Tomorrow afternoon, we embark on our next great adventure. Last night, we encountered 2 journeymen at the tail end of their own.

As Claire and I entered the Beach Chalet (aptly named for its location at the beach, of all places) we saw a couple of bicyclists with fully-loaded touring set-ups. The sighting reminded us of our own tour down the coast from Oregon last summer. Over dinner, we reminisced about our bicycle trip from a year ago, and looked ahead with excitement to our upcoming travels.

After dinner, we saw the same 2 cyclists, still in the lobby of the restaurant. It was near 9 PM, not really a good time to start finding appropriate accommodation. So we approached, and asked if they needed help, or maybe a place to stay. They did.

Will, from Kenya, and Alex, a Londoner, had just, that evening, finished an epic bike tour from New York to San Francisco. While we were eating our overpriced burger and all-too-tiny spinach salad, they were topping off their tour by cycling into the sea. Literally, they pedaled their bikes into the chilly Pacific Ocean (we saw video footage.) Will and Alex took the past 2 months to ride across the states and raise money for Research Autism. They did well at both. Averaging 90 miles a day, they cycled through the middle of our country, raising close to $30,000 all the while. They begin University in the fall.

You can learn more about their journey on their website at http://www.x-america4autism.blogspot.com/ . Check it out. Better yet, check it out, then donate money.

As for our journey, you can learn more by checking out this blog over the next 6 weeks. We'll be visiting family in England, eating food in Italy, exploring the ancient-cum-modern cities of Athens and Istanbul, sunning ourselves on the Adriatic Coast of Croatia, relaxing in the mountains of Montenegro, and biking around Bled, Slovenia.

For the next 6 weeks, for the first time in a while, We Live on Vacation.