Our Story
The Journey So Far
Our story begins after Eric returned from a debaucherous two-year endeavor, surfing every possible wave in Australia and New Zealand, whilst living in a van with a buddy that’s much too large to share a van with. Soon after returning, he met Bailey. Soon after that we made Hudson. Then, we were faced with the age-old question: “Will we ever travel again, now that we have a small human?” We forced a yes to this question by jumping into every travel opportunity that was presented – sometimes excessively so. Like that one time we took a three-week old Huddy to an outdoor concert in Santa Monica – he was fine, we were not. But that didn’t stop us.
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When Hudson was one we went on our first international, family surf trip to Costa Rica and realized we totally loved the unruly, wholly unpredictable adventure of family travel. We kept the ball rolling by getting married on a pink beach in Nicaragua, going anywhere we could that had skiable snow, and camping everywhere we could fit a tent.
Throughout this time, Bailey wrote about these adventures for various travel publications, but we eventually realized that we would have way more fun creating our own content. So here we are, hanging out with you, pouring our travel-loving souls into this site, and hoping that what we offer makes you laugh, but most importantly, inspires you to explore.
Bailey (Rochelle Gaddis) Cowen
Playing Uno in the back of an SUV winding through the heart of Mexico, crossing a wild river to camp in uncharted terrain in Utah, and following schools of fish through fresh water lagoons in the Yucatan Peninsula are a handful of the adventures Bailey remembers from her childhood. She came from a family that adored any type of travel that strayed from the norm, and took every opportunity to wander through land that may have had the suggestion to not trespass. Everything is better behind a "No Trespassing" sign.
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When she was old enough to buy her own alcohol, Bailey moved to Peru for a short stint, gaining ample weight sampling fusion restaurants and Pisco sours. From there, she became a rescue scuba diver in Roatan, Honduras, getting over her fear of swimming with six-foot long eels, losing that Peru weight with the sporadic bacterial infection, and falling in love with the laid-back culture that valued creativity and kindness over financial wealth and status. When she began missing her mommy, she headed back to Los Angeles, and eventually landed in Ojai, where her story merged with Eric’s.
Beyond being a travel writer, Bailey is the author of Feng Shui Mommy, a birth doula, and childbirth educator. Her passion for pregnancy + childbirth + early parenthood is what inspires the International Birth content we’ll be adding, which will explore the birth cultures and customs in as many corners of the world we can get to. If you ever meet her, she’ll probably be inappropriate and ask you about your birth story (feel free to ignore her.)
Eric (Robert ian) Cowen
If surfing is your life, life is better with a dad who builds sail boats. Which is exactly what Eric has. After being born in Australia, he spent a large portion of his life living on a sailboat with his parents, and two brothers. This boat roamed through Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, and more, stopping at every surf break and atoll along the way. His life continued in this manner, with elongated stays in Australia and Washington, until they eventually settled in Southern California.
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As an intrepid surfer, Eric kept it moving, heading to any destination that had pumping surf, only cooling his jets when he went back to school to become an elementary school teacher. He now teaches in the first and second grade at Hudson’s school. His profession is allowing us to include fun curriculum to this site for first to sixth graders, helping families who are taking off for extended periods of time to ensure their kiddo's brains keep thriving and expanding. Eric is the chill traveler in this outfit, balancing out Bailey’s neurotic, over-planner tendencies.
Hudson (ulysses lee) Cowen
As an outspoken longhaired boy, prolific stick figure artist, and passionate rapper/whistler, Hudson brings the entertainment. With countries like Australia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Texas (What? Not a state? Tell them that) and many more under his belt, he’s a seasoned enough traveler to be a pretty easy plane, train, boat, car, and dune buggy companion.
Always down for an adventure, Hudson provides us with the invaluable perspective only a child, who never stops talking, can provide. His only downfall (in the humble eyes of his parents) is that he’s a bit of a hotel snob. Maybe all the sand/wind filled camping scarred him.
You can expect to see H-man all over this site, but especially in the videos, as he loves him some screen time, whether he's watching it or in it.