Hours and hours of preparation and we finally have everything done. We were up till 3 this morning the day of our departure, fine tuning small boats issues and packing last minute items. We learned a lot about how and how not to send food to Canada due to expensive customs inspections. Anna put in hours looking over charts and planning our route north. The last box from Amazon trickled in, loads of different size dry bags lay out waiting to be filled for the right fit for our small hatches. Anna spent most of the day making final decisions about gear. We had a lot of fun figuring out a large variety of food for 90 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and thousands of calories of snacks.

We have had some amazing help along the way from our sponsors to boat shops to kind strangers that gave us charts. Our parents- those amazing people that we love so much have come in and helped us with moving out, dividing up food, taking the oh so missed Rud (our dog) back to Texas to be loved and spoiled, and taking us to our launch spot in Canada.

I have to say when I was getting my haircut yesterday and was able to sit down and relax for the first time, it hit me that we are actually going on this trip. With all the prep and moving and planning I haven’t had time to feel it and it was mind blowing, scary and a lot of looking forward to just being on the water. But what I felt most was how calm I felt knowing that I will be with Anna in the outdoors for the next 3 months. All I need to do is have fun, manage the little to no stress, smell the fresh air and enjoy the long late night talks about what next adventure we dream up together (Anna wants to bike to the bottom of South America, I think driving is a better plan). I look forward to putting our boats in the water tomorrow, taking the first paddle strokes of our trip and I can’t wait to find our own deserted beach to lay on and dream about our future.