Master Mackie McCoy. Hey guys.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, I got the peeps.
Speaker 2:I was teasing Mackie before we started recording. He was practicing and he was like should I sound like this? Hey guys, welcome back to I Gotta Poop. I Gotta Poop Because sometimes, when you're trying so hard, hey guys, you look like a boy. You're like hey guys, I'm just trying to look like what you sound like Really. That's crazy Burn. What's up Mac Doggy Dog? What's been going on? We took a little spring break. The weather was so nice? Not really.
Speaker 1:Not like the past couple days, but last weekend.
Speaker 2:We usually record on Sunday, but the weather was beautiful. We did so much stuff outside, yeah, and I was exhausted After we did so much stuff outside, yeah, and I was exhausted like after we did so much. I just was like I'm done my my capacity is full.
Speaker 1:What did you know? Should I have a new color on my braces?
Speaker 2:oh, I didn't. What did you get green? I literally got the. I can't talk in your mic, I can't hear you. I got the color of my shoe oh, I don't have my cyan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a little darker than cyan, like a teal, yeah, yeah, a teal, yeah.
Speaker 2:You got your braces tightened up today. Yeah, you still were able to eat Shake Shack for dinner. Yep, how was your shake one to ten?
Speaker 1:It's not what I thought of. It's like too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got the vanilla mix and then they mixed the fudge in and that was a 10. I feel like it's a 6. Okay, a little too much.
Speaker 1:Okay, rich, yeah, it's too rich Like I don't know, yeah.
Speaker 2:I got the black and white. It was good. Good, I love me some Shake Shack. Anything else that you want to talk about? I don't know what's going on in your life. Working on grades Yep Kind of sucks.
Speaker 1:Okay, at least it gives me something to focus on, I guess, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, good thing that you have been drinking your magic mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have.
Speaker 2:And, to be honest, like you were kind of in a grade rut and you went from a bad grade to a really good grade in a couple, of days.
Speaker 1:No, that doesn't make any sense, because I went to a D+ right to an A that makes no sense. I went like two grades up.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that they don't grade you on a lot of things.
Speaker 1:So when you had a bad assignment or test, and then you have a really good one there's only two things in the grade book, so then that really can jack up your grade. Oh, we also did do assignment, like yesterday. Yeah, that did go for points, I did finish it, it was probably that too Okay. Actually that was like 2%, and sometimes I think like they don't have. I'm that parent view gets me a little crazy. That wasn't my uh, it wasn't just some missing.
Speaker 1:We have a portfolio, yeah, and I didn't like click publish, oh but it didn't say it was missing it's not like on the grade book, he just like it's like the only thing we are graded on in that class is our, our portfolio you're great in there is good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just I looked not that long, yeah, I know, but like remember when it was nef.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's because, um, if you don't click publish, it doesn't upload it to him. So you can, so you can see all the new stuff so anyway, all your grades went from like d's to a's and b's one more you're working on a d, and it should be like a C tomorrow A C or a B it's got to be a C or better, or you'll go rounded it can't be a C minus. No, what If I pay you $10,? It's going to be a C minus.
Speaker 2:No, you can't bribe me. Come on, I'm your mom. You can't bribe me. I $10?. I don't need your $10.
Speaker 1:How about $50? No, $100? No, dude, I'd pay for plasma for a week.
Speaker 2:No, you'll pay for my plasma. Well, you know what. I might need that, because I keep getting turned away for my low iron.
Speaker 1:Actually, again, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Dude, how much would you have this time 36%. I need to be at 38. Again 36 again I I need to be at 38. Again, 36 again. I just keep being anemic. How do you get your it's because I don't eat any. I've been taking all my I'll put a picture of this on social media. All my greens I take every night. They aren't helping, they don't help, they don't take them. Well, they're not boosting my hemoglobin up to where it needs to be. That's fine it. That's fine. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:Then just take one less pill and see what happens.
Speaker 2:No, then it's going to be worse.
Speaker 1:And I need it to be better. Well, can't you just drink a bunch of water? It's not the water, the food yeah it's got to be spinach and leafy salads. Then just make some green beans when you get home before you go.
Speaker 2:We have a bag of green beans. I don't know if it works like that.
Speaker 1:I think it does Okay. Well, I'll try it All right, it's worth a try.
Speaker 2:You're right. I have nothing to lose, just like a little bit Nothing to lose, but hundreds of dollars that I haven't been making because my body is not cooperating with the program.
Speaker 1:You just lost like $200.
Speaker 2:Yep, you're right. I did $200 of bills. I didn't get to pay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, that was like one electricity bill almost.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, 100%. Last night you did a really nice project for me, this palette.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I forgot about it.
Speaker 2:You did a lot of projects. You helped me with my screen house your screen house fell down again.
Speaker 1:I had to fix it again Again.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're so good to me. You know, I think I got excited that the weather was lovely and I set it up too soon because it's been so frickin' windy I even did you see, I bought a little plant on the front step. It kept blowing off. Yeah, I saw it all the way over there. It was so sad. I just can't win with the winds, but that should taper down and then it should get better.
Speaker 1:It's usually good for like a weekend and then gets bad again. It's so weird.
Speaker 2:Minnesota. Gotta love it. And then, what other projects did you do? Oh, you took down the awning that we had hanging up there so we could use that storage that we have in the back.
Speaker 1:I did a bunch of stuff. Yeah, what other projects did you do?
Speaker 2:I cleaned the garage out, you cleaned the garage, you cleaned Justin's boat, but you made money. He paid you $10 an hour.
Speaker 1:I haven't even got that money he didn't pay up. I honestly haven't. What a bitch.
Speaker 2:I honestly forgot about him. No, you already did the work. There's no bribing him. If he wants to live here, he better pay his dues. He's gonna come and be like I already paid for a hotel or get your shoes and get out.
Speaker 1:I bet you, if I just text him, be like yo, can I use that $40? He'll just be like yeah, use my card. I guess.
Speaker 2:You should be like yo bitch, you never paid up. I totally forgot about that, though that's pretty. I mean that's good that you forgot about it. I mean that you're not like that, if I didn't get money it was.
Speaker 1:Oh well, even if he wasn't gonna pay me, I was still gonna help him.
Speaker 2:Obviously you're nicer than I am I always say show me the money I get money or not, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1:But I mean, if you're gonna say yo, you want money for this, oh yeah I'll take 100, yeah yeah, but I mean either way, if I have to do it for free, that's fine sometimes he'll ask me like how much do I have to pay you to make me? Oh, if it's like this or that, something quick. I'm not, uh, no, I'll do it.
Speaker 2:I'm like show me the money really for like the tiniest thing yeah and like, right, I'm his wifey, like he should.
Speaker 1:I should just be like sure, honey, didn't he pay ten dollars for making you him a sandwich?
Speaker 2:He paid me $10 for Eating a freeze dried skittle Because I did not want to. I'm like you show me the money and I'll do it, but I'm not doing anything For free.
Speaker 1:How much money would it? If I give you $100, would you go touch a snake? Sure $100.
Speaker 2:To touch a snake.
