And we're off!!!

We did it. After leaving my job at Personify, a nonprofit software company, earlier this year, we've finished all the preparations we could fit in and boarded a plane in Austin on June 18 at 6:05 a.m. for what we hope is the adventure of a lifetime.

Our plan is to travel and live around the world for the next two years. We'll live like vagabonds summer vacations and reside semi-permanently in fixed locations during each school term while the kids go to school.

Palace of Fine Arts

Despite my best efforts to identify, prioritize, and complete the top items in my Wilsonesque 140 items well in advance of our departure, I was still up up when we left for the airport at 4 a.m. having just finished items like our house rental manual (we're keeping, but renting our house), removal of the child safety fence from our pool, and changing a digital entry that failed at the last minute.

Our plan for the rest of 2019 is to travel around Southeast Asia for the summer and then put the kids in school in Bali, Indonesia for the fall semester. We are looking at two potential schools in Bali so we'll fly there first to check things out. Then we'll head to Southeast Asia for the remaining month of summer.

However, before that we had a stop off in San Francisco. Why? Well, it turns out that one of only two banks in the US that are the international traveler's best friend has an office there, and they won't let you set up an account online. More specifically, First Republic Bank (like Schwab Bank) offers:

• zero transaction % fees for international ATM withdrawals
• zero fees if you use another bank's ATM
• refund of all ATM fees worldwide charged by the local bank

Cliff House

So we rented a car in my old stomping grounds of San Francisco, opened up a bank account, drove around to a couple of sites like the Palace of Fine Arts, ate lunch at the Cliff House, and even snuck in a nap at our friend Scott Schopen's apartment while there (big thanks bud!)

Oh yeah, we also left our rings behind in Austin as a safety precaution. Soledad's and my wedding rings and an old college class ring. We are looking forward to picking up new ones on the road.