Meet Clarissa!

Hi! I am the adventurer behind this blog, my name is Clarissa! 

I am a South African living in California, my husband EB, and I met in South Africa but he is from The Democratic Republic of Congo, we lived there for a while before returning back to South Africa where my oldest, Michael, was born before we moved to the United States, where our youngest, Sebastian was born. 

If you think that is all over the world, just wait, because my parents, and brother, also originally from South Africa, now live permanently in Germany. 

I speak 3 languages of which English is my third, it is the only language my husband and I have in common, he speaks 3 languages too! I learned to speak English by reading the Harry Potter books and to this day I am a proud Slytherin. Speaking of language, my oldest Michael is non verbal, although he has been making a lot of progress on that front and could be considered minimally verbal soon, he is on the Autism Spectrum.

We love travel, always have, and as a particularly overthinking and organized individual I love sharing all the little tips and tricks I pick up along the way. 

We are Disneyland Magic Key holders, that is the annual pass, so on any given weekend you could probably find us there. My first Disney park was Disneyland Paris, when I was younger my parents took my brother and I for a birthday weekend, and that is what sparked my love for hospitality, watching the cast members create magic for our family made me want to do the same for others!

I am also the Certified Autism Travel Professional behind Beckoning Adventure, and I love helping families like ours get out there and see the world! My first job out of high school was working on a luxury train, and my mild train obsession fused me even more to Walt Disney and Walter Knott.

My favorite fandoms include Disney, Pixar, Marvel and I adore Star Wars, of course Harry Potter as well as Fantastic Beasts, Hunger Games, Game of Thrones and Twilight. I also love The Office, Parks and Rec, Gilmore Girls, Stranger Things and a lot of other TV shows, as far as reality TV goes, my heart belongs to anything True Crime related or strategy shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race and most recently Traitors.

We are also a gaming household, we love the traditional board games whereas Sebastian is definitely more of a digital gamer, I sometimes join in with Dreamlight Valley. With family we love playing Rummikub and we get pretty competitive, Michael loves Monopoly and collects all the different sets, I personally love Clue and Villainous, and our friend group plays Unstable Unicorns and of course Lorcana obsessively, I am also jealous that my brother has a friend group he campaigns with, I think I would love DND.

I don't love reading very much, it takes me long to read, so I prefer combining reading with listening to the audio book, some of my favorite series include: Harry Potter, Twilight and A Series of Unfortunate Events, I also enjoyed reading Water for Elephants and Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.

My husband EB is an amazing musician who goes by EB Stone, my favorite song of his is "Open Your Heart". Naturally we are a family that adores good music, and none of our Disney trips start without belting our favorite Disney songs on the drive over, I actually have a dedicated playlist to the ones we listen to every time, and fun fact, most Disney songs make me cry, I am a wreck during "Wondrous Journeys" fireworks, and even "World of Color ONE".  

My dream is to have a piece of land I can grow a big garden on, I grew up on a farm with lots of animals and fruit trees, and I would love to introduce that lifestyle to my kids, I would also love to RV with my husband and kids all over the continental US, we love roadside attractions, and I have a bucket list full of giant rubber band balls and National Parks to check off. 

I share a lot of our journey on social media and plan on sharing more via these blogs, so I hope you enjoy the madness that lies ahead!