Speaker 1:I'm buying a snake and you're going to touch it.
Speaker 2:No, that's not part of the deal. I thought it was just a random gardener snake cruising along here you go, pet it.
Speaker 1:You're not buying a snake how much would it take you to let me buy a snake and own it in my basement? $1 billion it's not that bad, it's bad.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you a funny story about one of my friends. She had three boys, mama three boys, and two of them were twins.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:She doesn't like snakes. Her son found a snake in the yard that's funny, snuck it into the house and it was living in his closet for about a month before she found it.
Speaker 1:That's funny, that is gross, that is funny, that is so nasty?
Speaker 2:Was it a gardener's snake? I think so, but it's still nasty. There's a scary ass story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Was it a gardener's snake? I think so, but it's still nasty. There's a scary-ass story. A while ago she had a pet snake right and it wasn't eating. It wouldn't eat for like a week and she found out that it was starving itself to eat her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was it a big snake, like an anaconda. Yeah, yeah, they'll do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know it was crazy. That's why you can't trust snakes.
Speaker 2:How could that snake eat?
Speaker 1:her though.
Speaker 2:Because their jaw unhinges. And then I'm going to show you and it can open like this because it detaches.
Speaker 1:So it can open up so big, so it can eat my head.
Speaker 2:Yes, a big one, like an anaconda. It could bite my head.
Speaker 1:It could bite my head.
Speaker 2:It could just chew it off. No, no, no, they don't chew, they swallow their food whole. So it swallows you and then you are alive until you suffocate in there.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Sometimes they bite them to kind of like paralyze them. I don't know if anacondas are poisonous. I think they're just really strong.
Speaker 1:I think they are.
Speaker 2:Like boa constrictors too. They just like strangle their prey. Also, let me tell you something nasty about snakes. Snakes carry salmonella on like their scales.
Speaker 1:Also do chickens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, that's fine, so anyway.
Speaker 1:But you like people a lot.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 3:So, thanks for letting me know that, because you kind of threw me off to be honest.
Speaker 2:Anyway, this guy had a pet snake and he kept coming into the clinic and he kept having salmonella, but we didn't know that he had a snake. Eventually, like the Minnesota Department of Health was like, will you ask this guy that he had a snake Eventually, like the Minnesota Department of Health was like, will you ask this guy if he has a snake? And we're like why?
Speaker 2:And they said, well, snakes carry salmonella, Maybe he has a pet snake and that's why he, if he's handling the snake, not washing his hands, maybe that's why he keeps repeatedly getting salmonella.
Speaker 1:Sure shit. What's salmonella even? Do it's like a it's a disease that makes you sick. It's like what's it make? You feel like, like, like food poisoning, like vomiting diarrhea soup, like oh yeah, on your death barley, beef barley, oh yeah oh, the sound of when you puke and you hear like splash into the that is so nasty?
Speaker 2:are you saying when I puke or when you puke, no, when you puke, when somebody pukes, yeah, and you hear like yeah, it's like so chunky and then you can't breathe. You're like I just need some air. Then your eyes are like watering.
Speaker 1:It's's like you're like and it's like.
Speaker 2:Projectile.
Speaker 1:Yes, like, it's like so much. It smacks the back of the toilet and you're just trying to breathe. Oh my God, I got to keep throwing up.
Speaker 2:I need to breathe. I can't.
Speaker 1:You can't like, you can't like. You can't breathe out of your nose and your mouth is open and your eyes are watering yeah, when you're like Pushing Out of your throat. You can't breathe Air from your nose. It's weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is weird, it's not right, just like you can't see Without closing your eyes. Have you tried yeah. No, it's impossible. Yeah, I know it happens when I'm driving and it freaks me out.
Speaker 1:You're like what if something? I don't even think you can hold your eyes? No, you can't. Yeah, it doesn't work. They say it's impossible.
Speaker 2:They say that your eyeballs will like pop out if you try to keep them. If you actually were to keep them open when you sneezed that's funny They'd rupture.
Speaker 1:They'd rupture Just choo-poom. Yeah, it's like poom.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It'd be dangling.
Speaker 2:There's like a cartoon have you ever seen where his eyes are like popping out of his head?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, that's what would happen.
Speaker 2:All right, that's crazy um so the last thing that I wanted to talk about is my progress with magic mind, and I feel like my the clarity of my thought process has been so much better. Weren't you taking it every morning and you did better on your schoolwork?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I had a test, right yeah, like yesterday, and I was like really locked in on that test. I got a good grade, yeah, yeah, like I said we were talking about, like I'm A minus. You think you're a shot of magic mind A 65, a 67 to a 92.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's crazy, right, yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, sounds like magic mind.
Speaker 1:It does sound like magic mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like you know, I'm often trying to tell myself like work smarter, not harder, and I feel like the magic mind shots have been just making that so much easier for me and I've been finding my words better and not losing my thought process as often. So if you want to give Matt, if you want to give magic mind to try, you can go to magic mindcom and you can enter promo code bestbehavior20 and get 20% off your order.
Speaker 1:Really. Yeah, that's a great deal. That is a good deal.
Speaker 2:Are you ready for our guest today?
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure I am right now what I said. I'm pretty sure I am right now.
Speaker 2:So today we have Anthony Quill, and he is on Instagram. His page is called From tent to takeoff and what him and his wife are doing is they're helping families with young kids get off their beaten path. They have traveled to 64 countries, uh, stayed at thousands of parks, and they really help provide kid-friendly travel, camping, adventure, tips, tricks, and, yeah, he's got a lot of great things to share with us. So, without further ado, why don't you welcome Anthony?
Speaker 1:Welcome, anthony, let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Hey, on your mind is behavior. On your mind is behavior. You're listening to another episode of On Our Best Behavior and today we have a very special guest for you. We have Anthony Quill and he is from Tent2Takeoff. He has a big following on Instagram Actually, it's not just you, it's you and your wife, I understand and you help families with young kids get off their beaten path and learn a lot of skills, and a lot of people are afraid to travel with especially young children, and you guys have decided to forge a path to let us learn through your fails so that we can be successful.
Speaker 3:That's exactly it and thanks for having me on. Yeah, so my name is Anthony Quill. My wife and I have a family travel and adventure blog called From Tent to Takeoff, and you know we're our whole goal is helping families to kind of take that next step. That's maybe a little bit outside of their comfort zone, but not too much, and it helps them as a family to grow and try new things and explore the world around them, whether it's kind of local, the tent side, so just camping in local state parks, or whether it's international and going to new countries or new places.
Speaker 2:So tell me your story. How did you so? You start out by yourself, and then you meet your beautiful wife, and then you get married and you have babies. And then were you guys world travelers before, because you do international travel too. So how did that?
Speaker 3:transpire a ton of it as individuals and then kind of melded it together when we got married. And so when I grew up we didn't travel much at all. My family just couldn't really afford it and it just wasn't something that was within reach for us. So it wasn't until college that I really kind of got the travel bug, studied abroad quite a bit and it took off. My wife has a completely different story. Her parents are teachers and they taught in the American school system, overseas, and so when she was, I think, a week old, she was born here and went over to Saudi Arabia way back in the days when Saudi Arabia was a very different place than it is today. She lived in Abu Dhabi for a while and she grew up most of middle school and high school in Tokyo, japan, and so we both kind of started with very different but overlapping experiences.
