With the purchase of our flight and Airbnb in New Zealand, we have now locked in the first four months of our trip around the world. Here is a quick rundown…..

First up, we leave for New York City on June 24th. Our plan was to take the kids to NYC over spring break this year, but we decided to wait and make it stop #1. Like many kids, our children have watched the movie, “The Secret Life of Pets” and loved the setting of New York City. In New York, we plan to go to a Yankees game and see Frozen on Broadway. We also don’t want to miss the iconic Statue of Liberty and Central Park.

From NYC we fly to Mexico City on June 28th. We got a Mariott rewards card a few years back that came with 100,000 rewards points. We have made the majority of our purchases with that card and have accumulated around 17 free nights of hotels. What a deal! We are excited to finally put our points to use and stay in Mexico City for free. It will be a quick trip and we hope to see Teotihuacan, an ancient Mesoamerican city, often known for the Aztec civilization that lived there. We can’t want to see the ancient pyramids, especially the Pyramid of the Sun. Our layover in Mexico City for a few days will break up the flight on our way to Lima, Peru.

We will be in Peru for the month of July! In Peru, we will be spending most of our time in the capital city of Lima and look forward to learning about the culture, the people, and finding local markets. We are also planning a special trip to Machu Picchu on Chelsea’s birthday. How fun is it to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World on your birthday! We hope to visit many of the cites around Cusco and the Sacred Valley and visit a permaculture farm.

Next, we will be moving on to Chile for the month of August. We will explore the capital of Santiago and then spend time in a coastal city called Viña del Mar which is near the bright and colorful Valparaiso. We anticipate having some visitors during our time in Chile, including an aunt, uncle, cousins, and both grandmas.

During September, we will fly with the grandmas from Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina where we will live in the heart of the city. It has always been a dream of ours to experience life in the big city. From there we want to do some day trips and take the ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay.

After Buenos Aires, we will take a 13.5-hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand where we will stay for the month of October. It will be the kids first real test in long-distance flying. In New Zealand, we plan to live a little differently with a stay on a hobby farm with lots of animals about 45 minutes from the city. There is a ferry boat close to the cottage we are renting that will take us into Auckland and surrounding areas.

Well, that’s about it for our first quarter plans…..10 days until take off…..