We’ve moved to our dream home in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains–

Over the summer, we sold our first house in Chattanooga after living in it for two years and moved out to the quiet countryside. Living in a more rural setting has always been a big dream of mine (Claire), and when we came across this new home of ours, we knew it was time to relocate and start anew.

The beginning of the year brought so many challenges our way, that this new chapter feels just a bit too good to be true. We couldn’t have found a home that feels more like us and everything we’ve ever wanted, and we’re beyond proud to call the breath-taking Blue Ridge Mountains our home base for the next several years.

Living out in the countryside has connected us to nature on a daily basis like never before. Wild rabbits and deer frolic around our yard every morning and evening, munching on tall grass and watching Geppetto “stalk” them from afar. Our afternoon walks feel like something out of a small town movie, where sights of horses drinking from a glistening pond exist. Whenever a summer thunderstorm passes through the mountains, a thick fog creeps into the valley and makes us feel as if we’re living in our very own Black Forest.

Every day is different here, from the unexpected wildlife sightings, to the rapid growth of native plants and wildflowers. It’s a real treat to be able to watch our surroundings drastically change with the cycle of the seasons. We’ve started to shop at farmer’s markets and local stores, and we found a persimmon tree, a walnut tree, a silverberry bush, and a wild blackberry bush all on our property! We also brought our entire garden from our previous home with us (we were VERY dedicated haha), so we’ve been able to enjoy seasonal, farm-to-table fruits and veggies all summer long. (Pictured above are the very large zucchini and squash we got from our new neighbors as a “welcome present” to the area! They grew them themselves in their back garden.)

The nights bring some of the brightest stars we’ve ever seen, and the symphony of woodland insects, or the pitter-patter of raindrops, put us to sleep every night. This new home makes us feel as if we’re living in a whimsical storybook, and it really is a dream to be here. We hope to get into pickling, canning, fishing, foraging, composting, carpentry (Chad specifically), and herbalism (me specifically) during our time in the mountains!

Like always, we name our homes. Our first home in Chattanooga was The Apricot House, and now, we are living in The Storybook Cottage! We will be making a little sign for our front porch sometime (perhaps with Chad’s newfound love for wood-working) to make it official!

For now, our YouTube channel will remain focused on our world travels. It’s best to keep the content consistent with a niche, so until our 50 country goal is complete, we will only be posting travel videos on that page. If you’re interested in knowing more about our personal lives (beyond the world adventures), this newsletter and our Patreon platform will fill you in on it all!

Celebrating four years of marriage and making travel videos–

Our lives post-college are NOTHING like what we imagined it to be. I thought I was going to be a print and pattern designer for the home department in a corporate office, and Chad thought he was going to be working for an advertising agency in a big city. It’s funny how life rarely plays out how we think it’s going to, and how every decision we make creates a completely different life path for us.

When we started our YouTube channel four years ago, we really didn’t know if it would turn into a long-term career. We knew nothing about entrepreneurship or how to make money online, and if we’re being honest, I think we’re still winging it most days haha. We are so grateful to have the job that we have, as it’s one of the biggest reasons why we were able to move out to the countryside (perks of working entirely from home whenever we’re not traveling). As with any job, being a travel YouTuber comes with its own set of unique challenges (financial instability, difficult work-life balance, etc.), but the tremendous amount of passion we have for what we do surpasses any of the hard days that come our way. So, we wanted to thank YOU for giving us the chance to pursue a real passion and chase our creative endeavors with our small business.

Celebrating four years of marriage (?!?!?) feels absolutely wild to us, and by golly, we’ve been THROUGH IT together these past four years. When we got married at 22 years old, we were both still so greatly influenced by our separate families of origin, and we lacked not only our own individual identities, but also our identity as a married team. We’ve put in the work these past four years to discover what it truly means to be an interracial, married duo that (1) works together full-time and (2) journeys through life’s ups and downs together. We’ve been able to watch each other grow in such beautiful ways, and I suppose that’s the whole meaning of marriage in the grand scheme of things– watching the person you love overcome challenges and supporting them as they try new things.

Healing (or trying to heal) from surgery–

Shortly after getting my emergency surgery, we had to move out of our old house and into our new house, and we chose NOT to hire movers (once a budget mindset, always a budget mindset haha). My sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to travel up to help us with the entire move, so it was the four of us against a house load of furniture and belongings. During that move, the nasty combination of sweat and the glue they used to seal my incisions shut caused a ghastly allergic reaction. Let’s just say my entire abdomen (and I mean, ENTIRE abdomen) was a bright red and purple galaxy of inflamed dots. The struggle and ITCH was mega real, and after seeing both the surgeon and a doctor regarding this issue, I am back on a slow road to recovery. Anyways, if you happen to see scars on my abdomen during our Croatia series, you’ll know it’s because of this recent surgery!

Our group trip to Taiwan has SOLD OUT!

All spots on our group trip to Taiwan have been filled, and we can’t wait to host these fellow travelers this upcoming December. We have three couples and six solo travelers of all ages joining us, and it looks like an awesome, adventurous group. We hope to host more self-designed, small group trips like this one in the future, and if you’ve been wanting to travel to a specific country with us, we’d love to know where. Until then, we’ll be counting down the days until this trip to Taiwan happens!

New travel videos on YouTube–

Our Black Forest vlog: We delighted in Black Forest cake and hiked under the dark canopy of Germany’s enchanted paradise. Here is the link to the video.

Our Shenandoah vlog: We camped and hiked in Virginia’s famous national park for 48 hours during the warm summer season. Here is the link to the video.

So, where are we going next?

Tomorrow, we are departing for Croatia and Romania , and while we’re in Croatia, we’ll be taking day trips to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina . Once we finish this trip, our country count will be at 30 (out of 50)!

In other exciting news, over the summer, a tourism board (from one of the countries we’ve already visited before) reached out to us. They invited us back to their country to showcase a different region from what we’d already filmed, and we will be revisiting this country in mid-September. Any guesses where?!

Until then, we’ve got U.S. content coming your way for the entire month! You might have noticed, but we now post new YouTube videos every other week, to allow us time to rest and spend time with our loved ones on a more regular basis. Also, as our video quality has slowly increased over the years, I’ve found that I need more time to edit each video! Thank you so much for cheering us on we switch over to this new posting schedule!

MOST SINCERELY,

Claire (and Chad)