Speaker 3:And then, when we got married, we continued to travel, and when our oldest was a month old, I accepted a job overseas, so we moved to the island of Malta, which is a little island off the coast of Italy. So we moved there in 2014. My daughter, betty, the youngest, was born there. We lived there until 2019 and then came back to the States and the whole time we were there we were like we should start a blog and we just never did anything about it.
Speaker 3:You know we're busy. We had young kids. I traveled for work about 50% of the time all over the world and then, as a family just being so, you know, centrally located in Southern Europe we traveled a ton as a family. So it wasn't until we got back and it was COVID and we were bored out of our minds and we were stuck in our house and we weren't able to do the things that we love the most, that we were like, well, we should probably stop talking about this and either just stop talking about it or do something about it, but not just keep whining that we want to start something. And so here we are.
Speaker 2:And don't you think too, life goes by fast, but once you have kids, life goes by so fast.
Speaker 3:It's incredible. I mean, we're just talking, my oldest is nine and I moved out. Most I think guys my age that went to college, I was 18. I mean, we're just talking, my oldest is nine and I moved out, like most I think guys, my age, I went to college, I was 18. I was out of the house. He's halfway there. Yeah, he's halfway to potentially moving out of the house, which is just, you know, scary and sad and exciting and everything, but it's gone by in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 2:So do you feel like? You know I don't have a lot of international travel under my belt. I've been to a handful of places, but I feel like when I was a new mom I was let alone going out of the country I had anxiety about I had a January baby. So just by the time I would feed my baby, change my baby, bundle my baby, go to the bathroom, get everything in the car and it was freezing cold outside, I felt like it was time to like start all over and I could never really even leave the house. I just had so much anxiety. But what if there's a blowout? What if he's crying in public? What if I can't get him to calm down? And then you guys are just in all these different countries doing probably airport situations, which is also terrifying and anxiety provoking. So do you feel like it helped you a lot because you had already done so much of that prior to being parents?
Speaker 3:I do, yeah and I. So we it's a little bit of a tangent, but you know we do a lot of canoeing and camping, and so this last weekend we were in Madison at an event called Canoe Copia, which is a big gathering of weird people like like to canoe and kayak, and we gave a talk on exactly this, but less international, more like how do you, how would you ever take a little kid, you know, out in the woods. You know out in the woods and you know. One of the themes that we talked a lot about was you know, you as a parent have to either have those skills or have the confidence that you can build them on the fly to really be able to take your kids out into those situations. Because, I mean, you know you have kids, they read our emotions. If you're afraid, they're afraid. If you're stressed, they're going to be stressed. If you can just fake it till you make it and look very confident, they're going to go along like nothing's going on. They'll never know there was an issue. And so I do think us having those experiences beforehand helped a lot.
Speaker 3:I also think we didn't have a whole lot of a choice, because we had a very comfortable suburban life in Minnesota, this job came along. That was just too good to turn down. The timing was awful. So when we got the offer we flew to Malta when my wife was too pregnant to fly, so we had to get doctor's notes and all kinds of things to be able to do it, and then all of a sudden we accepted it and had to figure it out. So it was like we didn't really have a whole lot of time to be anxious about it because all of a sudden we were selling everything out of our home. We were selling our home. I mean, we were packing up boxes.
Speaker 3:You know, my son, for those first couple of months, lived in a drawer at grandma and grandpa's house. So we just pull one out of the dresser, put some blankets in there, shove them in there, because we didn't own anything anymore. We sold the spices off the cabinet when we left, so we had nothing. So I do think it's a combo like, yes, we had those skills and you know, I think people perform the best when you're just, you know, down to no other options. We had no other options. We had a flight that was bringing us to our no home new home. We no home left here and it was go time and my wife actually flew. Her mom came with, but she flew with my youngest alone with her mom. I was already working and trying to find us a place to live and get us a rental car and all that stuff ahead of time.
Speaker 2:I think I just had a situation today where I was talking to somebody and they had told me that they fly all around the globe for their job and I think, like gosh, that's such a great opportunity. I think that now, but I feel like 15 years ago I probably wouldn't have thought that, so kudos to you. Ago, I probably wouldn't have thought that, so kudos to you. And I mean, I think it's also cool for your kids to be able to say like oh, I've lived in this country, I've lived in that country, but do you so? Then my next question is what are the benefits to exposing your young kids to international traveling and camping and all those things that we're scared to do? I feel like most of us, but I feel like if you do expose them at a young age, do? I feel like most of us? But I feel like if you do expose them at a young age, then it's just like normal to them, it's not like some new thing. They just always remember life that way.
Speaker 3:I think that's exactly it. It's like you, as a parent, you create what's normal for your kids. So we all, each of us as individuals, we have a version of what we think is normal in the world, and probably none of us are right. We're all some sort of weird along some continuum. But as parents, that's, I think, one of the big responsibilities is for those younger years. You're literally painting the picture of what a normal life looks like, and so I think the sooner you can start just exposing kids to something different.
Speaker 3:It doesn't have to be a trip to Europe or anything crazy, it can just be to a different town by you, or to try camping for the first time, or to try different activities for the first time.
Speaker 3:You know, I think it all helps build resilience in kids, which is, I think, a skill, or whatever you want to call it, that you know we all could use a little bit more of.
Speaker 3:You know it teaches them kind of open-mindedness and passion, so they see the world, hopefully, more positively and they see kind of the uniqueness between us as something to be curious about, not afraid of, and that I think really, the more you travel, the more you potentially can build that kind of cultural understanding. Just, you see a lot of different people and you see them for short periods of time, you know, in their homes or in their home countries, and you know it gives you a chance to see these different cultures and to appreciate them for what they are and not just kind of you know, you read about something and you almost immediately go to negative or some kind of comparison. But when you experience it you just kind of enjoy it for what it is and you move on and I think you get kids started on that and you build that into their brains and it's going to be hard to turn them off from it.
Speaker 2:I feel like too, when you're a kid, like you said, whatever your life is like, that's normal for you. And then, when you grow up and then you look back on some of your childhood, you're like oh, that really, that wasn't normal. Most people don't do that. So it is eye opening as you get older and I feel like that never ends, like you just always keep learning new things about different people's upbringings.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you when you take number one, young were your, was I get you know you have? You had one kid and then you had two, so how young was your first child when you take them camping and how minimalist camping do you do?
Speaker 3:so this is where we think it's normal. But it's definitely not going to be normal for you know, any stretch of the imagination. But the first camping trip we did was in Malta. Just because we were there and we only had one kid at the time and he was probably one, I think, maybe and we just hiked out to what we thought was maybe public land in Malta, which it's always hard to tell, but there's a bunch of it and you can usually do what you want. It's hard to tell, but there's a bunch of it and you can usually do what you want. And we biked in with a tent, a couple of sleeping pads, our dog and a couple of sleeping bags. That's it, and that's more or less our style now. So had we been in the States that first year he was born in July, probably by September we would have done our first kind of boundary waters trip and it would have been two nights ish, something like that, um. But now we take the kids, you know 10 plus days, um, in the boundary water.
