about us

We are an American couple, currently living in Southern California. The site serves as our public journal, and we’re hoping it will help us to stay in touch with family and friends.

Our biggest adventure as a couple (aside from getting married), was the year we spent in Europe.  In January 2007, we booked round-trip tickets from Los Angeles, California to Stuttgart, Germany – departing January 17, returning December 18. At the time, that’s as much as we had planned. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about that trip:

  1. How can you afford a year long honeymoon?

    We work. Thanks to the power of internet, we are able to work from pretty much anywhere in the world. Gemma does video production and graphic design for a US-based mortgage company. Justin is a freelance web developer (see justinbarkhuff.com). So far, income from the work we’ve done while traveling has more than covered our expenses.

    We’re cheap. There are several things we do to minimize our cost: stay in apartments (shared or otherwise) instead of hotels, cook at home instead of eating out, and only buy what we need. Surprisingly, our month-to-month overseas costs are lower than they were at home.

    We’re debt free, which means we only have to cover our day-to-day costs.

  2. How long do you stay in each place you visit?

    On average, we’ve been staying in major cities for 4-6 weeks. When it’s time to travel to the next major city, we usually take several shorter trips along the way.

  3. How did you plan your trip (where to go, where to stay, what to see)?

    We plan most of the trip as we go. We had a rough list of major cities we wanted to see, and we gave ourselves a year to see everything. Towards the end of a stay in a major city, we’ll plan our trip to the next city. We’ve used the internet almost exclusively for planning every part of our trip.

  4. Do you speak any foreign languages?

    No, but we learned pretty quickly how to communicate without speaking. Also, fortunately for us, many Europeans speak english.

  5. What camera / video camera do you use?

    Sony Cybershot DSCW70 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

    For photos, we’re using the Sony Cybershot DSCW70. It’s a great pocket-sized point and shoot.

    Panasonic PV-GS500 4MP 3CCD MiniDV Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

    For video, we’re using the Panasonic PV-GS500. We love it. If it was ever lost or stolen, we would probably buy the same camera again.

  6. How did you build your site?

    The majority of the site is powered by Wordpress. Justin designed and programmed the custom theme, along with a few plugins. Other third-party Wordpress plugins integrated into the site include: Akismet, Contact Form ][, FeedBurner FeedSmith, Get Recent Comments, PodPress, Subscribe2. The videos are in Flash Video (.flv) format, and we’re using the JW FLV Player The photo gallery interface is powered by Justin’s Lightbox Slideshow The data for the weather and map graphic (see the top-right corner of the site) comes from Weather.com. If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll already have noticed the iPhone-specific version of the site. If you don’t have an iPhone, but you do have Safari version 3+, you can view the iPhone-specific version of this site here. Justin wrote a Wordpress theme and plugin that powers the iPhone interface.

  7. Where is your site hosted?

    Hosting is provided by Dreamhost. Do yourself a favor, save time, save money, save hassle, be happy, use Dreamhost.

22 responses to “about us”

  1. you two are just too fabulous! glad you’re back safe and sound.

    love you, mom

    momma steph | July 22nd, 2007, 12:40 AM | link to this comment

  2. You guys are great, wish i could also afford that year long honeymoon..that is sweet..am just a newbies trying to learn about web designs and development, suddendly i bump in to your site..its cute!..Anyway take care..enjoy your vacation..God bless you.

    Marvs | July 26th, 2007, 9:03 PM | link to this comment

  3. I stumbled upon your site through thebestdesigns.com as I was fishing for inspiration and today I seem to have won more than that:). So I had to take a stop and say that you both are a living moving beautiful sculpture of how what life is all about..Congrats on the way you live and how you can share it. I don’t know you but have lived more through your eyes today..You’ve inspired me.

    Ingrid Angel
    Miami Beach, FL

    Ingrid Angel | July 27th, 2007, 5:04 PM | link to this comment

  4. I stumbled upon your website while browsing CSSMania, and I have to say; I love it! Superb design!

    Thats all I had to say really. Enjoy your honeymoon! =)

    P.S. Can you tell me what font you used in the navigation is called?

    Pádraig | July 31st, 2007, 1:11 AM | link to this comment

  5. Pádraig: the hand-written looking font is called HandScript.

    justin | July 31st, 2007, 12:49 PM | link to this comment

  6. Hi,

    Congrats to both of you for this site becoming Dreamhost Site of the Month.

