It was in Prague that we began our story… noses buried in our guide books, hurriedly walking down a cobblestone street and not paying attention until, suddenly crashing into each other. Knocking each other flat to the ground whilst locking eyes, and suddenly the song “That’s Amore” begins playing. A majestic castle looms in the background, overlooking the Seine –correction, Vltava.

And… end scene.

Well… that’s not exactly how this love story began. True, we did meet in Prague. But, it was not quite the romanticized Hollywood scene that plays out in most peoples heads when we say, “we met in Prague.”

The real story is quite a bit more… umm, realistic. The crashing together actually occurred on Facebook, which was thanks to Mandy’s then mischievous flatmate in Prague who was “shopping for girls” one fateful evening in 2007. Mandy, had just returned to her flat following a rather lackluster first date with a Georgian (the country, not state-o’-peaches) who struggled to speak basic English. (Although he could say “I love you” and “you beautiful” with steady fluency, and on a constant and unfortunate loop.)

So, finding inspiration from her flatmate, Mandy decided to try her luck and go “shopping for boys” on Facebook.

She set her sights on three boys that night. Poking and messaging each. Boy #3, aka Greg Chase, caught her eye because he was 1) cute, 2) had apparently been living in Prague for many years already and; 3) he was from Portland, Oregon (!) which was coincidentally Mandy’s fantasy dream city that she had held onto from childhood after reading the fantastic adventures and tales of Ramona Quimby (See Her Story).

The view from Vyshehrad Castle (photo credit, Jetsetting Fools.)

Our first exchange via Facebook…

… many more rounds of trading Facebook messages then ensued, until, Greg finally picked up the scent to ask Mandy out for a pivo (beer). And, their very much unHollywood first encounter… that got rolling with a series of kerfuffles:

• Kerfuffle: Mandy gets off at the wrong tram stop causing her to run late. This misstep by Mandy, being an extreme Type A personality with above average anxiety tendencies, quickly resulted in her pre-date jitters skyrocketing to a nail biting frenzy.

• Kerfuffle on kerfuffle: After dashing down the cobblestone street nearly breaking an ankle several times over rushing to meet Greg, Mandy’s first words to Greg were, “Hi! Oh, you’re not tall….” Greg responds with a sort of ‘curious-yet-pondering glance that this was indeed a compliment’ glance. Mandy backpedals swiftly with, “Er, but that’s good! I like short guys.” (For the record, Greg is 5 ft. 8″; not exactly ‘short’.)

• Kerfuffle unto kerfuffle: Moments afterwards Mandy misjudges a pile of leaves on the street and squarely steps into a vile and vomit inducing cesspool filled pothole lying hidden beneath the innocent looking leaves. It’s a good thing Mandy chose to wear her suede boots for this occasion… she could take this particular kerfuffle as a stinky souvenir to carry with them for the remainder of their date.

Fortunately Greg is rather empathetic, later saying as we arrived at our destination from the tram stop, Cafe Fantazie (not kidding), that “he took some pity on me at this point in the date” otherwise it might have stopped at three kerfuffles.

Despite Mandy’s inner monologue driving her to obsess over the mysterious liquid and, quite likely toxic goo firmly embedded into her shoe, she pushed through. The engaging conversation, along with the equally engaging beer at the Cafe Fantazie, strolling through Vysherad castle, and talking for hours while overlooking the glimmering lights of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge was all just enough to propel her into a living Bachelor-esque reality. Finding romance in Prague couldn’t be easier. Then, the evening took an unexpected turn towards the off-center…

Greg: “Would you like to come to my place for some freshly made Plum Cobbler?”

Mandy: (inner monologue) Huh? What’s that? Plum cobbler… wtf does that mean?? Is he really inviting me for just Plum Cobbler? I mean, what guy makes Plum Cobbler?

(outer monologue) “You made Plum Cobbler?! Sure, I guess… I … could… go for some… plum cobbler?”

Well, Greg it turned out had indeed made plum cobbler – from freakin’ scratch – with plums he claimed to have picked himself in the Czech countryside earlier in the week. And Mandy took the dangling bait like a cat getting its first whiff of catnip. Soon after scrapping our plates of that sweet and tasty nightcap, the good gentleman that he is, the plum cobbler was all Greg put on the table. Afterwards we strolled back to Mandy’s flat, and sealed the night with a kiss goodnight, but before parting ways Greg uttered a very perplexing one liner to Mandy… “You’ve got potential.” Perhaps this was sly payback for the “You’re not tall” comment earlier on, perhaps not.

