But I Will Still Need Your Money

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In the past 6 months we've travelled over 27,000 miles, if we were to add up all of our trips with the kids. That's more than the Earth's circumference of 24,901 mi, so we could technically say we travelled around the world.

On one of the last trips, our two seasoned travelers Mara and Gaius were so self sufficient: they knew how to handle the security line, and even carried all the luggage in the airport.

Elena: Do you guys need us anymore? You carry your own luggage, and Mara already knows how to give the tickets to the airport people. Maybe next time you could just go on your own without us.
What do you think?

Mara: But I will still need your money.
Way to be pragmatic; I guess parents are still good for something.
Here's some highlights from our trips (non-chronological):


 Seattle Zoo, USA
 Space Needle, Seattle, USA
Chisinau Airport,  Moldova
 Bucovina Monasteries, Romania
Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania - with Andrei!

 Taking the chairlift in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania.
This was the first time Gaius said a full word in Romanian, and he picked a hard one: 
adiere  =  wind breeze because we were feeling the refreshing air on our faces as we gently went down the mountain.

This was the most intense climb of our lives so far: two families with 4 very young kids (one of them an infant) and quite unplanned - no mountain gear or map. We were just adventurous and kept pushing on. The slope ended up extremely steep and rocky, with impressive cliffs on the side.
The kids had a great time going up, where we had a nice snack (see photo) and baby Maria some high-altitude breastfeeding. 

 Tram in Iasi, Romania, before 6am.
We had been awake for about 4 hours already due to the timezone shift, so we decided to go to the plaza and meet all the pigeons very early.

 The airport in Moldova had a beautiful welcoming Family Lane!

 Airplane fun!

 Airport fun!

 Germany - an unplanned* stop overnight, and we made the most of it. 
The kids decided that this was definitely Rapunzel's tower.

Why unplanned? Our original Romania trip tickets got auto-unbooked without our knowledge - the airline had "notified" us of dropping our booking by a separate & quite suspicious email. Since it was not the same subject as the confirmation email, it went to spam and was never seen by any of us. We found out on the day of the trip, as the reservation kiosk in San Francisco Airport found the booking (!) but gave errors when we tried to checkin. So we ended up getting another flight that day, through Moldova and with an overnight in Germany.
 Beautiful hidden maze garden in Munich Germany

 What to do in Airports.

 Mara officially signing her Passport, entering Canada.

 Luggage ride!

 Jammied up and ready to fly!

 Snowy waters in Alaska.

 Historic scenic train ride in Alaska - White Pass and Yukon Route.

 Watching Frozen with Frozen mountain peaks all around.


 The top of Mount Haleakala in Maui, Hawaii.
There was a looong adventure that followed this moment, which we may expand in another blogpost.

Remote Japanese cloister in Maui.

 Maui Beach fun!
Sometimes it pays off to be on a timezone shift, because you get the beach mostly all for yourself in the very early mornings.

 Indiana Airport, USA, with very cool vegetable decor - see the Flying Corn!

Great pastime waiting at gates.

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