Who We Are

For those of you who do not know us, we are Tony and Traci - Minnesotans suffering from extreme wanderlust. We are in our late 20's and are embarking on an extended trip around the Pacific. This whole idea has been brewing for a long time, but has now come to fruition due to both fortuitous circumstances and a lot of planning. We both grew up in central Minnesota, not far from each other (we didn't meet until college), and have lived here all our lives. Tony is a graphic designer for a company called Creatis in Minneapolis. Traci is a program director at a nonprofit agency in Minneapolis called the Neighborhood Involvement Program and recently completed her Masters degree in public affairs with a concentration on international policy and development. Tony is laid back, calm, creative, and introverted with a bizarre sense of humor. Traci is extroverted, passionate, and neurotic. We both love learning about people, their interests, and ways of life.

When we finished college and were first married five years ago, we applied to the Peace Corps, but the bureaucracy got the best of us and after 2 1/2 years of waiting, we decided we did not want our life on hold any longer. We bought a house in a Minneapolis suburb and Traci started working on her Masters degree at the Hubert H. Humphrey school of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. We were determined to do something abroad sometime after Traci finished school. We thought we would either work for a year or two, teaching ESL, or do some extended travel and see more of the world. As it worked out, Traci received a grant that will enable her to work with the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong for a few months and we thought this would be a great time to do that extended travel that we have always dreamed of. It has worked out perfectly (so far). Traci will get to do some work with human rights and both of us will get to see many parts of South East Asia and the South Pacific. This will be a great opportunity for Traci to network and meet with people working in international development. Traci hopes to meet with a variety of individuals and organizations that may give further insights into new career paths. Tony is going to write about this adventure, using this website as his journal. Each of the destination pages has a journal after the place description. Traci will also write, but since she will be working with the AHRC, this will be Tony's main task, other than lining up sightseeing tours for both of us.

When we started thinking seriously about this, we found many couples who embarked on similar journeys and their travelogues were very helpful. There are many things to consider, and it was very encouraging to read of similar thoughts, challenges, doubts, etc. You can find links to some of their websites on our Links page. We, like many of our fellow travelers, have a variety of reasons for pursuing this adventure. As with many decisions we make in our lives we envisioned looking back on our life in our 90's and wondering if we would say, "Remember that trip we took in our late 20's? Boy I wish we would have passed up that opportunity to see the world." For those of you who have traveled abroad, you know how enriching and life-changing it is.

Basically, the logistics of our trip worked themselves out over a period of months. Things have just fallen right into place.

Many suggested making a list of all the places you want to go and create an itinerary based on top priorities, location, etc. Well, our list was quite long and we figured we would need 25 years to see it all. We found some very reasonable "Circle the Pacific" air tickets at a great price that fit our interests, and started in Hong Kong. We bought them through Air Brokers out of San Francisco and we had to give a set itinerary, although all dates except the trip to Hong Kong can be changed, because one never knows what an adventure will bring. You know what happens to the best laid plans...