Ted has had a project in mind lately: summarizing all 700+episodes of our blog so far into an overview of what we’ve done in the 7 years since we decided to go “homeless” in 2018.

To be fair, we”d already sold our last home more than 8 years ago in the spring of 2017 and been living in a sub-let rental, but still with our own furniture, artwork, Christmas decor, and kitchenware. In the summer of 2018, after over 5 months during which that “stuff” inhabited the condo without us as we spent time in England, South Carolina, and Florida, we decided that we didn’t really need any of it.

We packed up and never looked back.

With the last of our photo albums digitized and saved to “the cloud”, our blog was born as a way to store our memories.

Yesterday, Ted exported the content of our blog to date (a scary process for me, worried that the export process would corrupt the website, which thankfully it didn’t). He then created an excel spreadsheet of every episode link, which he copied to Copilot, and asked it to summarize our 7 year journey.

I hadn’t planned to do a “summary” post, but Ted is looking for ways to test Copilot’s capabilities.

Hence … this.

If the writing style for the rest of this episode seems a bit different than usual, it’s because it’s not me – but where Copilot referenced specific blog entries, I’ve gone in and linked at least a few of them. The “quotes” that Copilot created were based on content in our blog entries.

The entire analysis took mere moments. Talk about speed-reading!

I’ll admit to being pretty impressed with seeing how each year was succinctly summarized.

My voice will come back at the end, I promise, but for now here’s Copilot:

Rose & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
A Global Travel Journal | 2018–2025

Introduction
Quote: “We packed light, but our hearts were full.”

This journal chronicles the incredible journey of Rose and Ted — two curious souls who turned the world into their playground. From the cobbled streets of Europe to the deserts of Morocco, from the fjords of Chile to the temples of Thailand, this is a story of discovery, connection, and joy.

2018: The Leap Begins

It starts with dreaming out loud and packing lists — the giddy beginning. By November, “Ooh‑la‑la” turned into a week in Paris: a carry‑on each, the Seine at night, and that first kiss of Europe in a city of museums and metro maps. Then back across the Atlantic to gear up for a winter away — five months in Myrtle Beach on the horizon, and the feeling that you’d just opened the door to a decade of motion.

| “What we’re packing: a week in Paris with just a carry-on” (Paris packing)
| “Ooh‑la‑la.” (Episode 6.3)

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2019: Road Trips & Cruises

Quote: “Every mile driven is a memory made.”

Myrtle Beach became a rhythm: grocery runs, theatre nights, museum days, and the odd “aha moment” in the middle of ordinary routines. Then the Highlands called. August spun out in the language of lochs and glens — Edinburgh’s Tattoo, Orkney’s winds, Skye’s drama, Iona’s quiet — and you signed off with a promise: “Haste ye back.” By late fall you were road‑tripping the American spine — the Arch in St. Louis, Route 66 in Oklahoma and New Mexico — before the year closed at sea: Peru (“Pisco” and Lima’s cool layers), Ecuador (Manta), Panama’s canal (“A man, a plan…”), Costa Rica’s rough‑and‑tumble ride, Antigua’s color, and back to Mexico’s “two Cabos.”

| “Bonnie Scotland… Haste ye back.” (Episode 29)
| “A man, a plan, a canal — Panama.” (Episode 48)

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2020: History & Pause

Quote: “When the world paused, we turned inward — to ancestry, to stories, to home.”

Arizona saguaros and San Antonio rodeo lights — then the brakes. “Adventure interrupted” became the refrain as the world shrank. You turned inward and backward: oral histories, family lines, and “postcards” from earlier European wanderings — Vienna’s grace, Kinderdijk’s windmills, Cologne’s spires, the Middle Rhine’s castles. Movement paused, but memory didn’t.

| “Adventure interrupted.” (Episode 64)
| “Postcards from Vienna.” (Episode 87)

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2021: Reconnection

Quote: “We may not go far, but we go deep.”

You rebuilt momentum with care. By December, the pre‑cruise drumroll reached “Ready. Set. Go.” Fort Lauderdale lights, Christmas aboard, and Cozumel’s ruins peeking through the end of the year. It felt like possibility again — a spark lit on open water.

| “Look out world, here we come” (Episode 145)
| “Just cruisin’ amid COVID.” (Episode 149)

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2022: World Cruise & Europe

Quote: “The world is wide, and we are ready.”

