The Nomad adventure begins...

We're beginning our Nomad life trial run in Puerto Rico, where we are living and working for a month with our 4-month-old baby. This post is about what we've learned in the first week.

After years of talking about it and months of planning, we finally took the first step on our journey to become nomadic and arrived in Puerto Rico to do a trial run of living and working remote with our new baby.

This month is only a trial because we still have our apartment and all of our things back in San Francisco. The current plan is to return for April, wrap everything up and set out in May for a year of fully nomadic living around the world.

But let me back up. Hai, I'm Kari and this is my first entry on my new travel blog. Travel blogs amiright?! Who doesn't love reading long-winded posts about the minutia of other people's vacations? That story about how you accidentally flew into Auckland on Boxing Day and nothing was open so you "borrowed" a bottle of whiskey you found in your Airbnb and made videos playing drunk Christmas carols on your Ukulele (true story). I mean, mildly entertaining? but you really had to be there.

That's not what this is.

Okay, that's not *ALL* this is.

This is going to be a mix of personal blogging (for posterity) and articles on travel best practices as I figure them out. Because there's not a lot of people as operationally obsessed as I am attempting to backpack around the world with an infant. Only a few of them blog about it and a tiny handful write helpful articles on the topic. So that's my niche. That's why I'm here and that's what you can expect.

Okay back to story. Perhaps it would be easiest to do the remainder of this entry interview-style.

So, Kari, why are you doing this whole nomad thing? Especially now, isn't having a new baby, like, already hard?

Great question, Kari. Thank you. A few reasons.

1- My husband and I have been planning to do this together for a while. He's from Germany and while we have a life together in San Francisco, there's never been an easy answer to where we might want to settle down and raise our family. Neither of us look at San Francisco as a long term home. Few people do. So we figured the best way to figure it out would be to move around for a year, trying out different cities and seeing if we could find our tribe.

2- The baby is actually the catalyst for all of this. Ezra is currently 4 months old and we're in that sweet spot where he's out of the newborn phase but is still immobile, not eating solid foods, sleeps a lot and doesn't need much entertainment. In other words, he's the most low-maintenance he'll ever be as a travel companion until he's out of the toddler years. So if we're ever going to do this, it's gotta be now.

3- I love a challenge.

And why Puerto Rico?

So, we have a friend who's lived here for a few years. In February, he posted on facebook asking if anyone wanted to come work for a month. And we tend to jump on things like that. Also it worked out nicely because it's a lovely tropical island (read: vacation) but still has all the comforts of home (read: coworking spaces).

Okay we've buried the lead far enough here, what have you learned in your first week?

Alright! Onto the tips!

1. No more red eyes until the babe gets his own seat. Not sure why we didn't think about that but it was pretty miserable. It's not usually difficult to hold him for an entire flight, but when it's the middle of the night, it's exhausting.

An attractive image of a girl trying to keep the baby calm after 12 hours of travel and zero hours of sleep while the plane sits on the runway for an extra hour after landing with the AC off .

2. Prioritize having no problems to solve for the first 24 hours.

I have another post that goes over exactly what to do in the first 72 hours in a new city, but this one was extra key. If you do no other planning at all, at least make sure you know what the first 24 hours will look like in regards to transportation, sleep, food and showers before you land. We arrived at 6am and didn't think it would be an issue that we couldn't check into our Airbnb until the afternoon, but we were exhausted and ended up crashing on a twin mattress in our friend's spare bedroom. After moving from falling-asleep-standing-up to tolerably exhausted we found a brunch spot and waited until check in. After settling in, we did some research on the neighborhood, made dinner plans and found a grocery store to grab some initial supplies. It wasn't a terrible day by any means, but there's a definite win by not having to think or plan or research at least for the first 24 hours so you can relax and take in the new city.

3. Babies on the beach don't make a lot of sense.

We've taken Ezra to the beach 5 or 6 times now and have tried a variety of set-ups. An umbrella + sheet, a sit and play, beach chairs. etc. While it's a very cute photo op, we haven't been able to stay longer than 20 minutes before he gets fussy. Not super relaxing. Basically they need shade from the sun, shielding from the wind and protection from the sand. And they can't go in the water. So really the whole concept of a beach is lost on an infant. We're going to try one more time with a baby beach tent contraption but ultimately, I think beach days are something we'll have to wait to share until he's a little older.

