OFF the Beaten Path

FAMILY ADVENTURES

Hi! I’m Olivia de Soria. My travel tips and misadventures are equipped with a healthy dose of honesty, so that you can see the real thing and learn from our mistakes. With our two small children, my husband Adam, and I, chase the scenery wherever it goes. We are world schooling along the way, using the natural landscape as our teacher. Whether we are traveling by boat or RV, we have learned that home is a state of mind and our ‘real home’ is wherever we are, together. We are collecting Memories, not Things.

Collecting Memories Not thinGS

Follow along as we share tips on World Schooling, Sailing, RVing and more.

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Sailing the Bahamas with Kids: A Mom’s Journey of Preparation and Essential Reading

As I write this, my two little ones are running around me in lighting fast circles like monkeys at the base of a banana tree. There is no rhyme or reason to their incessant eruptions of energetic impulses. Living with two toddlers is kind of like living in a house with wild ponies. Ceaseless stomping,…
Splashing a Boat After a Year on Land: What to Expect

As I write this from inside our boat at Riverside Marina in Fort Pierce, Fl, I’m sweating profusely under the Florida sun, and trying not to think about all the things that have befallen our little house on the water, on land. Every time I look out the window, I expect to see the view…
Yasuni: A Little Bit Trapped in the Jungle, Part 2.

After being delivered the news that our way out of the jungle was in fact, closed, I sat back and tried to enjoy my ‘extended stay’ in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station. “The roads are still closed, and the Waorani protestors are not going to grant us access.” This foreboding news was…
(just a little bit) Trapped in the Jungle at Yasuni

My supervisor sat down next to me with the unmistakable look of someone bearing bad news. Yellow Bellied Spider Monkeys soared overhead on their monkey highway in the sky towards ripened fruit. The sun was setting and the sounds of the jungle started to come alive. “The protests have escalated and the roads are still…
Accidental Canyon Crossing at Potash

“Scenic Byway U-279.” I glanced over at the unassuming green road sign intersecting Utah’s stark horizon line underneath an ocean of blue. I had the urge to scoop out the sapphire sky with a spoon and eat it like jello. “Hey, let’s see what’s down that road,” I said to my husband. It was a…
Kidnapped by a Mexican Horse

We walked through the border patrol office, and began our spontaneous crossing from Texas to Mexico. I carried our 4 year old Emilia on my back, and we put our 1 ½ year old Pepper in the baby backpack with Adam, my husband. “It’s really muddy out there,” the officials warned us. But they didn’t…
Ode to the Junior Ranger.

We sat on the rim of Dead Horse Canyon. My daughter and I set a timer for 5 minutes, and let the river of deafening silence rush through us. The quiet hush was vast. Almost too profuse to bear witness. I wanted to say something to cut the uncomfortable trance. Resisting the urge to talk…
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Utah

We were Utah bound on the Monarch Pass in Salida, Colorado, the sun was low in the quiet dawn. My husband and I, and our two kids sat quietly in our Lexus GX 470, pulling a 20 foot Koala Super Lite Travel Trailer. As we began the aggressively graded ascent on the Monarch Pass, I…