From that first date, we wholeheartedly agreed we were not looking for something serious. Greg, had already made the decision to go back to Portland in June of that year, and both of us had just come off long-term relationships. So, instead we settled on maintaining a ‘seriousness avoidance’ and simply having “fun.” It just so happened, this involved lots of traveling and exploring and fun-fueled adventures to someplace foreign and exciting every single week. Just the type of mutual wooing we always craved yet couldn’t find when wooing someone else.

First picture together in Český ráj

First up… our exploratory first trip (and fourth date) together. Just a few hours train ride from Prague lay the magical Czech lands of Český ráj, which fittingly translates to Czech Paradise. Český ráj is a remarkably dramatic landscape scattered with striking vertical natural rock columns, criss-crossed with hiking trails set among a majestic forests, and quintessentially quaint Czech villages. When we visited we were also treated with a blanket of fresh snow. There was nothing, nothing not to love.

Mr. Chase was a mysteriously perplexing guy to Mandy, a rather peculiar anomaly. A foreigner with insights and who had a worldly exposure to things that hadn’t occurred to her, and yet, he was not a foreigner. He was from Portland with familiarity to all things American like Garbage Pail Kids and the complete Back to the Future Trilogy.

The Island in Madeira, found in the middle of the Atlantic, is a hidden gem. You’ll find some of the most dramatic sea cliffs in the world there (pictured above is an over 1000′ dropoff!)

As the months rolled by, we continued our light-hearted travels and explorations of fantastic fantasy quality destinations in the Czech Republic, Budapest, and the far flung Portuguese Island of Madeira. Eventually (six months) passed and something like a relationship began to smolder, and deeper feelings developed despite attempts to quash anything that didn’t fall into the “fun” category.

Before we both knew it, June 2008 had sprung upon us and Greg was due to make his journey back to the U.S. and Portland. Meanwhile Mandy was off to visit Croatia and Italy, and linger about in the Czech Republic for another month before also returning to settle in Atlanta; flat sharing with her friend Carrie.

The Emerald Isle, the day before we said goodbye.

So, both preferring to return to our relationship roots, we decided to break apart, as backpackers who meet on-the-road do… by saying our goodbyes in a foreign land as travel mates (Dublin, Ireland in this case) and heading off in opposite directions to lead different futures.

For both, there was some hard adjustments to be made to life back in the U.S. It is beyond eerie to feel reverse culture shock to your home country where finding a new ‘normal’ that meant being spoiled for choice with 28 choices of Doritos inside mega supermarkets that seemed to offer endless variety, and 24-hour infotainment “news” networks. There were also endless questions about the “trip” to the Czech Republic which defied proper explanation.

Yet, the reality of the ‘ending things’ turned out to be much too bitter a pill to swallow for either of us. We continued to talk regularly on the phone, and realized we were each going through similar emotions that only we could share in understanding. Unable to stand the continued physical separation any longer Mandy nabbed and inexpensive flight to Portland figuring “what the hell?” and taking a leap to work things out and be with Greg, or at the very least finally get her butt to Bridgetown (Portland).

Unbeknownst to Mandy, Greg fully intended to lure her to the Pacific Northwest by giving her a hard sell on Oregon, an itinerary that included a road trip across the most irresistible bits of Oregon.

Firstly, it was  August, a month many locals know to be the prime summer month to be enticed with ideal summery conditions; this followed by some exploration of the coast along highway 101 and an introduction to fantastically fun tide pooling at Boiler Bay and a night spent camping on the beach… errr… coast but on the beach. Camping on-the-beach(!!) at Bayocean Spit.

Then off for a healing hot springs soak in the forested Eden of Bagby Hot Springs and some jaw dropping ridge line hiking on the trail at magnificent Mt. Hood. The road trip capped off with a stay at the beery adult wonderland known as McMenamin’s Edgefield.

But of course the distractions found in Portland were quite notable as well. While walking around one of the most idyllic and historically endearing neighborhoods in Portland, Nob Hill (aka NW 23rd). It was here, at the end of their whirlwind tour that Greg went for broke and asked Mandy if she would “ever consider moving to Portland?”

“Well….maybe….if I had a good reason to be here. I mean, I sorta need to know  where we stand!?”

“Well, you know  I love you, right?”

Green, green, green!!! It’s hard not to be hooked when you hike for the first time in the lushness that is the Pacific Northwest forests!