4. Don't pack back-ups of clothes.

I pride myself on packing the least possible amount of clothes while still being able to dress fashionably for anything. However, I still haven't gotten it perfect yet and this trip has been a big lesson in over-indexing on duplicate pieces. When I was packing, it seemed fairly pragmatic to grab, for example, 2 pairs of cozy lounge pants, 4 solid color tank tops and 2 going-out dresses. After being here for a week, however, I've realized that having "options" is pretty useless. I'm reaching for the same one over and over and my "back-up" pieces are going unworn. This is especially evident on this trip because having a baby means doing lots of laundry so dirty clothes don't stay dirty for longer than a few days. Looking forward to tightening this up next time.

5. Get an Airbnb with a washer & dryer.

We have one. It's essential with a baby. I'm going to allow myself 3 "high maintenance traveler" requirements and this is #1.

6. Ship baby stuff ahead of you.

Okay so, "technically" we still don't have to use baggage check, which is a requirement for us to feel like "us." But this is only possible because we shipped a few key things ahead of us. First was a pack-and-play, aka a travel crib. Having to rebuy this every few months kinda sucks but it's relatively cheap. That said, I ordered this baby tent / nap pod thing for the beach and if we can get him to sleep in it, that might replace the crib. Second was 2 weeks of formula, diapers and wipes. Could always buy these when we get there, but it's a bit of peace of mind knowing I don't have to navigate a new city to find the right brand of formula etc. Beyond the 2 weeks tho, it's just part of normal grocery shopping.

7. Figure out the a babysitting solution ASAP.

My partner had the brilliant foresight to get babysitter recommendations and schedule an interview for our second day here. This was an especially clutch move because it allowed us to start working full time by day 3. Getting the timing right on this is key to minimizing time lost due to getting set up in a new city.

8. Figure out a few key things that make a place feel like home

A month is a strange length of time to live somewhere. It's short enough that you wouldn't want to decorate an apartment but long enough that you want it to feel like home. Manuel and I are extremely conscious of ambiance and we put a lot of time and money in decorating our apartment in SF. And while we aren't trying to replicate that level of comfort, there are a few things we've noticed make a huge different for us.

1- Lighting. Our current apartment has super harsh overhead lighting. So we bought a few Lifx lightbulbs (that we might even travel with permanently!) and a couple lamps to create better lighting.

2- Scents. I am extremely sensitive to smells and having stuff that smells "like home" has been super helpful. We bought some candles and air fresheners with the same scents we use at home and it's been awesome.

3- Photos. They pack light and make me super happy.

4- Food. I made sure to stock the fridge with diet coke and buy all the things to make my favorite breakfast.

9. Know the trade-offs you are and aren't willing to make

There's an important distinction, I'm learning, between creating a life where you're comfortable in every moment versus doing what you need to do to feel safe and secure. There's seeking comfort and then there's eliminating things that stand in the way of joy. Both sides look the same on paper but the intention behind them is very different. Being nomadic doesn't mean giving up EVERYTHING comfortable about your old life. It means drawing a line between things enable comfort and things that prevent happiness. For example, our furniture in our SF apartment makes our lives very cozy but not having them doesn't prevent me from being happy. What DOES inhibit happiness is a pillow that's too soft and gives me headaches the next day. It's having enough water pressure in a shower so I don't have to wash my hair every day. It's having Air Conditioning so the baby can sleep through the night. You'll find the list is surprisingly short and it's a great exercise in efficiency to know what things have the biggest impact.

So those are a few lessons I've picked up in the first week. It certainly hasn't been perfect. I've felt the highs of drinking on the beach with my friends at sunset and the lows of loneliness when we didn't have a babysitter so I had to stay home with Ezra while everyone went for a waterfall hike. I've certainly had to adjust from our beautiful condo to a beach shack with sandy tiled floors. And I never realized how addicted I was to Amazon Prime until I didn't have it (7 days for shipping?! What is this the 1900s?! ). But I'm starting my days with a run on the beach and ending them with a glass of wine on our porch in a t-shirt and shorts. Things are definitely not vacation-level easy, but super fun and highly rewarding. I'm grateful for the chance to do this adventure and share it with my partner and our new human. To the journey ahead, ONWARD!