Family: A theme.

Parenting, certainly fathering, is comprised of 95% logistics and management. Only 5% of the time do you get those magic togetherness moments that remind you what it's all supposed to be about. Perhaps that's just the way of things in the 21st century. An exception to this rule is vacation time, when you're out on the road, there's nobody but family, and everyone is on the same adventure. I'm very lucky in that way - I know some folks who dread 2 weeks with the kids - with my two, we really get on during downtime.

So one of the major motivations for this trip is the chance to spend more time with my daughters. A few years ago, family holidays weren't really an option. During the downturn, while I was trying to get a company off the ground on a crap wage, there was no such thing. My wife brought the kids back to her own family in Italy during the Summer which meant that I went without seeing them for weeks on end.

Three years ago, when I moved on to a new position and money was available again, we had our first real family holiday - in Scotland - and it was magic from start to finish. I found out again what good company they were and what it felt like to be with them without having to direct them from dinner table to bath to bed, and then onto breakfast.

I'm hoping that the upcoming trip will be an experience that they will never forget - not just so they will get to see so many cool and interesting things across the world, but so that they'll get to see how cool and interesting their own family is.

So during this blog, and the trip that will form the last part of it, I will regularly post on this theme of family.