Image Gallery

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Kara and Willie at the rim of the Grand Canyon during the second week of our yearlong journey. We thought the children would be amazed by this wonder of the world, but they were far more interested in a passing chipmunk.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Lucas in the lave fields surrounding Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano. Brining a two-year-old on a three-mile hike up an active volcano wasn’t our brightest decision.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Kara and Devi at the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. The towering trees, waterfalls, and small forest pools ringed by bamboo, ferns, and philodendrons delighted the children.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Willie was a great first mate as we navigated our houseboat through dozens of locks on the Burgundy canals.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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I attempt to home school Willie on the houseboat. This process was not entirely successful, and by the time we reached Australia, Devi and I knew that we had to put the kids in “real school” for a while.

Photo Devyani Kamdar

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Devi and Lucas ride the ferry from the Lido to Venice in Italy. Lucas is wearing his “baby leash.”

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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When our trip to Florence went bust, we assuaged the kids with Italian gelato, a ploy that obviously worked well with Lucas.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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The classic (dopey) tourist shot at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Willie enjoys a quiet moment near the famous windmills of Mykonos, Greece. It was October, so we were among the only tourists on the island.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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In the original Olympic stadium on Greece’s Peloponnesian Peninsula. Willie handily wins the Cohen family version of the Diaulos, or 400-meter race, first held on this spot in 724 B.C.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Nap among the ruins: Lucas sleeps in his travel stroller on the Greek island of Delos.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Kara and Willie silhouetted by the lighted fountain in front of Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. Funky, romantic Istanbul was one of our best stops.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Kara points out lion tracks at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Kara and Willie at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. That night a pride of lions killed a buffalo just outside our camp. It was a gruesome noise.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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A few of the thirty thousand elephants in Chobe National Park. We didn’t have much in the way of a telephoto lens (only 90 mm), so at this point we were pretty close to the wildlife.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Professional hunter and game guide Jane Bettenay, introduces Kara to a tortoise at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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At the Makalali game reserve, our guide, Werner Smith, gave the children bushcraft lessons. Here he shows them how dung beetles make nests by rolling balls of elephant feces down the road.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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The view from our lodge outside of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Those are Cape buffalo in the water hole.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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On the main street of Oudtshoorn, in South Africa’s Little Karoo, we met an ostrich farmer who let Lucas hold a newly-hatched chick.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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The children ride a luggage cart—pulled by camel—to our tent at the Pushkar camel mehla in Rajasthan.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Kara rides a decorated camel at the Pushkar mehla in Rajasthan. Each year during the full moon in the month of Karttika, Thar desert nomads bring fifty thousand camels to Pushkar to sell and trade.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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At the sublime Taj Mahal in Agra. I look okay here, but I’m actually sick as a dog with some sort of bronchitis or asthma I contracted at the Pushkar camel festival.

Photo by Beatriz Oliva

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At Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai, Thailand, Lucas is delighted to meet a three-month-old elephant even shorter than he is.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Willie with a new friend, one of dozens of tame kangaroos at an animal park in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Don’t ever try this with a wild kangaroo.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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Australia’s flat, featureless Nullarbor Plain. This hundred-mile section of the Eyre Highway is the longest perfectly straight stretch of highway in the world.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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A road sign on the Eyre Highway warns motorists about wild camels, wombat and kangaroos.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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The Nullarbor Plain meets the Great Australia Bight. Virtually no one lives within a hundred miles of this spot.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Kara at Ta Prohm temple, one of Cambodia’s fabulous Angkor ruins.

Photo by Devyani Kamdar

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After visiting the Buddha caves at Pak Ou, Laos, we returned to our creaky old long boat.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Willie poses with some local characters at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Most of these kids go to school or work in buttoned down Japanese offices during the week. But on the weekend, they pursue an active fantasy life.

Photo by David Elliot Cohen

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Our convoy of luggage carts at the Zurich, Switzerland airport. One word of advice if you ever take your family around the world: Bring less luggage!

Photo by Beatriz Oliva