    Hope you are having a great time on your vacation.

    Happiness Always!

    -Gagan

    Gagan | August 3rd, 2007, 10:12 PM | link to this comment

  7. WOW!! I admire what y’all are doing so much! You must be having a blast. I think I’ll have to try and copy y’all when I get married! I just finished up a six month around the world tour myself, but was unable to do all I would have wanted to due to not working during that time. Your plan seems much better! I love the site and hope ya’ll continue to have an amazing time exploring Europe as husband and wife!
    Griffin

    Griffin Stewart | August 3rd, 2007, 10:43 PM | link to this comment

  8. I found you through Dreamhost Site of the Month. What a wonderful adventure you’re on and what a great idea for a honeymoon. I enjoyed seeing photos of places I’ve been myself – brings back a lot of memories. Enjoy the rest of your year :)

    Karin | August 4th, 2007, 12:13 AM | link to this comment

  9. You look like you are having such a great time!! I am so happy for you! How wonderful that your first year as husband and wife is filled with so much exploration and excitement together! I love you both & look forward to more fun pics & videos…

    Marisa | August 4th, 2007, 12:45 AM | link to this comment

  10. Hi Justin,

    Im trying to source a good photo album solution for wordpress but cant seem to find one anyway – what do you use to power yours? I know theres the lightbox you have created but you can only upload one image at a time with that?

    many thanks,

    Will

    Will | August 4th, 2007, 8:16 PM | link to this comment

  11. Me Too!

    I found your site on the bottom of a DreamHost page – what an inspiration both you and they are for the right way to live!

    Keep up the good work,

    Geoff.

    Geoff Foster | August 6th, 2007, 12:22 AM | link to this comment

  12. would you be willing to share the code that pulls in the info from weather.com?

    hubs | August 6th, 2007, 6:24 PM | link to this comment

  13. Will: I use Picasa to organize photos on my computer. We’re using Photoshop to generate the images for all the photo galleries on the site. Once Photoshop generates the images, I upload them to a folder on our server, and I have a script that generates the necessary gallery HTML code to insert into a blog post. Does that answer your question?

    hubs: soon, I’ll release a PHP weather class in the ‘Labs’ section of justinbarkhuff.com.

    justin | August 7th, 2007, 4:25 AM | link to this comment

  14. I really love the design of your site!! This is definitely one of the best looking sites built in Wordpress that I’ve come across. Great work!

    Mike Diesel | August 22nd, 2007, 6:50 PM | link to this comment

  15. [...] gemma & justin barkhuff » about us [...]

    link burrp! « Vinu’s Online Cloud | September 25th, 2007, 9:55 AM | link to this comment

  16. Hello. Great site. Any chance that this theme will be released for use?

    Adam | November 5th, 2007, 6:32 PM | link to this comment

  17. Adam, I will release a Wordpress theme that looks similar to this site.

    Unfortunately, because of my current work and travel schedule, it will probably be a few months before that happens.

    justin | November 5th, 2007, 9:44 PM | link to this comment

  18. ^Been waiting for that! Anyway, vids are quite very clear, I’m wondering what’s the ‘bitrate’ of those vids?

    _LP | November 10th, 2007, 6:09 PM | link to this comment

  19. You guys are real adventures, I think you are more adventures than Indiana Jones. thanks for sharing.

    prasanga | December 3rd, 2007, 6:19 PM | link to this comment

  20. Hi there,

    Just wanted to say great site. Any ETA on a publicly available theme yet?

    Thanks.

    Shaun | January 11th, 2008, 8:21 AM | link to this comment

  21. [...] 关于网站的详细介绍在这里。 [...]

    Barkhuff0：博客,Powered by Wordpress | 梦想家博客 | June 23rd, 2008, 3:31 AM | link to this comment

  22. Googled “Barkhuff” as I am building an extensive genealogy from Frederick and Mary and wondered if you are related. My grandmother’s name was Barkhuff. We have a few relatives that went to CA mid 1900’s. Would be interested to know about you, if you choose.
    Sincerely,
    KC Wilson

    KC | December 21st, 2008, 11:56 AM | link to this comment

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