Updates from the Crew

Wow. Hello world. It's been awhile. I just updated the about page and thought I'd post it here too. A little history of the blog, where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed:)  ~Paul  ETC

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   Everyone's Travel Club began back in 2009 as a Seattle-based kayaking, sailing, and travel blog. We (husband/wife duo - Paul & Amber) started the blog after a kayaking trip to the Florida Keys. We had recently purchased an inflatable kayak made by Innova Kayak, and had taken it in our carry-on luggage on the trip. While there it was tricky to find easy, online resources with lots of pictures of the kayaking destinations we wanted to explore. 

   We got back home to Seattle and realized there wasn't much here as well. Where do you paddle in Washington State? What does it look like? For three years we hiked and kayaked as much as possible in the area and have posted our travels to the kayak/travel blog portion of this site. If you're looking for more PNW adventures check out the map page too. Many of the posts are pretty dated by now (it's now 2022!), but most still give you a good idea of what these destinations look and feel like. So much paddling brought a lot of unique landscape photography opportunities, and some small ones too, another project was born: Brick Sailboat.

   Our life changed in a big way when we moved aboard Kingsley, a 32 foot sailboat. We ditched our land stuff, got rid of everything we could part with, packed up the cat (her name was Kali), and lived aboard this little boat for three years. Our sailing, kayaking, and blogging doubled as we added stories of our liveaboard adventures to our Blog. 

What sets us apart from other websites and blogs? Three things:
   1. The focus is on local, water-y places - lots of kayaking & sailing.
   2. We take little trips, not big expensive ones.
   3. We actually go to the places we write about. Huh? Well, we hate to break the news to you, but most travel magazines/sites don't actually travel to the places they write about! They write the facts and use pictures from photographers who have obviously been there...but them? Not so much.

   We eventually sold the boat in 2014 & traveled 3,300 miles across the USA and have settled in coastal North Carolina. We started paddling and sailing here, posting as we went, but then got a little distracted...by litter. Yeah, that's right, litter. We became so passionate about it that we started a little education project to fight it. Litter Pirate was born. Years passed, COVID has hopefully run its course, and now we're setting aside/archiving Brick Sailboat and Litter Pirate, and working on new projects like The Smell Butler and an unnamed outdoorsy project:) I run a small freelance videography business and teach robots to kids as my day job, Amber is into real estate. We still pick litter, play with LEGO, kayak, and sail. 

So, ETC is on the back-burner for now but we keep it up because lots of adventurers in the PNW and ENC still use the articles to help plan their next trip. Be safe out there and leave a comment if you have any questions, we still check in from time to time!

~Paul, Amber, Eleanor (the dog), Matthew (the cat), Jane (the other cat, lots of trouble), & Margot (new cat, more trouble)