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Sara is a virtual assistant who founded the Northern California Virtual Assistants Meetup Group. We’ve been able to get to know Sara quite well over the last year or two. She recently sent us a couple of emails that she has agreed to let us share as a guest post. Hi Sue & Joel, Continue reading Guest Post by Sara Gaffney: You Have My Blessing and Envy Looking back over my 46 years of life (I’m not afraid of my age), I think now perhaps there’s always been a part of me that wanted to get up and go – travel. As I child the only vacation I remember our family taking was driving to the Grand Canyon. Many times dad just took mom and us four kids for a drive on a Saturday afternoon. That was our entertainment (we weren’t big TV watchers). My favorite thing about going camping when my older kids were growing up was the journey of getting there more than the camping itself. Yet as an adult I didn’t like the idea of not having a home and stability. I wanted to feel rooted and safe. However as the years passed there were many times when I just wanted to get in the car and drive – and drive and drive and drive. I wanted to pack up and go with no real reason, destination or plan. Yet I never did until I started my life with Joel. When I asked Fiona if it was okay if we just traveled like this for a while, she said, “yes, as long as after we visit every place in the universe, we stop traveling.” So then I asked how long she thought that would take. She said, “Ten years.” Daddy asked how old she’d be then [...] We didn’t get to sleep till after midnight last night and then I woke Fiona up at 8 am to start the long drive back to home base. Her words as we started to drive away were, “I don’t want to be home tonight. I want to keep traveling.” What a trooper! A vagabond already at six. [...] This morning we left Arlington Washington and drove down to Portland Oregon. We stopped in Olympia, Washington’s capital, and at the Farmer’s Market bought breakfast – great fresh fruit: peaches, apples, plums. We also bought lunch – cucumbers, grape tomatoes and a great loaf of garlic and rosemary French bread. Upon arriving in Portland at 3 pm we went to the Starbuck’s we had arranged to meet some people at. Debi Leonard and Annette Pederson are virtual assistants who met with us to discuss their business and each got a copy of the action guide for virtual assistants. We also met Triiibes member Patrick Proethe. Fiona met a new friend – Anna. Our family is very grateful for all the hospitality we’ve received since we started our experiment of becoming nomads. When we first started planning this particular trip, we put the word out that we were looking for some places to lay our head along the way. It wasn’t until the very day we left that we actually knew where we’d be sleeping our first night (though we did already know where we’d be sleeping for 3 weeks in Canada since we were going to be house sitting). And a week before we left Canada we had no idea where we’d stay on the way back. Of course by the time we left we had a place to stay for a couple of nights and just this minute I got the call from some friends in Portland. They can put us up Friday night! Continue reading Grateful for Hospitality Received During Our Experiment We’re wrapping up here in Surrey British Columbia today and heading back into Washington. We’re sitting here in Canada knowing we’re going to miss it as soon as we cross the border. Right now we’re at the Wired Monk Coffee Shop wrapping up some web work before we go make our lunch and then finish packing the van for the drive to Arlington to stay with Brad and his family for a couple of nights. We’ve really enjoyed being able to work at the Wired Monk; the people have been great. You can see some of our completed web work and web work in progress. Many thanks to Renee and Rick for putting us up the last two nights! Continue reading Heading Back to Washington Today – Still in Need of a Place in Oregon on Friday Today is Fiona’s second day of first grade. We homeschool through the Horizon Charter school program. Since we’re still traveling and are in Surrey British Columbia right now, you may wonder how this is working. Well, right now we’re all sitting in a Wired Monk coffee shop in Surrey. We walked here from the place we’re staying at. So there’s P.E. – walking the neighborhood. When we got to Wired Monk Fiona found an abacus. She thought that was a lot of fun to play with. She took a piece of paper and made up her own addition and subtraction problems and then used the abacus to figure out the answers. There’s Math! We loved house sitting in British Columbia for Caitlyn. It’s been fun and we appreciate the trust she and Ian put in us in taking care of their home and dog. When they came home for one day before the next leg of their trip and then took Brodie their dog with them he seemed to miss us. So I think we did a pretty good job. It was very important to us that they felt we cared for their home the way they would care for their home. We were there for three weeks so I made sure that in addition to neatening up daily I took one day each week to clean. That included: Continue reading Our House Sitting Experience in British Columbia We came across a strange-looking fruit here in British Columbia called the dragon fruit. Our friend Shannon told us it was a mild fruit somewhat like a Kiwi with a hint of coconut. We decided to buy one and try it out. It is quite mild and would be great in a fruit salad. Oh, Joel’s baby dill pickle is not a dragon fruit – but I had to show how happy he was to get some. |
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