Much To Be Done is a family travel journal built by three people who believe experiences matter more than things. We’re Pete, Ruth, and Eric and we’ve been collecting memories together for a long time. This site is where we keep them. We built it as much for us as for anyone reading it. Especially for our son, so that someday he can look back and remember exactly what it felt like to be there. Much To Be Done family travel blog is our record of everywhere we’ve been and everything we’ve experienced along the way.
The Much To Be Done Family Travel Blog Story
We’re not travel influencers. We don’t accept free trips in exchange for glowing reviews. What you read here is what we actually think. The honest take on what was worth it, what wasn’t, and what you should know before you go.
Pete spent more than 30 years in the media business, writing, broadcasting, and running newspapers across the Midwest. Ruth is his partner in every sense of the word. And Eric is the reason we travel the way we do.
When Eric was two days old, we adopted him. He has been the center of our world ever since. Eric has special needs, which means our family looks a little different than most. He’s highly functioning, funny, curious, and one of the best travel companions you’ll find. It also means our family stays together longer than most. Honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
One thing we’ve learned along the way is that Eric’s brain responds powerfully to positive experiences. More than most people. So we made a decision early on to fill his life and ours with as many of them as possible. Destinations, great meals, historic places, ballparks, ships, pubs, and museums. Every trip is a deposit into a memory bank he can draw from for the rest of his life.
That’s really why this site exists.
Where the Name Comes From
The name comes from a sign in the men’s restroom at Captain Tony’s Saloon on Green Street in Key West. If you’re a Jimmy Buffett fan and we are you know the place. Tony Tarracino was the longtime proprietor, a charismatic character who became a regular muse for Buffett. One of those stories became the song “Last Mango in Paris,” and tucked inside its lyrics is a line from Captain Tony himself:
I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy, there’s still so much to be done
From the Jimmy Buffett song Last Mango in Paris
“There’s still so much to be done” felt like more than a lyric. It’s a reminder. We’ve been fortunate to see a lot of this world, but the list of places we still want to go only ever seems to grow. We’re OK with that.
How We Travel
We’re not budget travelers, but we’re not flashy ones either. We spend thoughtfully. When something special presents itself, a private tour, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a restaurant worth driving two hours for, we say yes. Memories are worth more than things.
We’re also not young Instagrammers chasing the perfect shot. We’re real people looking for real experiences. The kind that hold up years later when you close your eyes and try to remember exactly what it felt like to be there.
Nearly all of our trips are the three of us. We’ve learned how to travel as a family, how to find experiences that work for everyone, and how to slow down enough to actually enjoy where we are. The best moments rarely come from the biggest budgets. They come from the unexpected detour, the local recommendation, and the place you almost didn’t stop for.
What We Love
We love Jimmy Buffett, which is probably obvious by now. But our travels go well beyond any one interest or destination. We’ve explored European cities, walked through American history, chased baseball across the country, sailed on Disney cruises, and eaten our way through places most people drive past without stopping.
We love a good story behind a place. We love finding the thing that makes somewhere worth the trip. And we love having a record of all of it.
Say Hello
Much To Be Done family travel blog started with a simple idea: trips fade faster than you expect. The restaurants, the destinations, the attractions that don’t make it into photos deserve to be written down. We built this site as much for us as for anyone reading it. Especially for our son, so that someday he can look back and remember exactly what it felt like to be there.
One of the best parts of traveling is the knowledge you pick up from people who’ve been there before you. A local tip, a hidden restaurant, a shortcut through a city that isn’t in any guidebook. We’ve benefited from that generosity more times than we can count, and we try to pay it forward through everything we write here.
So let’s trade notes. If you’ve been somewhere we should go, we genuinely want to hear about it. And if you have a question about somewhere we’ve been, ask away. That’s what this is all for.