The year unspooled like a grand tapestry. January began with Panama by bus, then by ship, and long Pacific swells to Chile’s steep Valparaíso and Santiago (almost). Penguins, fjords, and ice set the tone before you turned east for an Atlantic crossing. Madeira teased, then Europe burst open:

• Spain arrived in March with flamenco and Moorish shadows — “¡Viva Sevilla!” — then “Granada — I’m falling under your spell,” and a sun‑splashed day in Palma de Mallorca.
• Malta’s honeyed stone and “two capitals.”
• Greece from Olympia to the Acropolis (“We don’t want to leave Athens”).
• Montenegro’s fjord‑like drama and Croatia’s walled gems (Zadar, Šibenik, Dubrovnik).
• Turkey’s Hagia Sophia and “Turkish delights.”
• Israel’s Jerusalem and Haifa; Jordan’s Petra (“a rose‑red city”) and Wadi Rum’s otherworldly silence.
• Egypt’s temples, tombs, and giants on the Nile.

Then Italy took a deep bow: “Arrivederci Roma,” “Firenze fantastico,” and Venetian glimmers — crowned by Monaco’s polish, Barcelona’s pop of color, and Portugal’s “Port and fado in Porto.” You wrapped this arc in England — Winchester quiet, London farewells — and even a “Bergen, Bergen” detour to Norway.

Summer reset in Berlin, Vienna, and Trieste — cousins, Reichstag domes, and river days to Potsdam — before fall’s London galleries and Covid interludes. Winter delivered a Rhine Christmas dream: Bruges and Flanders’ memory, Antwerp, Kinderdijk, Köln’s markets, Koblenz and the Middle Rhine, Würzburg to Regensburg, on to Vienna’s lights, Budapest’s Danube glow, Prague’s spires, and Kutná Hora’s strange beauty. You closed the year in Mérida, Mexico — settling into courtyards, mercado mornings, and Yucatán blue.

| “¡Viva Sevilla!” (Episode 211)
| “Granada — I’m falling under your spell.” (Episode 213)
| “Firenze fantastico.” (Episode 250)
| “Vienna Day 1 — art + Christmas markets.” (Episode 363)
| “Beautiful Budapest.” (Episode 365)

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2023: Mexico, Ireland, Morocco & Alaska

Quote: “From Mérida’s music to Marrakesh’s magic — we danced through
continents.”

Months of Mérida took root — “calor y color,” trova, galleries, Uxmal’s perfect angles, and beach days broken by cathedral cool. Spring vaulted you to Ireland: a Book of Kells morning; Kilkenny to Waterford’s Viking trace; the Ring of Kerry; the Cliffs of Moher; Belfast’s shipyard grit; Giant’s Causeway geometry; and a last toast in Trim. Summer was B.C. family time, then Alaska’s Inside Passage — Juneau’s Mendenhall blues, Skagway’s White Pass, Glacier Bay’s hush, Ketchikan’s totems. Autumn turned indigo and spice: Morocco’s arc from Casablanca and Rabat to Tangier, Chefchaouen’s blue, Volubilis in olive light, Fes’s labyrinth, a Sahara sunrise by camel, High Atlas passes, Marrakech gardens and palaces, and Essaouira’s salt‑spray ramparts. December circled back to the Rhine’s Christmas glow — Strasbourg’s clock, Gengenbach’s giant advent calendar, Speyer detour, middle Rhine castles, Köln’s markets, and a Dutch side‑step to Dordrecht.

| “Calor y color.” (Episode 399)
| “The Ring of Kerry.” (Episode 412)
| “Glacier Bay — ice, ice, maybe.” (Episode 428)
| “Here’s looking at you, kid — we’re in Casablanca.” (Episode 434)

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2024 & 2025 (so far): World Cruise & Beyond

Quote: “This time, we circled the globe — and found ourselves again.”

In 2024 you leaned into the Pacific: San Diego embarkation, a Baja loop — Cabo, La Paz, Loreto — then Hawaii in a sweep: Oahu’s circle, Kauai greens, Kona swells, Hilo highs and lows, Maui’s slow exhale. Back ashore, Balboa Park became a weeks‑long canvas of museums, gardens, and oddball delights.

