National Geographic says the list included swimming with dolphins, riding in a hot-air balloon, surfing and watching the sunrise from a mountain.
Then there was one particularly memorable request from Laurent.
He wanted to drink juice on a camel.
His parents apparently had no idea where he had gotten the idea.
But it became part of the adventure.
That detail captures something important about the family's approach.
The trip was connected to a serious diagnosis, but it was not intended to become a year-long medical exercise.
These were still children.
Their memories would not be built only from famous monuments and dramatic landscapes.
They would also come from funny moments, unexpected problems, animals, food, games, long journeys and the strange requests children make simply because something sounds exciting.
Then the World Shut Down
The family originally had to confront an obstacle nobody could have predicted.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted international travel.
Their plans were delayed, and the itinerary had to be reconsidered repeatedly.
Eventually, in March 2022, the family finally left home.
They did so without a fixed itinerary for the entire journey.
That uncertainty became part of the experience.
National Geographic says the family ultimately traveled through 24 countries over the course of the journey depicted in Blink.
Their travels took them across multiple continents and through remarkably different environments.
National Geographic lists destinations including Botswana, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Laos, Namibia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, South Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe, along with stops in Canada, China and the United States.
It was an enormous undertaking for any family.
Doing it with four children made it even more ambitious.
More Than Sightseeing
The family's goal was not simply to race from tourist attraction to tourist attraction.
They wanted their children to experience the world.
National Geographic says they tried to use ground transportation whenever practical rather than constantly flying between destinations.
They also often chose guesthouses and homestays rather than conventional hotels because meeting people was part of what they wanted from the journey.
The distinction matters.
A visual memory does not have to be a famous landmark.
It can be the expression on someone's face.
The movement of an animal.
The color of a desert at sunset.
The view from a mountain.
A crowded street in a country you have never visited.
The inside of a family's home.
The landscape passing outside a vehicle window.
Or your siblings laughing beside you.
The family could not know exactly how RP would progress in each child, and they could not preserve eyesight simply by collecting beautiful scenes.
What they could preserve was experience.
Seeing the World's Wildlife
For children, some of the most powerful travel memories involve animals.
That made wildlife-rich destinations particularly meaningful.
Africa formed a major part of the family's journey, with visits to countries including Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Seeing a wild animal in its natural environment is fundamentally different from seeing the same species in a textbook or on a screen.
There is scale.
Movement.
Sound.
Distance.
Unpredictability.
And the surrounding landscape.
Those experiences involve much more than vision alone.
A memory of wildlife can include the sound of animals, the smell of the landscape, the temperature of the air, the excitement of siblings and the feeling of waiting for something to appear.
That broader sensory reality is one reason the family's journey was about much more than simply collecting mental photographs.
Learning to Live With Uncertainty
The Pelletiers were also trying to prepare their children for something no parent could fully control.