We do research. We book the things that need booking early. We have a loose sense of what we’d like to do and where we’d like to go.
But we don’t have a map. Not really.
Two dads. Two kids. No map.
What that means in practice is that we leave room. Lots of it. We’ve learned — mostly through the humbling experience of traveling with kids — that the most detailed itinerary usually falls apart by day two. And somewhere along the way we stopped fighting that and started leaning into it.
Our oldest, Easton, has been obsessed with the Titanic for as long as we can remember. On our last day in Sydney, with one day left before flying home and no real agenda, we walked out of our hotel and spotted a Titanic exhibition nearby. We looked at each other, looked at Easton, and said — let’s do it. No research, no reviews, no planning. Just yes.
It was one of the best moments of the whole three weeks. Watching him move through that exhibition, completely lit up, knowing every fact — that doesn’t happen if we have somewhere else to be. On the way out we wandered around the pier it was housed on, took in the views, and let the afternoon go wherever it wanted.
That’s the whole philosophy in one afternoon.
It’s also the playgrounds we’ve stopped at spontaneously and stayed far longer than planned — and the parents we’ve met there who pointed us toward a restaurant or experience we never would have found on our own. The detours that turned into highlights. The moments we let our kids lead and were surprised by where they took us.
And honestly, this philosophy doesn’t stay packed in a suitcase. We live it at home in Kauai too. We tend not to over commit or over schedule our days at home either — leaving space on a Sunday with nothing planned, stumbling onto a beach we’d never stopped at before, following a trail we’d driven past a hundred times, letting the kids lead us somewhere unexpected. There is always more to discover whether you’re 10,000 miles from home or ten minutes down the road.
Travel doesn’t always go as planned. With kids, it almost never does. We’ve just decided that’s not a problem to solve — it’s the whole point. The unplanned moments, the spontaneous yeses, the breathing room between the things on the list — that’s where the best stuff tends to happen.
No map required.
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