The first time I met Roger Moody, he was kicking around a paradisiacal grassy bluff with an arial view above the Provo River in Utah's Uinta Mountains.  It was a sunny June day and I was meeting him and his family for the first time at this far-off campsite, and we'd planned it all via the internet. For all I knew, he could have been an ax murderer with a goatee . . .

They're busy folks.  Nathan is in architecture, Marni in management of a civil engineering firm.  Both full time parents of two energetic children Trevor and Megan.  Still they find time to take memorable trips to the outdoors together, and they absolutely radiate with infectious mirth - once again I'm looking at kindred souls I wish were my very own neighbors.

Brace yourself for some big shockers here:
Trevor Woods, age 12, loves catching bugs and lizards, enjoys rocks of all sizes, and climbs everything in sight.
Megan Woods, age 8, loves playing in the dirt, collecting rocks, catching dragonflies, and sitting on Daddy’s lap and steering the Jeep while on the trail.

Put your hands together for the Woods Family.  All four participated in this one.

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The rocks, sand, and wild desert vegetation of the Baja pensinsula made up the backdrop for our family road adventure this summer. Greg and I can take partial credit for this successful vacation, having hatched out the whole plan out around a campfire last November. "We've got to get the cousins out on a really cool trip this summer," I implored. "Are you up for something?"

We settled on Baja, pleaded with Mark to go along with it (he quickly agreed), and 6 months later, with fresh passports in hand, we made the trek down. While the trip was Greg's and my idea, Mark was definitely the driving force behind the success of our 2 weeks. He planned a great route and was our group's main Spanish speaker. Baja gave our family the perfect balance of adventure on and off the beaten path. We enjoyed the food, the culture, and the views from every mountain and beach we explored on the way.

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In June of 2010, an abandoned campfire turned into this flaming monster in Northern Arizona: the Schultz Fire. All told, it needlessly consumed over 15,000 acres of premium forest land (it can even be seen from space), and resulted in the evacuation of nearly 1,000 homes. A stunning time lapse photography video tells a better story that I could.

The Phoenix-area is a great launching point for 2-3 day weekend road trip "mini-vacations." With a young daughter we try to minimize the driving and include more hands-on experiences that appeal to a toddler. Like everyone else, we prefer a short drive, to a not-too-crowded camping area, where it's scenic and there's something fun to do nearby.

That's not too much to ask, right?

I believe we can sum it up thus: "We're all here because we're not all there."

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Coming at you live-ish from the Baja peninsula... which is a very good reason why you haven't seen any updates in over a week.  It's been super tough. Shrimp tacos and off-the-grid beaches on Mexico's most notoriously fun strip of sand and rock are keeping us really "busy."

Pardon some of the funky keystrokes on my part because they have keyboards here that do stuff like this ñ and this ¿ by just hiting the wrong key.

So, back to Mexico. Baja.

The other day we - Brooke, Chloe, me, Greg, and Samantha - were enduring a brutal morning on the beach south of Mulegè.  Some coffee, some huevos rancheros, and a gentle tide at about 90 degrees F.  A clunky old Ford pickup stopped next to our palapa and a thick and muscular Mexican man spoke a hilarious version of Spanglish through which he offered us an hour-long boat ride for $25.

He claimed he'd show us a sunken boat that's since been taken over by the sea as a reef.  He also suggested he'd take us to a nice point where we'd get some fresh clams from the bottom of the Sea of Cortès and swallow them down right there.  "Bring limes and salsa, I bring mi panga over here in one two or three horas."  He told us in his peculiar, yet admirable, dialect of Spanglish.

Get out your map and look up Bahía Concepción; it's about 2/3rds the way down Baja on the Sea of Cortés side. Here goes a minute of your day from our little boat on the sea.

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Chloe and Samantha spoting really sweet sunglasses
We never knew these girls would be so smitten over one another. Chloe, 2, and Samantha, 7, are good little cousins who play well together.

We're either excited about it, or really freaked out about what they'll do together when they're teenagers. No, I know we're definitely freaked out about that. Until then, I'm capturing all the embarrassing pictures and stories while I can.

Bubbles elicit such happiness, don't they?  Bob Ross, the chill painter of yore, would have liked bubbles.  "Happy things, we want happy things" he repeated.

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We could have just driven down to any one of six or seven strip malls and found a Bed Bath and Beyond or something. But we wanted to buy something handcrafted and imperfect.  So we loaded the bikes and headed down the road for a two-day-and-three-night back road adventure through Tucson, Sonoita, Patagonia, and Nogales . . . just to buy a set of colorful mexican glasses and margarita pitcher south of the border. Chloe was learning to walk.  Labor Day 2008.

If you have to know, our daughter Chloe wasn't conceived at home, or in a hotel, or in the backseat of a car. So what choice is left?
Get the woman's perspective on this luxurious safari tent that keeps us, warm, dry, and really really comfy when we're on a trip. So comfy, in fact, that we're likely to reproduce.

Brooke and Chloe hanging out at the campfire
We know what all of our friends and family thought before Chloe came along. "Good thing you're getting all your travels out of the way before you have kids, because once you do it'll all come to a stop."  Well, with all love back to them, they were wrong. Brooke covers the essentials that have helped us out in the first two years of parenthood and outdoor family adventures.

When the couple from Alaska sat down to chat with me and Brooke about thier plans to spend two years on the road with their children (and likely in a Global Expedition Vehicle), they smiled and implored in the simplest terms, "If we ever end up at an RV park, we'll consider that a major failure for our trip."