Speaker 3:So this is very minimalist camping. We have to haul everything. It all goes in one canoe, um, we're big fans of not having that much stuff, because the more stuff you have, it's more stuff to lose, it's more stuff to break, it's more stuff to just occupy your mind, share and worry about. So I think probably a lot of people listening if they saw what we bring and we have it on our blog. We've got a Boundary Waters packing list. It would probably be anxiety inducing to start, just because it would be such a different thing.
Speaker 3:Because when you have kids you always think like you bring everything, like we go on a road trip and we could be gone, you know, two days to Madison and nothing will be full to the top for no good reason and nothing will be used and you know it all gets shoved in there and then you don't touch any of it. But when we go camping or when we travel internationally, but when we go camping or when we travel internationally, again through necessity, you don't have that option anymore. That's been stripped away from you. So we have to carry all of our gear into the woods. It's on my shoulders and my wife's shoulders and we don't want to carry it. So we don't bring a lot and I think it's kind of freeing and the same when we travel internationally.
Speaker 3:I went to puerto rico last last january and we checked one bag for the four of us. We were there for five nights, I think, and really we only checked the bag because we brought snorkeling gear. We honestly would have went on that trip with two carry-ons for the four of us, you know, like the roller, you know rectangle bags, and that would have been it and I think we would have been just fine.
Speaker 2:Now, when you were talking about what you brought camping, you didn't mention any kind of food.
Speaker 3:We bring a lot of food. Okay, I was like, are you guys like hunting?
Speaker 2:and fishing.
Speaker 3:No, we bring a ton of food, and we do that when we travel too. We bring a ton of food, um, and we do that when we travel too. So a big part of it is like you know, like young kids, if they're hungry it's already too late, like that ship has sailed. They're in a bad mood. It takes a long time to kind of calm them down from that. So we learn very early, like you feed them before they're showing signs of being hungry, whether you're on an airplane or you're in a canoe. And so we bring a ton of food, always tons of snacks. So when we travel we have a ton of snacks with us.
Speaker 3:The first thing we do when we land is we go to a convenience store, a corner store, grocery store, and we stock up on things that it looks like the kids might have a chance of eating, and then we just always have it with us.
Speaker 3:So then, if you're at a hotel or airbnb and you know you need breakfast, you're fine, and when we camp, it's a lot of freeze-dried food. I remember about a couple years ago, you know, the kids were just at an age when they just didn't like things, like they don't like their food, groups touching each other and they don't like things that are too mushy or not mushy enough, and and we were really struggling like, what are they going to eat? And so we bought basically every freeze-dried package of food that REI sold had a whole box shipped here and then for a couple of weeks that's what they had for dinner. We just tried them all and then until we narrowed down on the few that they liked, which was really few, and then for eight nights straight they had to eat mac and cheese and by the end of that I think they were wishing they would have had a slightly more open mind and, you know, would have given some of those other options a fighting chance.
Speaker 2:I feel like most kids would choose to eat mac and cheese every night if they could, so I guess that's easy.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and you got to pick your battles and you know if they want to eat mac and cheese like, go for it.
Speaker 2:Now that your kids are older, do they miss all the ease of access that they have at home, versus when you guys are like off grid or in a different country? Are they like, oh, when can we go home? When can I be on my tablet?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or do they really like getting away?
Speaker 3:They really like it and so kind of two things out of this. Number one we just don't do a lot of screen time at home. My wife's an elementary school teacher. She sees enough how much time kids spend already at school. Um, it's definitely an uphill battle, you know, keeping kids off of it, but we don't have video games really at home and they, you know, maybe a couple hours a week or something We'll sit down watch family movie nighter, but it's more like kick them outside and they got to go play with their friends or, you know, knock on doors until someone's around, um, and what we notice more is kids are used to very structured lives, you know. So we're equally as guilty of it. Our kids are involved in everything, even though we always say we're going to try to not do it. It's just like you get sucked into that world, you know. So now both kids are playing hockey. I'm coaching both their hockey teams. You know they'll play baseball. I'll probably coach that daughter will play softball. My wife will coach that, like they do piano, like all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3:And what we notice, especially camping, is those first two days are really rough, and it's because all of a sudden you take a kid from a very structured environment and you just plop them out in the woods where there's nothing you have to do, there's like you know, you don't have to wake up, no one's yelling at you to eat breakfast, so you can get on the bus, you can get to school, and it takes them a couple of days to adjust to that new reality, even with a life that we try to not have it be too structured or have too much screen time. Um, and then by kind of day three, they're, they're in it and they realize, like they remember, why they love it and by the end they don't want to go home, you know, but it is like it's a, it's hard, and last year we were in the boundary waters when they had the fire ban and so you couldn't have open fires because it was so dry. Um, and the behavior we saw out of the kids was different than we've ever seen on these type of trips, like they were just still wound up. They were really struggling to just kind of be at peace with where they're at and what they're doing.
Speaker 3:And when we reflected on it, we think it's like when you have a campfire, no matter what style of camping you do. It occupies a lot of time. You know you're looking for firewood. You of camping. You do. It occupies a lot of time. You know you're looking for firewood. You're building the fire.
Speaker 3:Kids are always poking it with a stick and I think in their minds that's really exciting. So it can occupy hours of time just poking a fire with a stick. And when you take that away from them and you're just out in the woods and you didn't bring any toys or you know, we have a deck of cards and that's as close to a toy as we have like they were going nuts. They were really struggling with how to occupy their time in a productive or, you know, non-annoying way.
Speaker 2:Is there any? So, speaking of like a fire ban, is there any time that something might be happening, like with the weather, or clearly not a fire ban, but any situation where you're like, okay, well, we were planning on going camping, but now we're not, because of these different variables?
Speaker 3:Or do you just go?
Speaker 2:through it. Oh, okay, you do Okay.
Speaker 3:No. And so we, when we go on these big trips, we bring an emergency locator beacon which is like a you know, hit the button and someone comes and finds you in case something really bad happens. And we bring a weather radio so we can listen to, kind of, what's coming in. And there have been multiple trips where we've cut them short just because we had little kids with a big thunderstorm was coming. You know, minnesota thunderstorms, especially up in the Arrowhead region, can be pretty fierce and we just bail a day early or two days early, go check into a hotel, continue the family vacation. I mean, we all have the time off, we're up there anyways, but make sure that they're ending each trip on a high note. And now that they're older, unfortunately sometimes we go so far into the boundary waters we can't get out in a day.
Speaker 3:And last year we did get stuck in a pretty bad storm. Trees were falling around us at camp. It was scary, but I think we had eased them into this kind of world that we think is normal. Obviously is not normal, um, and they were okay. It scared them. We talked a lot about it for probably months once we got home, um, talked about kind of risk and how you can't control everything, like there are some things that like, if you want to do exciting things, that there is a risk in there and you have to just know that. But also that just because something scary happens doesn't mean you quit or that you turn inward, that you can still overcome it and do it again. And so we've been back and they were fine. We were fine.
