We are Pat and Ali, and this is the story of our ongoing adventure. We grew up in St. Paul, dated in high school, married, and moved to Chicago. While there we realized that there had to be something more interesting to do with our lives. Something besides work and one week vacations. There was a whole world we'd never seen and most likely never would if we continued down the path we were on.

So one day, almost on a lark, we bought a boat and set off to sail around the world. We undertook the trip with about as much preparation as we would have a walk to the corner store and yet four years later we had circled the globe. We didn't become great sailors, but we did learn a lot about ourselves and the world around us. A world which we still felt we hadn't scratched the surface of. So then we took off in a 1958 VW bus and spent two years visiting twenty-eight countries.

What all of this travel has done for us is to instill a love of other cultures and of living an independent, debt free, cluster free, who cares what others think, lifestyle.

During the VW trip Ali became pregnant. We sold the bus in Europe, flew back to the States, loaded our 1965 Porsche up with all of our worldly belongings and cruised down to Mexico. Our daughter, Ouest Lill (Ouest is French for West, and pronounced the same), was born in Puerto Vallarta on December 13, 2009.

Six months later we bought another boat. We're not sure where exactly this one will take us as a family, but we're looking forward to finding out.

What the internet critics have to say about us and our adventures:

"Traveling through Mexico? In a 356? With your pretty blonde wife? And pregnant? There's adventure, and there's insanity. This would be the latter!"

"An old VW? What, a five-year-old Eurovan? ...not everyone is up to the task of cruising across the country in an old Westy."

"They seem to be sailing the world looking for all of the things most of us sail to avoid, and they seem to have little interest in sailing itself."

"The Bumfuzzles are certainly not risk-averse."

"They are an accident waiting for somewhere to happen."

"...the danger is that other idiots may see this story as a recipe for taking off across oceans without basic knowledge, common sense, or a well prepared vessel."

"They are lacking some sound judgment."

"Their general good humor, physical attractiveness, and youth do not excuse their ignorance."

"...Pat and Ali, they are running a lotto at sea."

"I was stunned by their cavalier attitude."

"Their experience is truly being wasted on the young."

"This whole instant gratification thing is getting out of hand."