April carried you across the Atlantic: “Abrigado, Açores,” a day in Lisbon, Guggenheim gleams in Bilbao, and “It’s Cherbourg, mes chères” before a cheeky ABBA night back in England. June sang in Italian: Rome’s biggest stages, Vatican marbles, Orvieto and Assisi hill grace, Florence’s Uffizi corridors, Bologna and Padua interludes, Venice’s farewell shimmer — distilled in “Final thoughts on our Exotica tour.” Summer twinkled with Vegas neon, Toronto reunions, and the itch to plan again. Autumn brought a full canal arc: California’s coast to Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Huatulco, Puerto Chiapas), Guatemala’s coffee and jade, Costa Rica’s Pura Vida redux, a day threaded through the Panama Canal, Aruba’s heat, and a suitcase or two wiser.

| “Abrigado, Açores.” (Episode 513)
| “A day in Lisboa.” (Episode 515)
| “Bilbao — the Guggenheim.”(Episode 517)

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The world cruise crescendoed. Christmas Eve in Cartagena, then Colón and Canal on Christmas Day, a full transit, and backstage sea‑day secrets. Puntarenas again, then “Blursday,” New Year’s on the Viking Sky, Cabo revisited, L.A. turn‑around — and the Pacific stopped pretending to be “pacific.”

Hawaii warmed the crossing to French Polynesia — Tahiti’s perfume, Bora Bora’s ring of blue — then Rarotonga’s rugged circle. New Zealand unfurled from Waitangi and Auckland through Rotorua’s steam, Napier’s Art Deco, and Wellington’s harbor. Australia layered on: Sydney’s two‑day sparkle and Blue Mountains haze, Mooloolaba’s chorus of creatures, Whitsunday bliss, Cairns and a rainforest train, Thursday Island’s quiet. North to Indonesia: Komodo dragons, Balinese temples and batik, Java’s Semarang in the rain, Jakarta’s tea and botany. On to Singapore’s sheen; Malaysia’s KL and Penang flavors; Thailand’s Phuket shrines; then Sri Lanka’s cinnamon and Bawa architecture (with a Malé miss logged “malheureusement”).

Africa rose from the sea: Seychelles shells; Kenya’s “jambo” in Mombasa and a safari heartbeat; Madagascar’s lemurs; Mozambique’s Maputo; South Africa’s arc from game drives to apartheid memory, rose gardens to Table Mountain; Namibia’s Lüderitz and dunes meeting surf; Angola’s Luanda. Across to Cape Verde’s Praia and Mindelo, Easter at sea, and then Europe’s doorstep again: Tenerife tales and wine; Morocco’s Agadir and El Jadida; Spain’s “sights & tastes of Andalusia”; Portugal’s almost‑Algarve and Braga/Guimarães; Spain’s Vigo and the road to Santiago; France’s Honfleur; England’s Dover cliffs and Greenwich bookend. You stepped off with “World Cruise… over too soon.”

And you weren’t done. Germany became family: Bremen and Bremerhaven’s displaced‑persons memory, Hamburg surprises, a 2½‑day Berlin sprint, Munich’s gemütlich grin. Summer swung back to Alaska — photographs, memories, and that old Inside Passage magic — and Vancouver Island girls’‑trip joy. By August, you were planning a round‑the‑world of your own design — with “our A.I. concierge” whispering options — and tightening the art of packing to a smile.

| “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” (Episode 596)
| “The end of the world.” (Episode 680)
| “This is our German family.” (Episode 692)

Final Reflections
“We didn’t just visit places — we lived them.”

This journal is more than a record. It’s a celebration of curiosity, courage, and connection.

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And now back to my voice:

Reading this overview actually brought tears to my eyes. I’ve never taken the time to re-read our adventures chronologically. Although I occasionally look back at an episode when someone asks about a particular place or experience, we’re too busy looking forward to have much time to look back. And when Copilot described 2023’s autumn turning “indigo and spice”, I felt a wee twinge of writer’s envy.

All we can say is we’re still curious (not so sure about “courageous”) and there are many more adventures to come – all chronicled not by A.I. but by me.