Speaker 3:There's no shame in turning away or cutting a day off or even or just seeing if you're new to it and it's going to be a rainy 50s type weather. Just don't do it. That's going to be miserable, that kind of cold, wet, like. I don't even want to do that. I probably still would because I feel like I have to at this point, but no one wants to do that, especially your kids. So go to a hotel, do something you know pivot, do something different. There's no shame at all.
Speaker 2:When I was a kid, I feel like we didn't go camping or anything, but whenever we would go on a trip or whatever and something didn't go as planned, I feel like my parents were easily razzled, and so then it was always like, oh gosh, here we go. Then everyone derails. Like you said, your kids kind of pick up on what's going on with you and then they kind of follow suit. So I think it is a really good life lesson that you're bringing your kids deep into the boundary waters and then, like you said, you have that terrible storm. They see you and your wife being patient, knowing how to act, and it's teaching them too, like how to pivot, like life doesn't out, mostly does not go the way we planned or intended to go.
Speaker 3:And you have to kind of, you know, go with the ebbs and flows. So that is a really good lesson at a young age to learn how to cope Exactly. And that's when we travel internationally. That's how we plan trips, that's how we encourage families to plan trips. You know, you have this idea and I always use Rome as an example.
Speaker 3:But if you're going to go visit Rome, italy, like you're going to see the Colosseum, the Pantheon, like you know the Vatican, like like you're going to see the coliseum, the pantheon, like you know the vatican, like all these things that you're just going to go see because you feel like you have to see them, and if you miss one you're going to go home and you're going to feel like you didn't, you didn't do roll.
Speaker 3:And our viewpoint is you don't have to do any of those. You can just see them on google, like you know, like I promise you the pantheon in person with a five and a seven year old, versus on google. It's the same experience, probably better at home. But there's all this other cool stuff you can do with kids. That's more kid appropriate, that's more at their level, um, where you can still get a great, like true italian experience. You can still learn about the culture and the food and that you know that part of the world. But you don't have to chase things off of a list, you can just ignore it and then your day doesn't go as well as you had planned. You've got one kid that's just unsettled and you just pivot and skip and you never have that guilt or that feeling of missing something important so kind of hand in hand with that.
Speaker 2:What would be your biggest piece of advice to parents who are considering doing this for the first time?
Speaker 3:start small, you know. So don't stay within your bubble, like within your comfort zone. You still have to do something, that's at least one. Like baby step outside of it, because that's the only way we grow and and. But you don't have to do a trip to Europe for your first one.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't recommend it because then you're dealing with jet lag and long flights and different languages and all kinds of stuff. You could just go to Belize. Belize is in Central America. It's a wonderful country. They speak English. You will get plenty of new cultural experiences.
Speaker 3:You can go in the jungle, so you can have jungle experiences. You can ride horseback and go canoeing or kayaking on jungle rivers, visit mayan ruins that you know I've been hiding in there for centuries, and then you can go to the keys and you can snorkel and swim and play at a beach and stay at a more normal hotel and have a wonderful experience. And that flight from here has to be four hours and it's easy and that's going to push you. If you've never done it before, that's going to push your boundary for sure, but in a way that trip's likely to be a success. Everyone's going to come away from it not feeling frazzled but feeling good and then you can expand it.
Speaker 3:Then maybe you go somewhere that's just Spanish speaking, so you take out the comfort of the language. Or you go a little farther south, to South America, where it's just a longer flight and you do have some time zone issues, and then work your way up to your Europe trip or your Asia trip. Once you're feeling comfortable and you've flown with your kids before and you know like some kids are great on flights, some aren't Like that's not. You know, that's not the parent's fault, that's, we're all individuals and they are too.
Speaker 2:But if you can kind of strip the trip down to its basics and then just challenge one piece at a time, One of the things that always makes me nervous about camping, especially in a warmer weather state, are like snakes and bugs, and I've watched a lot of like monsters inside me and I am terrified of snakes. So how do you navigate that?
Speaker 3:So we don't camp where there are are snakes.
Speaker 2:We've not done that.
Speaker 3:Yet I think I'm gonna keep it that way. I'm very comfortable with the world. I know well, um, you know, going down to tennessee or south carolina or something I'm not sure I'd like for me, I wouldn't have the skills, like I wouldn't know what to identify, how to think about it. You know we're here. You know minnesota it's really a black bear is like the only, and mosquitoes, like mosquitoes and black flies will be just awful sometimes of the year, but you know, for like real predators that are gonna could bother you or cause any harm, that's really the only one, um, we don't have poisonous snakes, we don't have scorpions or other stuff that's going to be in your sleeping bag when you go in there. Um, so I'm a bit with you.
Speaker 2:I'll let someone else can do that love the state parks and I was like whoa, there is too many snakes in florida. I am not.
Speaker 3:I don't even want to go like in the jungle or even like a state park trail, because there's snakes everywhere, that's not my jam I would do like I would camp somewhere like that or like in central america or something with a guide, like I want someone coming with me that knows the area, knows if I'm gonna grab for a branch and it's actually a snake, or something Like that's going to make sure I don't make those mistakes. But here in Minnesota I can handle it. I've done it my whole life, I'm comfortable. I should probably be pushing my boundaries. That's what I always tell people to do. I always feel like that's like the compromise.
Speaker 3:Like I hate the weather, the winter weather here.
Speaker 2:Not this winter, it's been fine. But then I always think about like okay, well, I don't have snakes and I, or poisonous ones, ones that I have to really worry about, I don't have hurricanes, I don't. We don't really have tornadoes. Honestly, I can't remember the last time that happened. We don't have earthquakes, like we don't have all these like terrible tsunamis, none of that, but we just have cold winters. So sometimes I'm like, all right, well, maybe that's worth it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cold winters and bugs is really the trade-off and I'm up to it with you. I'll take those. They're, they're fine. We've learned to love winter. We camp even in the winter, um, even with the kids, so, but it's doable as a family. It takes a little bit different gear, but you can. You can still get out and enjoy it and, yeah, nothing, nothing else is going to kill you do you feel like you balance fun experience and also learning experiences on your trips?
Speaker 3:I think it would depend on how you define learning.
Speaker 3:Like we don't do any, like we're not going to museums or art galleries or anything that you would think like, just like what would first come to mind from a kind of an educational experience abroad, and that's just cause kids don't like it. Like sometimes they'll put up with yeah, it's boring, they don't get anything out of it anyways. It's all like above their heads. You're just like shuttling them around trying to figure it out. Like we've gotten to a couple. We've done that when the kids were really young and they would just fall asleep in a baby carrier and so you would just get them to sleep and you would spend, like you know, a half hour at a art exhibit or something. Then you'd book it out in there because you knew, you know, it was time to feed or change them or do something. Um, but what we do do more is like what we call like real cultural experiences. So when we travel in Southern Europe, we don't usually stay at hotels or in major cities, and part of that is just kids in cities, at least for us it just is too. For me it's too stressful. Like you're worried about traffic and taking public transport to places you don't know where you're going, and like trying to figure all that out. And being in a hotel room where you're all sharing one big room when they go to bed at seven, is also like not the greatest thing for a vacation.
