Potts Family Travels

...to favorite pages from the online travel journals of Rochelle Elkan and Michael Potts. Our latest post can always be found here. Next itinerary here.

In June, 2001, I wrote on this page "As we travel along, so will this site (as long as the technology holds out...)" I should have thought to say "and global politics stay stable." We were then heading out for our second sabbatical, this time with Chad Abramson for the first 12 weeks, and Sienna meeting us in Paris. (The first sabbatical, ten months with daughters Sienna and Damiana around the Pacific Rim in 1989-90 was pre-internet.) This trip, the first time any of us had ventured to Europe, was intended to be a twelve month long european trip including a wintertime West African sidetrip, but on 9/11 the world changed, and we came home for Christmas. In 2018, while thinking about a possible return to Northern Europe, I restored all the posts from this trip; web space is cheap, and memories are precious.

In May, 2002 we headed out again for a tour around the Western States driving our brand new hybrid Prius. We got 52.4 miles per gallon on that trip – reducing our fossil fuel guilt somewhat and renewing our love for shared "windshield time." Rochelle and Michael took another long road trip to Wisconsin to visit our "Surprise Daughter" Allicia and her family in 2014.

In September 2004 Rochelle, Michael, Sienna, and Damiana took a family canoe trip through Canyonlands National Park via Stillwater Canyon. Sienna and Michael returned to the Southwestern National Parks and Stillwater Canyon in 2014.

For our 2011 Italy/Croatia trip, I wrote a travel website tool that has been extremely useful in documenting subsequent trips. Sienna and Damiana accompanied us for the first three weeks of this trip.

In 2015, Rochelle and Michael completed a 2,500 mile loop up the coast of North America into British Colombia and back down the valleys in celebration of Rochelle's 70th birthday. More travels are already being planned, and will be documented here.

May and June of 2016: a seven week trip to France's Midi, a region of rivers, food, and ‘You Can't See Paris From Here’ (culminating with a week in Paris.) You can travel along on this trip starting here. In early Autumn of 2017 we returned to family in northwestern Oregon and our annual culture transplant in Ashland ... and again, in 2018 we drove all the way up the coast to renew our acquaintance with the Olympic Peninsula before visiting family and catching some more culture. We enjoyed the Northwest so much we ventured back in 2019 ... skipping Ashland this year for want of compelling plays, but heading all the way north to Ucluelet, on the Pacific shore of Vancouver Island, to revisit a fond memory from Michael's youth.

In 2020 I wrote ‘This trip was probably our last long car trip; from now on, it's likely to be surface travel for shorter periods.’ Our next contemplated trip – an April, 2020 culture expedition to Los Angeles by public transit (primary goal: the Getty Villa) was all scheduled, bought, and paid for, for April, 2020 ...and along came the Plague! Our trip to the High Sierra in 2020 was truncated by fires and National Forest closures, but we got a chance to go to the anticipated high point, Red’s Meadows and the Ansel Adams Wilderness in late Spring of 2021.

Our family gathering on our beloved Big Island of Hawaii in 2021 got us together with far-flung family from Wisconsin and all over northern California, and was a thorough delight. But again, a little exhausting for the elders, who aren't easy with relegating leadership and responsibility to the younger generation, but are (perforce) learning.

Sienna laughs when we say 'this is our last big trip' but after short adventures to the Bay Area and Ashland and Chico for cultural transfusions and family in 2022, a trip on a small boat along the Great Bear Rainforest of British Colombia in 2023. This trip was as perfect as trips can get (notwithstanding airports, TSA, and people crowding in lines, and Sienna's laughter) and we agreed this was likely our last trip Major Trip. In May 2024 we headed out to some family and favorite places in Oregon.

(I must admit, however, that travel continues to fascinate me, and while watching travelogues on YouTube almost scratches the itch, I look longingly for a really small boat trip on a European River, and train trips to back country Japan . . .)