We’ve always been passionate about exploring - from the busting streets of Tokyo to the hiking trails of Mount Hood – sketching, taking photos and following maps along the way. Traveling to us is not checking the Eiffel Tower “box” in Paris, but the experience of finding that restaurant Aunt Millie recommended with the best duck à l'orange.
Experiencing a place, not just sightseeing.
As we began to travel with our children, we wanted to spark that same interest in people, places and ideas that comes from exploring beyond the destination. In our quest for tools to lead our adventures, we found standard guidebooks too overwhelming. City coloring books just focused on famous landmarks and lacked the educational components. This was a conundrum!
We’d plan an outing in a city with sites that interested both parents and kids alike and drew a simple map, so they understood directions or train routes. Talk about the importance of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo or the African Meeting House in Boston to start a conversation based on “why?” or “how?”. After hearing about our remarkable experiences in various cities and our analog approach to traveling in a screen-focused world, friends began to ask for our piecemealed itineraries. Perhaps we were on to something??
With the mission of being creatively different and exploring the path less taken we created our first book, ‘Colorful Seattle – Explore & Color’. A map, location descriptions and whimsical illustrations of hidden gems throughout the city, guide explorers from the troll under the Fremont Bridge to the magnificent Kubota Garden in Rainier Beach. To our delight, more cities followed.
Explore and Color books give you a fun, creative way to experience a city. But more importantly, you’ll give yourself the satisfaction of a day or afternoon well spent following the map, finding the locations, fearlessly coloring and perhaps peaking around the corner to explore something completely new. How cool is that.
Where will you explore today?
