Benvenuti!

Welcome to WanderLustin’! This blog feels a bit like a historical archive now. Since we did this big adventure in 2010, we are definitely no longer newlyweds (13 years and counting!), we’ve added two humans (and one spoiled cockapoo) to our family, and we no longer resemble the skinny, wrinkle-free humans in the photos on this blog. 😂 

It was during this adventure in 2010 that we first came up with the idea of doing another big year of travel with our (then purely hypothetical) kids. That nascent idea will finally become reality in August 2023 when we’re moving to Bologna, Italy with our kids Maddie (age 7) & Dylan (age 10), and our 17-year-old cat Nutmeg and 2-year-old dog Annabelle for the next year or two. We’re chronicling that adventure over on Instagram — our handle @wanderlustinitalia is our way of connecting our Italian move with this trip and travel blog. 

If you’re just coming to this blog for the first time, the best place to start is the Itinerary and Photos page. We organized and captioned the thousands of photos we took during the year by country and then into albums from specific locations within each country… it’s a quick way to get a high level sense of where we traveled. 

As for blog posts, there are many — but we’ve pulled out a few of our favorites below.

It’s strange to think of how different travel was when did this trip. WiFi was hard to come by in most of the places we stayed, and when we found it, it was often very slowwwww and very expensive. We didn’t travel with our smart phones (partly because there were no affordable international data plans at the time), which in hindsight was an incredible gift because it forced us to be (mostly) present during our travels, and to navigate and explore these countries with a kind of spontaneity that our Google Map-ruled lives now lack. And without smartphones in hand, we relied on a digital SLR camera to take all of our photos, and a little video camera called a “Flip Video” to record movies. A different era indeed.

In any event, thanks for visiting. Hope to see you over on Insta!

Laura & Dustin

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Favorite Blog Posts

There Will Be Blog — our first entry! 

Queen Charlotte & Lady Noeline — our first big trek of the trip in New Zealand, where we met a very special lady

 Travel Tech Talk — anyone who knows Dustin will not be surprised by this post :) 

“Um, Dustin, Where’s Laura?” — wherein Dustin shows his true feelings about his new wife 

Sweet As — the best and worst of New Zealand

Magnum Cum Laude — Dustin indulges in a sweet obsession

Island Time — the joys and frustrations of Vanuatu

The Diving Boys and the Shutterflies — (can you tell we like puns?) — witnessing the insane sport of “land diving” on Vanuatu’s Pentecost Island

The First 100(ish) Days - DF Edition — Dustin takes stock of the state of our traveling union

The First 100(ish) Days - LM Edition — and Laura’s turn

The Land of the Thunder Dragon — a rough start in magical Bhutan

Into Thin Air (Finally!) — trekking in the mountains of Bhutan 

Wedding Crashers! — a surprise detour back to the U.S. for the best reason

28 Things I Learned While Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro — the titles says it all

Guest Bloggers: Israeli Sausage Toast — our besties’ take on what it’s like traveling with us in Israel

Behold, the Ferret Derby — a startling discovery in small town Wales

Guest Blogger: The Navigators — Laura’s mom Mary takes a turn at blogging about our travels together in Italy

Big Night — Laura’s uncles and cousins gather in Tuscany for an epic meal

Guest Blogger: The Steps of Positano — Dustin’s mom Donna writes about adventures in Sicily  

Nobody Expects the Spanish Appendectomy! — spoiler alert in the title :)  

Torres Stories — one of our favorite places from our entire year on the road

You Can Go Home Again — wrapping up an amazing year