Speaker 3:And so you know, all over southern europe they have they're called, but they're farm stays, and so italy's especially popular for them. But they're small, family-run farms that have anywhere from, say, five to 20 rooms, and you stay there on the farm, you can get involved in the farm, kids can pet the animals, they can go milk the sheep or whatever they've got going on, and so they can learn through that kind of less formal path. And then a lot of places we've stayed. We have one that we've stayed at many times outside of Rome. We'll be going back to somewhere to see them. You become friends with the owners. You can take cooking classes with them. They almost always cook kind of homemade meals. A lot of the ingredients come from the farm or picked from the hillside. The wine's made on site, the salamis and everything are made on site. The cheese is made on site. Like you know, kids can learn a lot through that without ever having to have it even feel like learning.
Speaker 2:And so like balancing it, it's just they end up melding together no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, I think that's true, and I think if my wife were here as the teacher, she would probably say kids pick up. You know, they internalize more of it if they don't notice that they're working at it. And also, I feel like you kind of touched on this earlier, but we hear so much about different cultures and different countries and how they do things and how they live, but when you actually see it, do it, live it, you have a whole new appreciation for different cultures.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and I do think we have a tendency. Humans have this negativity bias. We just automatically kind of go to the negative for whatever reason, and so when you read about a new culture or something different, you're more likely to lean towards the why would they do that angle than the curiosity about why would you do that. I think when you experience it firsthand you lean towards the positive, like you're just excited about it, everything's new, you've got new sights, sounds, smells like you don't just get into that kind of doom scrolling mindset. You accept it for what it is and you learn from it and you appreciate it. And I think you know for adults we need more of that and if we can get kids started at a young age, hopefully that sticks in their mind and they at least can stop themselves when they realize they're being negative just for no apparent reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just even having more exposure too to seeing like there's not just one way, one culture. There's a lot of different ways to do things and a lot of different pros and cons, I guess. But how about, like, from a camping aspect, do your kids have a lot of like, I don't want to say survival skills, but like, do you feel like they can build?
Speaker 2:a fire or they can. You know, I don't even know what survival skills are, because I don't camp. Yeah, you know. Just don't even know what survival skills are, because I don't camp. Yeah, you know, just all those like basic life skills.
Speaker 3:They do. Yeah, I mean they could start a fire with dry wood. I think if they were stuck out where, like, the woods was just soaked, they'd be in trouble. They can build a little shelter with the tarp.
Speaker 3:Every year we go to an event called the Winter Camping Symposium, which also for us is very normal, but I understand for most people that it's not going to be a normal way to spend your MEA weekend, but it's a gathering of hundreds of people that like to camp in the winter, and one of the attractions for us is they offer a great kids program during the day, and so the kids go off and they learn all of these traditional kind of bushcraft-like skills.
Speaker 3:So they learn how to build a fire, cook over a fire knife and kind of axe or saw safety, and they learn it from a very young age and so, like our kids at seven and nine, they have the basic building blocks of those skills. You know, in the backyard they could do all of it fine with the stress of like a real survival situation. I don't know how, you know how that would go. They each, when we're in the woods, carry their own little pack that has all these essentials in it, and we kind of started them young and that pack had like a stuffed animal, a water bottle and some snacks, and each year we've just grown it with stuff that they know how to use and so you know, hopefully they'll never have to use it, but they do have it and you know it probably gives them a little confidence that they've got something with them if they were to get lost or turn around or something.
Speaker 2:When you camp, do you hunt and fish and eat what you catch?
Speaker 3:we fish, yeah, okay, yeah, we don't hunt um while camping. I've hunted as a kid. We do a little of it. I don't do it as much as I used to, um, and part of it's just like there isn't that much wild land in minnesota where you can like really get out, so it's either it's very stationary hunting or kind of your pheasant hunting, just walking kind of a farmer's field or something, which for me, I'd rather just go hiking in the woods than do that. Like that's just my thing. If we were in montana or something and I could go on a long elk hunt, I think I'd be pretty excited about that. Um, but like you know, sitting in a deer stand for hours on end just watching an open food plot like I do it every year more for other reasons than just hang out with the guys.
Speaker 3:But yeah it's not anything.
Speaker 2:I don't get the excitement I once did from it so when you fish in your camping, then do you fillet your own, do you clean them and cook them and eat them yep, we do, yeah, and so that's another skill the kids are slowly building like they can.
Speaker 3:They can catch fish now. They can cast pretty well small fish. They can take off the hook, usually on their own. But if they catch anything that would be edible, I think they're just too afraid to like to grab it and do what needs to be done to get the hook out. But we do.
Speaker 3:We don't eat a lot, um, like, if we're fishing around here we don't keep anything, just because you know the lakes around the twin cities don't have a large fish populations, water quality is not great and we don't need that food to survive, so it's more for sport. Yeah, and the boundary waters where there's a lot less fishing pressure, especially when we're deep into the boundary waters where there's a lot less fishing pressure, especially when we're deep into the boundary waters, um, then we will keep a couple of fish, but not we never pack any out or anything like that. We eat enough for maybe one or two meals, um, during a week and throw, throw the rest back so has your son learned how to like help you clean the fish he's learned how to watch me, so we got to the point where he'll you know they'll both be involved and they'll stick around when they're really young.
Speaker 3:They were like, no, not not happening. Um, so we're there. I think he'll get there soon.
Speaker 2:My curiosity is a weird a weird like something that figures in your mind like wait, because you know, when you're little I mean even when you're older if you've never hunted or fished, you really don't have that association of like this was an animal and now I'm eating exactly we're like they see, they see this live fish that they caught, and then they see it get you know prepped for a meal.
Speaker 3:I think that just yeah, like what just happened exactly.
Speaker 2:I think it takes some time to process and, you know, prepped for a meal.
Speaker 3:I think that just yeah, whole like what just happened exactly. I think it takes some time to process and, you know, both our kids are pretty just like sensitive kids, so I think just seeing death is hard even when it's just a fish, um, so that's not something I'll push they'll.
Speaker 3:When they're ready, they'll be ready. And then also, just from a knife safety standpoint, like flea, knives are notoriously fickle and they dull easily and it takes some quite a bit of pressure. You know, cleaning a fish and I'm not sure they're quite there yet with kind of their, their knife skills, and that's not how I'd want them to get cut, because you know that'll just scare them away from it. It'll be the wrong experience. When they're ready, they'll start. They'll hit an age, like when I did, where if you want to fish you have to do it. That's the choice you're making.
