Growing up in Noe Valley in San Francisco, Ariel's family had a neighborhood walk they called "The Square." It was a nice little amble that looped back to their apartment, via the little downtown shopping area on 24th street. It has everything you need as a kid en route -- playground, farmers' market, a bakery.

This summer we spent four weeks in SE Asia on assignment, with about a week in each country. We would spend the first few days shooting and then have a couple extra days to explore. Unlike our backpacking days of yore, with a heavy itinerary of sightseeing and long day trips, we found that with kids we would land in a city and from our apartment doorstep, find "The Square."

There were playgrounds, cafes, libraries with A.C., water parks, and so many fruit stands right outside our door. Locals would come up to us and ask if we had recently moved there since they had seen us around the neighborhood all week, sharing pastries with the kids. We didn't see many sites, but we got the chance to live in a place, if only for a short moment, and feel what it was like to be part of the community.

Here are some family photos from our first stop, Taiwan. We'll post a few more photo diaries in the coming weeks of Vietnam, Laos + Thailand. We're keeping our main photo project under wraps for now, but stay tuned for an announcement.

A big thanks to our great fashion partner included in this blog post!

Wombat & Poss Kid's Clothing: https://wombatandposs.com.au/