A few months ago I signed us up on a Home Exchange website. We were pretty skeptical that anything was really going to work out, but thought it was worth a try. The very first night we posted our house we received an inquiry from someone with a loft in Nashville, TN! We were not interested in going back to Nashville, after having spent plenty of time there when we sold books. But never the less I was encouraged. I spent some time sending out emails to places in Greece, Hawaii and Mexico, with the hopes to find somewhere warm to spend next December when the boys would be turning one years old. No luck, but lots of polite responses and a few maybe's for another year. Then we received another inquiry from a family wanting to trade their 3000 square foot apartment on the 24th floor in downtown Beijing, China for a month in July. China has not been on our radar of top places we wanted to travel, but the opportunity was staring us in the face and we were really close to accepting the exchange. It was an emotional roller coaster trying to make the decision. Ultimately we decided that the air pollution keeping people indoors was probably not the best for our sweet little babies lungs.
Not long after turning down the China opportunity, we got a positive response from a family in Kauai. So after several emails back and forth we agreed on an exchange for 3 weeks in September. It is a one bedroom condo with a pool on the beach and sounds like a very do-able and super fun vacation to do with our little ones. We haven't quite figured out where everyone will sleep, but we will figure something out...we are excited!
And just to test the waters on the whole exchange thing we agreed to do an exchange with a couple from Hood River, OR for Memorial Day weekend. It seemed like a lot of work to get our house ready, just for the weekend, but it ended up not being that big of a deal. We even traded dogs for the weekend! The whole exchange thing is funny, just to think about the fact that you are in this random persons house and they are in yours. I really like the trust in it.
I had never been to Hood River before, so it was fun to see a new town, just 3 hours away. The town had a great feel to it and the house was nice and in a beautiful wooded area. The big hit was the trampoline in the back yard, wow Piper LOVED the trampoline.
We are getting good at the preparation it takes to go on vacation and have learned that the more we think through ahead of time the smoother everything goes. These little trips are like baby steps and confidence builders in getting our little family ready for all the traveling we hope to do in the near and far future.
Not everything went totally smooth on this trip. We were out of routines and stretched out bed times and naps, which lead to major melt downs and 2 and 1/2 year old testing of limits. But we made it though and were able to laugh at ourselves along the way. Overall it was awesome family time, we ate good meals, hiked up to a waterfall, went to parks, roamed around downtown and tossed rocks in the Columbia river. The only bummer was that it was not windy enough to fly the kite we brought. That was a total surprise since Hood River is famous for the wind with all the kite boarders and wind surfers that hang out here.
Overall we think Home Exchanges rock and are looking forward to the next opportunity that arises.
I had never been to Hood River before, so it was fun to see a new town, just 3 hours away. The town had a great feel to it and the house was nice and in a beautiful wooded area. The big hit was the trampoline in the back yard, wow Piper LOVED the trampoline.
We are getting good at the preparation it takes to go on vacation and have learned that the more we think through ahead of time the smoother everything goes. These little trips are like baby steps and confidence builders in getting our little family ready for all the traveling we hope to do in the near and far future.
Not everything went totally smooth on this trip. We were out of routines and stretched out bed times and naps, which lead to major melt downs and 2 and 1/2 year old testing of limits. But we made it though and were able to laugh at ourselves along the way. Overall it was awesome family time, we ate good meals, hiked up to a waterfall, went to parks, roamed around downtown and tossed rocks in the Columbia river. The only bummer was that it was not windy enough to fly the kite we brought. That was a total surprise since Hood River is famous for the wind with all the kite boarders and wind surfers that hang out here.
Overall we think Home Exchanges rock and are looking forward to the next opportunity that arises.
1 comment:
we have been thinking about doing a home exchange! Tell me how the Kauai trip goes!
I sure wish you had taken up the offer to do the exchange in Nashville. Try to remember that you have good friends here that would love to see you...namely, me!
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