Speaker 2:So then you have to do the whole thing, not half of it, I think when my parents were like, oh, you have to take it off the hook yourself, I was like, all right, I'm done exactly.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, so they're there now they gotta start working on that. So we're, we'll get them there. But I do agree, like you know, when he's a couple years older, if he wants to fish. Like you can't only do the the fun stuff, like yeah, yeah, like something like that, you got to do the work part too, uh, or you just don't do it, and that's okay too.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get into some juice. This is my favorite part. I like to hear the good I mean not that none of these, all these stories were good, but the juicy ones. Tell me some valuable, some valuable lessons that you've learned, some chaos that you've gone through you've learned some chaos that you've gone through.
Speaker 3:We've had a lot of chaos in our in our time, um, not always with a lesson attached to it. Sometimes chaos is just chaos, like there's one I remember when we moved to malta. It was, you know, we were at a newborn and we were pretty alone, like we were making friends, but we didn't know anyone. Um, they drive on the other side of the road and every car is a stick ship. So my wife at that point did not have either of those skills and, by the you know, not long after she she got them. Um, but so she would walk a lot and it's reasonably walkable.
Speaker 3:So I remember she was walking and we into a lot of strollers. So she had a baby carrier on the front and he was four or five months old, walking right past the school in our neighborhood where, like all the parents are out picking up their kids and he has a blow up out that just squirts it all through that carrier just like a tube of toothpaste, all up right in front of the school. And she called me, just horrified and go back, wasn't able to go to the grocery store, wash everything, get him cleaned up face the embarrassment of the whole neighborhood seeing it, which they probably didn't see anything. But you feel in those situations, you feel like everyone sees it. So, yeah, that was uh, I feel so bad for her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, literally messy, yeah yeah, and then you know, with little kids it always seems to revolve around some type of body bodily movements. But I remember our first boundary waters trip. My daughter was still in diapers and so we packed in enough diapers for the trip. You know, she had been potty trained during the day forever but needed them at night. Hadn't pooped in a diaper for ever. Last night, last diaper. What does she do in the tent?
Speaker 1:She kills it out.
Speaker 3:Yep. And so now we're like what do she do in the tent? She kills it out, yep. And so now we're like, like, what do we do? Do we like scrape it out and reuse it, cause she's got to sleep in her sleeping bags all night and she will have an accident Like she's doesn't have that control yet. Um, and we went that route. Luckily, it just kind of like dropped out and we put it back on her and you survived the night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it back on her and you survived the night. Yeah, and we learned that time, like, bring an extra diaper, even if it's weight that you have to carry through the woods, it's, it's a necessity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so traveling internationally, safety concerns? The world is a different place than it was even five, ten years ago. What, um? How do you approach safety concerns? How are you kind of cautious about things, to be more careful about?
Speaker 3:any advice on that, yeah so I mean, some of it is just, like I think I said earlier, like certain risks you can't hedge or you can't get out of life. They just exist, um, but you can pay attention to kind of, especially what's coming out of the embassy, like what's going on in a country you're visiting. If you're going to the italies of the world, it's not a big deal. Um, you do have, to, like, with italy, you have to understand that mafia still controls parts of Italy and there's like neighborhoods that you're not going to want to go in, so just stay, you know where you should be. And then, like we leave our wedding rings at home, watches at home. We don't wear jewelry, like no matter what type of trip, we might have one nice outfit, but with kids, like you're not going to a nice dinner anyways. You know it's beat up shorts, flip-flops, yeah, a ratty t-shirt, like we don't look like someone that yeah you don't look like tourists, either to rob, yeah, um, we take pictures, you know, of all of our.
Speaker 3:You know passports and credit cards and everything, and we leave them with one of our parents or both parents here, so so if something happens, we can call and get their credit card numbers or whatever off of them.
Speaker 2:That's a really smart idea.
Speaker 3:Don't bring purses, I don't bring a wallet. Or, like my big normal wallet, I leave a lot of stuff at home and just bring, usually like two credit cards in case something happens with one cash, keep it in my front pocket. Cards in case something happens with one cash, keep it in my front pockets. Or just so, like you take away reasons for people to bother you and they're going to go to an easier target. You know, if you look like a bum and you don't have bulgy pockets, they're going to go to the lady with the big handbag, you know, and then at least from like a pickpocket standpoint which is, you know, in europe, probably one of your big risks you don't have to worry about it, that's another thing about being minimalist traveling is yeah, you're not a target.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly yeah. And we do like when the kids were really little, we didn't bring strollers because that's like you're tied up with it. The streets are narrow, usually it's hard. So we always did carriers or a backpack and we would bring our. We would usually rent a car because we were staying outside the cities and so one thing we would do is we just brought their car seat from home. We put in a big black garbage bag. That way we always knew if we were taking a taxi or we were renting our car. We had them in the car seat. They were secure.
Speaker 3:Because that, I think, is one big challenge traveling overseas is you get there and you need to take some sort of transportation and you don't have access. Like you take a cab, you don't have a car seat and then you're sitting with an infant and like you get in a big accident, you can't hold onto that kid or if they're in a seatbelt, like that's just going to be bad, there's no good, that's going to come from it. Um, and so we learned, learned with stuff like that and your backpack for your kids, if you use one. We had a Deuter backpack we always brought.
Speaker 3:Airlines don't consider that part of your baggage allowance so you can check that stuff to your heart's desire. And so we always just threw the car seats in a big, big contractors garbage bag to try to protect them a little bit. Um, and then when we got there like you'd have like the awkward walk to your rental car and your first hotel or something like carrying kids and car seats and all this stuff, but then you knew that for the whole trip you had a safe way to get from point a to be point b that was something else I was going to say earlier is you know you were talking about how, when you go to Wisconsin or wherever, and you load up your car with more things than you're ever going to need or use.
Speaker 2:I work in OBGYN and people are always like you know, when they get close to their due date they're like, oh, I just want this baby out of me. And I'm like, oh, just you wait, because you think that you're heavy and uncomfortable now, like once you have to cart around that carrier and a stroller and a diaper bag. And then you're you're leaking breast milk like it gets way worse it keeps getting more complicated.
Speaker 3:We've got pictures of both of us carrying just like what was still minimalist but just ungodly amounts of stuff through the streets of Paris, like just trying to desperately find our Airbnb before our arms fell off.
Speaker 2:Right, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anything else that you would like to share?
Speaker 3:I think the main thing is for parents, like it's normal to feel anxiety about traveling, especially when you've got those young kids. And just having a baby in the house or a toddler, that enough is new. You know that's already pushing your bounds, um, but just try to take those little steps. Find ways that you can do something that's just a little off off of your beaten path and then start compounding it, start adding to it. You know our story is unique. You know, and then start compounding it, start adding to it. Our story is unique. It's unique to us. I don't think people should hear what we're saying and try to emulate our life, because it's a mismatch of different opportunities, randomness and how we grew up. But hopefully you can find some inspiration, that you can find your own path that takes you somewhere challenging and new and fun and unique and and somewhere that you know helps your kids grow and build some of these other skill sets.
Speaker 2:And then let everyone know where they can find you, where they can find your blog. I'm going to add that in the show notes, but because this, this doesn't end here, you guys continue to travel and camp, so there's going to be more to come, so where can we find that info?