Bagby Hot Springs, a collection of natural hot springs in the Mt Hood Forest. We took this photo on a later trip. Go during the week when there’s no crowds

Needless to say, the rest is history. Mandy let herself fall head over heels for Greg and for Oregon on that trip. She made the trip from Atlanta to Portland four months later, crossing the U.S. and making multiple stops along the way including being very pleasantly surprised by the lovely canals in Oklahoma City, tried her best to gorge on Americana at The Big Texan Steak Ranch (Home to the free 72-ounce steak eating challenge) on Route 66, and a tour of the Grand Canyon. Eventually she made a pit stop in Las Vegas to pick up a cute hitchhiker (Greg waiting at his parent’s house) before heading onward through California to Oregon.

Reunited… and exploring the Southwest, at Red Rock Canyon State Park, outside of Las Vegas.

A little disheveled after 15 hours on I-5. We were thrilled to have arrived to our new home, where Greg had been living.

We moved to Portland together during the city’s ‘magic hour’ in 2008, and got lucky to find a lovely home at Irvington Court Apartments, a historic gothic and Tudor style bricker built in 1923. Fortune would shine on us again when we stepped into the role of managers a year and a half later.

Portland at this time was a few years before Portlandia began shining a spotlight on it as a marketing pitch where “young people go to retire.” Back then, “Portland weird” wasn’t trying to be weird. It just was how things were. Then, as if supercharged, a metamorphosis of the city from a hipster haven loved to death to a sea of cranes began creating a new and different personality for the city. We watched an average pint transition from $4.25 to $6 and the two bedroom bungalow-style home grow from $242K to $438K. Ugh, can we please make Portland great again?

Over the years in Portland we keep finding ways to satisfyingly scratch our itchy feet by heading to far flung destinations like Belize and Thailand, visiting 16 national parks, and the Yucatan in Mexico. We fell in love with Oregon through these years too by exploring places like the Painted Hills of Oregon, the entirety of the Oregon Coast, and miles and miles of Pacific Northwest back roads, lost-to-the-world small towns, and the many truly one-of-a-kind special and unique experiences and accommodations in Oregon. Oh, and we summited South Sister (10,358′), a major item on our bucket list in 2012, also on that mountaintop is where Greg got down on one knee and proposed to Mandy.

Married a year later at Rails End Park in Parkdale, one of those adorable small towns that seem to be in abundance in Oregon which we had joyfully stumbled upon. The unification ceremony of course was heavily travel themed, and featured touches of Portland, including Voodoo Donuts for a cake, a food cart, a bonfire pit with hay bales, cornhole, and travel touches including program “passports”, luggage tags as invitations, and maps, maps, glorious maps.

Finally snagging him–September 1, 2013.

Greg had his own homebrewed beer front and center for the reception with five taps on offer including: The 11th Commandy-mint (Kolsch w/ mint added), Be Cider Always (Cider), Ball & Chain (Brown Ale), P2P (Czech Pilsner) and Wheat Wedding (Hefeweizen).

Greg’s craft beer “hobby” continued to develop from “pretty good” to class and award winning “best of show.” Portland (aka Beervana) just happens to be the city with most breweries per capita in the world (more than 105 breweries currently exist within the greater Portland area!), so it smartly was a great training ground for Greg to push his hobby to the next level by entering numerous contests to gather feedback from some of Portland’s great beer brewers.

Greg’s brewery, the basement manager’s closet! Just another perk of the job.

In the years that followed, Mandy fell into a comfortable position as an Event Coordinator at the Multnomah Athletic Club and Greg as a Park Ranger for Metro Parks. In February 2014, we took our honeymoon to where else, but somewhere well off-the-beaten-tourist-path… Colombia. This trip sparked an affinity towards Latin culture for in both of us, with Greg finding a renewal of his connection to Latin American culture from his backpacking adventures early on.

Our travels continued through the years that followed with trips to Mexico’s Yucatan, Nicaragua, and to Patagonian Argentina and Chile.

This is what you look like after jumping into a Mud Volcano, as we found out in Totumo, Colombia. The volcano is filled with lukewarm mud which has the consistency of cream and when you get in, you are completely buoyant. Totally bizarre and recommended!

Everything is truly ablaze in yellow in the enchanted “yellow city” of Izamal, Mexico

A step into the past in Barichara, Colombia. Streets aligned with large smooth cobblestones, horses and wagons, few cars, and unbelievably quiet and picturesque. We could spend awhile here….

Absolutely hypnotizing water greeted us while trekking on Perito Moreno Glacier, part of the biggest icefield in Patagonia (Chile/Argentina).

