Let it Go

Hello there, blog readers. I realize you haven’t heard from me since the beginning of this trip.

This is not because of a lack of interest in participating in this particular project, but because I’ve frankly been a bit distracted. You see, in addition to being the husband and father in this operation, as the official Carl Family Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, I am actually responsible for making sure we um.. . . pay for this particular expedition.

So when Anna first brought up the idea of a round-the-world trip, I was enthusiastic (having done the same thing solo 20 years ago), but I also began thinking immediately about how we could have our experience without putting too much of a dent in our nest egg. And while I planned a budget for two years that would just have us relying on our existing savings, and I am already doing some consulting on the side, it became clear to me that a huge part of our future plans would depend on selling, and getting the best possible price for, our house in Palo Alto.

So for the last several months, while we both dealt with all of the other time-consuming elements of moving and personal and professional transitions, I was on an obsessive mission to get our house ready for sale. No detail, from marketing to staging to renovation was too small or pedantic for me to focus on, doubtless to the irritation of my real estate agent.

And we finally put our house on the market, in the early stages of one of the first bear markets in years for Palo Alto real estate. “Bear market” prices, fortunately for us, are still ridiculously excessive. We went with the price recommended by our agent, but didn’t immediately find a buyer, and as a result, while we were traveling, I was simultaneously looking for a buyer and then negotiating prices and terms once we had an offer (occasionally while driving a car down busy urban thoroughfares)

It made for a very stressful beginning to our trip for me. I couldn’t get into a really great “vacation” mode, with this major piece of work left undone. Even during our one brief visit back to the U.S to visit Anna’s awesome cousins in northern Minnesota, we had to meet with a notary who had driven an hour from Duluth just so we could sign a bunch of documents.

But in the end, we were fortunate enough to get a buyer, at a good price, considering the circumstances, and on July 3rd, while watching the Broadway musical Frozen with our two little princesses (the show was a surprise birthday present for Libbey), I got a bit of buzzing on my silenced phone right before Elsa started her show-stopping number “Let it Go.” When I checked my phone at intermission, I had a message from our real estate agent informing me that our home sale had closed.

Well I don’t believe in cosmic coincidences, but I must confess, I felt a bit like Princess Elsa singing “I’m never going back, the past is in the past!”

Perhaps a bit over-dramatic to describe my particular situation, but it still . sounds like a good mantra for this trip. We were now officially no longer California residents, but world travelers, with an uncertain but exciting future ahead. Don’t think of any image of me as Princess Elsa though, because, let’s be honest– once you see that image, you probably can’t unsee it– much as you might want to.

In any case, I’ll have more to say on our past adventures later: Banff and Jasper– (as great as I remembered), Quebec City (unexpectedly awesome), Toronto (kind of meh), but for now, I’m getting ready to get on the Queen Mary 2 with the rest of my family tomorrow as we set sail for the UK, and from there to parts semi-known.

The next two years will doubtless bring highs and lows, but with all the major tasks from my previous life finished, I feel that I can finally get into the mindset of this crazy adventure.

Let it go, indeed.