Speaker 3:You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Same handle from Tent2Takeoff and the website is from tent2takeoffcom, so anywhere you look that we have a presence. We're there. We're probably most active on Instagram and the blog, and then Facebook is kind of something we're working on, and Pinterest is pretty new to us. That's a very new world.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, anthony, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your story and all your expertise on traveling and camping. I definitely learned a lot, so, yeah, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3:Sounds good. Thanks for having me, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So Anthony was so lovely, offered so many tips and I know that he told me that. If any of you have any other questions, he's happy. If you want to reach out to him, you can find him at From Tent to Takeoff on Instagram and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I forgot to tell you that I took Tyson to Omni Brewery this weekend this past weekend you told me that and he is such a good dog, he's just so great. Anyway, he thoroughly enjoyed himself. What's wrong? You didn't get to come.
Speaker 1:Did you not have a girlfriend? I don't know.
Speaker 2:What did you say?
Speaker 1:Did you not have a girlfriend?
Speaker 2:You have a girlfriend? No. I just got excited that I was going to learn something on the podcast. Nah, I did hear, though, today that a lot of people say hi to you and you just keep walking and don't talk to anybody, no one says that. Literally no one says hi to me.
Speaker 1:Jesse says hi to you, nope, never.
Speaker 2:Justin told me he says hi to you every day.
Speaker 1:That is not true.
Speaker 2:Nope called out.
Speaker 1:That is not true.
Speaker 2:All right okay.
Speaker 1:I've never even seen him look at me when I walk by.
Speaker 2:You're probably just oblivious, not paying attention.
Speaker 1:I'm not. He's always talking to someone. I never walk by him. No, never.
Speaker 2:I don't know what he's talking about. I can't hear you.
Speaker 1:I don't know what he's talking about, but all right.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 1:Nothing, nothing.
Speaker 2:Are you speaking another language? All I heard was what I can't understand you. Are you speaking another?
Speaker 1:language.
Speaker 2:All I heard was womp, womp, womp. Okay, what? That's not very nice. Well, I can't understand you. I'm not Charlie.
Speaker 1:Brown's teacher. Okay, Well, that's what you sound like. Okay, I'm not Charlie Brown's teacher.
Speaker 2:Who are you?
Speaker 1:Mr Yap yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, we went to your driver's ed meeting. Did I talk about this already? This?
Speaker 1:week.
Speaker 2:Getting down to the nitty gritty of signing up for behind the wheel doing your permit test. You said that they asked the question about the sign in your class and you knew it because we had done it on the podcast, so that was exciting, all right. So I have a question for you today that is going to be on your permit test. Are you ready for it?
Speaker 1:I'm ready. I'm ready, let's lock in.
Speaker 2:When you have your permit and you're driving, at what blood alcohol concentration are? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:No, no, no.
Speaker 2:Alright, I'm going to re-ask this. You have your permit and you're driving. How much alcohol can you have to drink? Zero, good job. Good job, zero.
Speaker 1:It's because I'm a big boy now.
Speaker 2:When you have your actual license and you're 18, how much alcohol can you have when you drive?
Speaker 1:Zero. Good job, zero either way. Like you can't have any.
Speaker 2:When you're 21 and you have your license. How much alcohol can?
Speaker 1:you drink.
Speaker 2:Good answer Literally zero. Good answer Negative zero. How much weed can you have? Literally zero answer.
Speaker 1:Negative zero. How much weed can you have?
Speaker 2:Literally zero Okay.
Speaker 1:Literally zero of anything. That's bad.
Speaker 2:Sober driver. Driver, I was going to say driverine.
Speaker 1:Sober driving only. Oh, that doesn't matter, smoking doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Smoking cigs? Yeah, Well, that's. Are you going to do that?
Speaker 1:No, but like that doesn't matter. No, it's not illegal, it's just disgusting.
Speaker 2:I would never do that because it's fucking nasty, nasty, all right, do you have a? Would you rather for me? Good job on that. I'm really proud of you on that question. I'm a genius, actually, you are a genius. I'm a genius in my class, you are.
Speaker 1:All right, are you ready? Mm-hmm, would you rather never be rejected. Never fail, ever again. Never fail, ever again.
Speaker 2:So let me tell you a good story about this question. A dear friend of mine you might know him, his name is Dave Ryan told me that if people don't like you and if people reject you, it means you're doing something right. You're being interesting because you can't make everybody like you. So I think rejection is okay. I think that those are the people you don't want to be associated with. Make everybody like you. So I think rejection is okay. I think that it those are the people you don't want to be associated with any way, that reject you. And also I think that if you get rejected, that gives you room for growth. So I would rather get rejected and never fail.
Speaker 1:I think people reject you because you're different, like me. You are different. Nah, it's because I'm not weird totally.
Speaker 2:You are weird, you're just very non-social.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not.
Speaker 2:I have a good energy once I get to know someone you do, but you're very shy.
Speaker 1:I'm not very shy, it's just like it's awkward starting a conversation Like I don't want to get in that moment where it's just you have nothing to say and it's just awkward. That is not good.
Speaker 2:Making it awkward is like Then you just walk away when there's nothing left to say you just you don't just be like how's your day and then be like yeah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:And then you just go into another subject and be like Then you just be like when you're not like that, but like never mind, I don't understand.
Speaker 2:I don't know why it's hard. I just say when you're done talking like you're done talking you're just talking to some random person well, I mean yeah park random.
Speaker 1:What park random?
Speaker 2:what does that?
Speaker 1:mean, it's just park random just someone from around here. That's random.
Speaker 2:You don't say it, you don't just be like, hey, hi.
Speaker 1:No, not just some random.
Speaker 2:So I think it's more awkward to try to not look at each other when you're passing each other versus just saying hi, because you're trying so hard not to look at each other, like, oh, don't look, don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1:I'd rather just be like I don't care if I make eye contact with some random, what?
Speaker 2:You guys, then do you just stare each other down when you're coming towards each other?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if someone's looking at me, I'm going to stare his ass down what?
Speaker 2:What are you looking at? That's weird.
Speaker 1:Okay, how many times I.
Speaker 2:How often are you in public with me and I just am chatting. People just want to chat with me all the time.
Speaker 1:I just have a face.
Speaker 2:I have a face where people just feel like they need to tell me everything. It's just something that I bring out in people. I can't help it. But you, you're just nothing. Well, for adults it's different. If someone says hey to you, are you just like no? No, I obviously say hey back, Do you Okay? I?
Speaker 1:don't know. That's what I'm asking. Some people say hey and every time I say hey back, they laugh or something. They just do it as a joke. Well, they're the ones that look silly. Yeah, I know, I don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Then when they do that, why?
Speaker 1:wouldn't you? That would just make me the goober.
Speaker 2:All right. Do you want to hear a funny joke Now time? Yep, why did Piglet have his head in the toilet?
Speaker 1:He wanted to swirly.
Speaker 2:All right, one more time. Why did Piglet have his head in the toilet? He was looking for poo.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, that's funny.
Speaker 2:Alright, that's it, another episode of On Our Best Behavior. Thank you for listening and don't forget to support our show Aight.
Speaker 1:Bye, bye.