Balancing on the edge of the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua was otherworldly.

Swimming and snorkeling through the Cenote Kantun-chi in the Yucatan.

As time went by, our itchy feet began to get insanely scratchy so we started brainstorming ideas for a future endeavor. A few things were clear: Greg wanted to brew professionally, Mandy wanted to continue her career in hospitality and our entrepreneurial spirits were telling both of us to do it on our own. This Rat-Race-Track-‘O-‘Merica we were on was starting to look more and more like the wrong track for us.

After experiencing multiple moments where friends plopped down large six figure fortunes for two bedroom houses as they settled in Portland, we started seriously wondering about alternatives like an historic 8-bedroom colonial mansion in Mexico for the same or less pile of cash. The more we daydreamed the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘what-abouts’ the more we realized that we weren’t daydreaming anymore but formulating a plan. So how could we combine traveling, become entrepreneurs, and choose our professions all while living abroad? Our answer took shape; a Bed & Brew.

In October 2015, we began mapping out our timeline. We knew we wanted to travel for an extended period before we officially settled down to run the Bed & Brew. With grey hairs coming in at increasing frequency we had better get to those long-held fantasies of five-day long mountain treks and cave spelunking adventures out of the way.

So we had roughly two and a half years to pinch even more pennies than we already were and sock away every bit of being DINKs (duel income, no kids) we could manage. Along the way we were greatly inspired by some of our favorite bloggers, and the notion of a nomadic, location-independent lifestyle, like that of the “Goats on the Road,” “Extra Pack of Peanuts,” and our close personal friend Megan’s blog, “Long for this World” who gallivanted around the world for a year on her own after selling everything and hitting a hard reset on her life.

Long for this World, thank you for your continued inspiration.

All this led to our first born offspring, our website and brand name coming into the world in January 2016. Our name, Explorer Genes, was inspired by a National Geographic article published in 2012 which says that 20% of human might possess the DRD4-7R gene strand which naturally makes them more restless, more willing to take risks, and more curious. Without a doubt, we have this gene strand very much within the both of us.

During early spring 2017 we sat down with a deliciously huge pile of guidebooks to began mapping out our travel route. So… how to plan a round-the-world in two years trip?

We started by having a conversation about what was crucially important to us in our travels, or what are we truly seeking for experiences? Some of our top answers were: 1) beer tourism (yes, that’s a ‘thing’); 2) a desire to live as a local stationed someplace for at least a month; 3) trekking, (aka hiking, Americans) particularly the hut-to-hut or village-to-village multi-day trek type; combined with 4) the Himalayas.

So we found that the trekking experience would be the easiest for us to start with, it would allow us to stitch together at least a rough outline of treks to do. From that we could begin filling in the gaps of the other two top experiences on a less broad scale. Naturally we combined those last two experiences to get a starting point. Pro-tip: for all you who want to head to the Himalayas, we have learned there are only two times of year you stand the best chance of having very clear skies, October/November and March/April. So our itinerary became molded around this simple timeline. Other treks that made it into our timeline included the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, the Carpathians in Romania, and the Simiens in Ethiopia.

With a rough itinerary settled, next the grunt work of developing our website, consolidating and getting rid of things, resolving any health matters, building our house/pet-sitting profile (on Trusted House Sitters) and helpX.

Uh, there’s a reason these exist everywhere in Portland. It happens…

In May 2017, tragedy struck. While riding to work one day, Mandy took a tumble, as pictured, on the Max (Portland’s tram) tracks. Flying over the front of her bike’s handlebars and smacking her fortunately (helmeted) head on the pavement. Or as it is called in Portland, getting “railed.”

This accident resulted in a “minor” concussion, which although sounds minor, has proven to be the biggest physical struggle of Mandy’s life to overcome. And its effects, although significantly reduced from what they were at their worst, are still present over a year later. Let us just say this, if you are on a bike and due to cross tram tracks please don’t cross with anything less that 90-degree angle, or walk your bike. Please.

Through meditation / mindfulness, exercise, and a lot of help from others, Mandy has overcome much of the damage done after the accident and gone through a healing of the mind she never knew she needed. Through this entire journey Mandy has persevered and kept going… kept trekking… kept planning the Explorer Genes next chapter.

And going, we we will go! Very soon, we leave on our next adventure. We know that if we want something we’ve never had, we have to do something we’ve never done. Take the risk. The time is now.

First stop… July 13… The land of fire, ice, and ELVES! Off to Iceland!

Mandy’s favorite elf costume. And yes, she’s had multiple…