A Single Step

Recently, we heard the most touching story about a traveling toy fox who’s been all around the world in an effort to raise money for a brave man battling stage-four cancer.

Mr. Fox is making international headlines and we hope that if you can, you will help to send his friend, Mr. Gary Moore, on the trip of a lifetime: Click here to read about Mr. Fox and Gary.

This story was especially endearing to us because Jess and I love to travel so very, very much--it raises the spirit and broadens perspective, elevates the heart and opens the mind.  

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights;

it is a change that goes on,

deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

~ Mary Ritter Beard ~

And we loved Mr. Fox because we too have a beloved furry friend that we take on every one of our own adventures. Meet Teddy—the traveling bear!

Teddy was a companion of our grandmother, and when she passed away shortly before our first trip to Canada, Jess and I decided that he would accompany us on all of our travels as a reminder to live boldly like our grandmother did.

Granny in Egypt   

In 2009, one year after our trip to Canada, Jess decided to embark on a brave adventure of her own. She saved up for months, quit her job at an architecture firm, and boarded a plane bound for Europe. For the next three months, she backpacked from... 

London, to Amsterdam, to Paris…

Teddy (or, "ours en peluche") at la tour Eiffel
  

to Barcelona, to Valencia, to Nice… 

Sunning in the South of France
  

to Florence, to Interlaken, to Vienna…

Enjoying a delectable Viennese sachertorte before the opera
 

to Hamburg, to Berlin, to Munich… 

At Oktoberfest—Prost!

to Venice, to Rome, to Athens…

Exploring his "Greek heritage" at the Parthenon
 

and with her along the way traveled her faithful friend, Teddy. Since that trip, Teddy has been to many wonderful places…New Orleans, Seattle, the American Southwest, and the Caribbean, but his adventures in Europe will always be close to our hearts because it showed us how possible it really is to realize your dreams.
 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

~ Lao Tzu ~

Since then, we have been dreaming of publishing Teddy’s tales in a children’s book, and we’ve been hard at work to make it happen. We hope one day soon to share with you all his journeys across a great big world, because in travel there is the connection of bodies, hearts, and minds. You never know what surprises await... 

We wish you your own great adventure, Mr. Gary Moore. May you travel broadly!

~ Nel & Jess ~