From a Father's Day Idea to the App Store Launch
Why I Built a Travel App for My Family (and Yours)
🚀 DuckAbroad Is Live in the App Store!
I’m thrilled to share that DuckAbroad officially launched on the iOS App Store earlier this week! 🎉
The journey began eight years ago with a little project called Duckwyn, inspired by my family’s love of travel. I still remember when the idea started to take shape—it was Father’s Day, and we were out exploring Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts. It wasn’t an “aha” moment, but rather a series of thoughts built over many trips that eventually led me to believe this was a challenge I could take on.
The early versions were very simple. At first, I imagined the app would focus solely on visiting historic places, complete with maps and short summaries to bring those stories to life for kids. But the deeper I got, the clearer it became: building and scaling that kind of app—solo—would be incredibly difficult. There are thousands of historical sites. I simply didn’t have the time to populate it all myself.
And I realized something else along the way: it wasn’t just about historic places.
My kids used to color paper maps of the U.S. when we visited new states. But we never remembered to pack them. What if we had an app that tracked that instead—plus every country and major city we explored together?
From there, the travel journal was born. As the kids grew, so did the depth of our trips—and the memories. But I discovered something hard: even the best moments fade with time. If you don’t write them down, you lose them. I didn’t want that to keep happening.
DuckAbroad existed as a web app for years. For those unfamiliar with what a web app is, it’s a web site that works in any browser but can look like an application on a mobile device. It worked, but there were limitations—especially on Apple devices. Location permissions had to be granted every single time, making it clunky to add journal entries or check in to new places.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and started learning how to build a native iOS app. Books, videos, web research…it was a lot but the more I learned, the more hopeful I became that I could make this happen.
And now, I’m celebrating year 8 of this journey with a big win: DuckAbroad has been approved by Apple and is officially live. 🎉
There’s more ahead, of course. But sometimes, it’s important to pause and celebrate the milestones. Not to feed our egos, but to appreciate how far we’ve come. Too often, we skip past the victories in pursuit of the next goal. I’m trying not to do that this time.
To everyone who’s supported me—subscribing to this Substack, joining the DuckAbroad Family, or just liking a post—thank you. You’ve helped keep this dream moving forward.
👉 If you’d like to become a Founding Family member, there’s still time. All Founding Families receive free lifetime access to DuckAbroad. I just ask for your honest feedback in return.
📱 iPhone or iPad user?
Search “DuckAbroad” in the App Store and download the app today.
🤖 Android user?
The web app works great on Android. You can sign up at app.duckabroad.com/founding-family. An Android app is on the roadmap—just a bit trickier since I don’t own an Android device (yet!).
Thanks again for being part of this journey.
Let’s explore the world—together. 🌍