Greetings From The Other Side of the World

Hello from the Maldives!!!

The Maldives is approximately 9506 miles from Nashville, TN. This is the farthest we’ll be from home on this trip, and we are almost on the exact other side of the world from Nashville right now. There is an informal and anecdotal belief among Americans that if you dig a hole deep enough, eventually you would come out in China. This is theoretically possible if the hole is angled in the right way, but if you dig straight down and through the exact center of the earth from anywhere in the 48 contiguous United States, you’d come out in the Indian Ocean- very close to where we are (in actuality, only in parts of Argentina or Chile would a straight hole emerge in China.) Kind of cool, eh? The Maldives is a country made up of over 2000 islands in the Indian ocean, with only about 10-15% of these being inhabited. The entire population of this country is about 300,000 people. We’re on an island so little, and yet the world suddenly seems so big.

This week has been amazing. We gave ourselves this week as a gift to rest from our non-stop traveling. I was talking to a friend the other day before we arrived and he laughed and said, “Wait a minute, you’re going on vacation from vacation?” Ha ha…well, kind of. We have been traveling so much, moving and seeing so much, that 7 nights in the same place seems like heaven. At this point, we’ve stayed in over 27 places and most of those were in the past month for 2 nights. We haven’t stayed anywhere on the trip for over 4 nights in 8 weeks. The idea of not being in a car or train, on a plane or boat daily seemed like a dream. We were ready for a break.

When we arrived, we took a boat to the hotel’s island. On our way, dolphins surrounded the boat and Luna squealed in delight seeing them spin and jump in the air. Blue skies, clear turquoise water and a beach-yippee!

Aside from playing in the pool and the sand along the beach, Luna was ready for some time away from us, as she’d been with us 24 hours a day for going on 10 weeks. And to be honest, we were ready for some adult time, too. We knew there was a kid’s camp at the resort, and it was amazing! Luna was able to make jewelry, do art projects, go on scavenger hunts, feed turtles and fish (in the ocean), and play with new friends with incredible loving staff surrounding and guiding her. Many days she was so bummed to see us when we picked her up because it meant she had to leave her friends and play with us at the pool.

While Luna was at camp for a few hours a day, we had the chance to recharge our batteries, too. The Maldives is known for its reefs and spectacular diving and snorkeling. We went snorkeling most days and had such fun seeing such a variety of fish, rays and reef sharks. The hotel is special in that it has created one of the most successful coral reef rehabilitations in the world. Reefscapers is a program where you can help create the coral reef by donating to create a frame covered with small pieces of coral which then grow into reefs. The frames are all over the waters of the resort, and have created and renewed life here, as 90% of the coral here was wiped out with the hot waters of El Niño in 1998.

For Josh and I, the highlight of our week was doing beach side yoga with the resident yogi, Dheeraj. Josh and I have always wanted to delve into yoga, but for the first time we were able to learn how to do postures correctly, and were able to stretch in ways that were once deemed impossible! It was really quite incredible for us.

with love!

The Kears