Creekmoreworld.com began as a travel blog for exotic family adventures. In 2003, Trish was diagnosed with a dangerous breast cancer. The real possibility of death made us rethink our lives, and together we committed to travel more if Trish survived. Our girls were still babies then. In her chemo haze, Trish would fantasize about taking a year off to travel the globe with them. It gave her the strength to continue the ghastly treatments.
When the kids got old enough to handle adventure travel, we set a goal to spend a year abroad. But rather than take a whole year off, we began doing a series of month-long trips. The kids love their school and we enjoy our careers, which permit us to travel quite a bit. We are fortunate in that way.
In 2007 we spent a month in Paris and Kiev (not blogged, unfortunately). In 2009 we took an epic four-week trip to the Middle East. We followed up with two and a half weeks in the Yucatan over Christmas and then Italy for two weeks at Easter.
In the summer of 2010 we were supposed to spend a month in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. But cancer wouldn’t leave us alone. Trish was diagnosed with a recurrence of the same triple-negative cancer she had battled five years before. We couldn’t get on any planes, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a summer family adventure. And so, Cancerpalooza was born.
A little background
We are David, age 41; Trisha, age 46; Lily, age 7 and Emma, age 10. Washington D.C. is our home, although Trisha is from the Bay Area and David is from New York.
The adults are avid scuba divers, skiers, video game players and fans of heavy metal. In her youth, Trisha went on long backpacking journeys to Thailand, Central America, Europe and Turkey. David spent many months traveling Russia and the Soviet republics, from the Black Sea to Lake Baikal.
Most of our travel blogs are ‘live’ — we post daily while on the road. Our primary purpose is to record our travel for kids, friends and family. If we can help or encourage other families to live more adventurously, it would be a bonus. For us, there is no purer expression of life than traveling as a family.
David currently works at an international non-profit in management and Trisha is a journalist and Web producer, working most recently at Discovery Channel and PBS. A long time ago, she wrote guidebooks to Belize and Norway. They’re probably incredibly out-of-date by now, so don’t buy them.
Hey Trish! (and David and kiddos!) I found your site because of a link Jennifer Viegas put on her FB site – how cool! Love the family pic. I didn’t know you were from the Bay Area. Are you a 49ers fan? :) I love traveling too!!!
I’m your biggest fan! You have a wonderful outlook on life and a joie de vivre that is contagious. Thanks for sharing your travels and your life.
Aw thanks! Nice of you to say.
We were public broadcasters for many years too.
David
DEAR Trish and David,
It is so great to see your website and learn about your travels. My family visited the cave in Yucatan when it was first opened up by National Geographic. I was twelve and my brother, David, was eight when we traveled to Yucatan and explored with our parents. The cave was just opened and we went there. Coming back from the grotto, all the lights suddenly went out. David was several yards ahead of the group and I felt my way through the dark to him. We sat down on the damp floor and waited.
Eventually a runner with a flashlight came down from the entrance and told us that some artifact had gone missing and they had turned out the light to (hopefully) catch the thief. But they never recovered anything or accused anyone. Strange and creepy! But a great memory to share.
I hope to be in Baltimore teaching a small class sometime in the spring—it’s very uncertain, but if I am coming, I’ll contact you.
Love and hugs from your cousin in Seattle,
Patty
Thank you Patty!
Definitely give us a call when you’re in Baltimore.
Hi Trisha & David,
I recently found your blog on TBEX and I thought you might be interested in UpTake’s new program called “Travel Gems” that features blog content from across the web on our site. It brings great blog content to a wider audience and helps bloggers like yourself increase traffic to their own blogs. I’d love to speak to you more about how this program works and see if you are interested in participating.
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Brittany
fantastic website,i think you’re doing a good thing with everything that has gone on in your life.i wish i had the chance to have done a website like this for my 10 years of backpacking,and recording my best memories as you have done…kep up the good work!chris!
Hi Trisha & David – Can across your blog while I was researching Peru on TA. Your familiy’s story/adventures are inspirational. I wish you the best of luck and many more happy travels!
Thanks! Have a great time in Peru. We loved it.
Hello -
We hope that you are doing well. While surfing the web for nice travel websites we came across this site and want to congratulate you on the great webpage you got there!
Currently we are putting the finishing touches to our new website which is called Tripsofa. The main purpose of Tripsofa will be to offer an exciting new platform where travelers can find the latest travel information and where they are able to share their travel experiences and ask travel questions.
As we are all aware, there is a lot of travel information on the web. However, the problem is that many of the websites have not been updated, contain incorrect information or are plain and simply outdated. Hopefully this can change with Tripsofa as the site will be continuously updated by our members and staff so that travelers can easily find a wealth of travel-related information without getting annoyed by excessive advertising which – unfortunately – seems to be the norm with most travel websites nowadays.
Tripsofa has been built on a system which integrates and fuses traditional forum elements with community aspects. Travelers can vote for the best answers which means that the best ones will show up first.
Our biggest problem is that we need to spread the word about Tripsofa so that more travelers will know about our non-commercial travel information platform. We are hoping that by bringing in some industry experts such as you, we will be able to turn Tripsofa into a popular online hangout for travelers.
So we really hope to hear back from you and if you have any feedback for us then please be sure to let us know. You can sign up on http://www.tripsofa.com and become one of the first beta testers. We definitely hope that you will give Tripsofa a try as you seem to be an avid travel enthusiast yourself.
Have a great day!
Regards,
George
I love your photos of the rice fields in China. May I print a couple to show the children in my Chinese culture class? We don’t have a computer so I can’t show them that way.
Thank you,
Brooke
Yes, of course. Sorry we didn’t respond sooner.
Hi
I was looking at the photos on your photoblog and they are wonderful. Can you tell me 1) Who’s the genius, and 2) what’s the camera! (Oh and any tips much appreciated!!!
Jenny
P.S. Enjoy Costa Rica – I went last year and was probably one of the most ubelievable vacations ever!
Oh gosh, thanks so much. I took most of those, although Trisha would take them too if I would let her hold the camera.
I love my camera for travel, it’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX-5. The wide angle, fast lens is amazing for everything except telephoto and it fits in a jacket pocket easily. It’s not good for animal shots unless you are REALLY close.
I will probably upgrade soon to something like the Sony nex-7. But it’s a larger and much more expensive camera. I will probably carry both. (Or let Trisha use one.)
Thanks! We can’t wait for Costa Rica.