I love learning about different cultures, history, language, geography, geology, natural landscapes, and traditions. When I have the time, I enjoy traveling for conferences, trainings, special events, or vacations to expand my experiences of the people and cultures from around the world, but I especially love the beauty of natural landscapes and geology. Over the past 40+ years, I have been to more than 70 countries on 6 continents and hosted two high school exchange students from Germany and Norway for a school year (2016-2017) which was an amazing experience and expanded my family!
Some of my travel highlights included exploring:
- A month living in Antigua, Guatemala (2026) relearning Spanish through an immersive one-on-one tutoring with Ixchel Spanish School and exploring the culture, extensive ruins, and natural beauty of the volcanos surrounding the old city.
- The majestic beauty of the northeastern cities, fjords, glaciers, geysers, volcanoes, and continental divide by sea on a journey through New England, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Amsterdam, Ireland, and Scotland on the 40-day Voyage of the Vikings (2025), 7-day Fall New England/Canada highlights cruise, 11-day Canadian & Niagara Falls road trip, and 10-day St. Johns to Barbados cruise (2024).
- Costa Rica with friends and Mexico with my Norwegian exchange daughter (2024).
- The Caribbean islands for the Holistic Holiday at Sea vegan cruise and seminar (2023 & 2024) where I was able to enjoy many great health-related presentations about the benefits of a whole food plant-based diet, meet wonderful like-minded professionals, and eat a variety of delicious vegan foods.
- A month living in Thailand exploring Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Pattaya (2023) following the Semester at Sea voyage.
- The world for 3.5 months (Fall 2023) where I served as the Care Team Coordinator for the 15-week voyage with Semester at Sea, a semester-long study abroad program for more than 600 college students, lifelong learners, faculty, and staff from around the world onboard the World Oddessy. We traversed the globe from Germany to Thailand, learning about and visiting 11 countries throughout the voyage including Germany, Belgium, Spain, Malta, Greece, South Africa, Mauritius, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. It was a dream for more than 15 years, so I was grateful to embark on that exciting voyage!
- Greek islands with my Germany exchange daughter and northern Germany for 2-weeks before the Semester at Sea voyage (2023)
- Puerto Rico for a group counseling conference (2020)
- The Southern Caribbean islands by cruise ship (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) with family just before the COVID-19 lockdown (2020)
- Ireland coast on a 3-week road trip with family (2019); my favorite place is the Cliffs of Kilkee!
- A month-long visit through Norway and Germany with my exchange daughters and their families (2017)
- Bosnia for a 2-week excursion with a group of multi-disciplinary university faculty who studied the history of the country and war together for a year in advance (2017)
- The beautiful Croatian coastline and cities by sea (2017)
- The Smokey Mountains by 2-week road trip across 5 states (2015)
- Hawaiian islands for 2-weeks including a counseling conference, 7-day cruise, Oahu road-trip (2014)
- The Great Wall of China and so many beautiful gardens and cities around Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, China (2013)
- The gorgeous Pacific Coast highway on a road trip from San Francisco to San Diego (2012)
- Sedona and the Grand Canyon in Arizona with family (2010)
- A family reunion and touring of Germany with family (2009)
- The pyramids, temples of Egypt, and a river cruise down the Nile (2007)
- Amazing glaciers and beauty on two Alaskan cruises (2005, 2008).
- The Middle East, Asia, and Australia on a Western Pacific (WestPac) deployment with the Navy on the USS. Essex (1996-1997).
- Exploring Europe by rail and car for 6-weeks while my parents lived in Munster, Germany (1991). This was shortly after the Berlin wall came down so the stark contrast between the former East and West Germany was fascinating.
- South Korea for 2-weeks while my parents lived in Seoul (1988)
- and other fun travels including conferences in Hawaii, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix, Nashville, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, and Williamsburg; weddings in Florida, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin; and other cruises to Mexico, Honduras, Belize, St. Thomas, Turks & Caicos, San Juan, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Bahamas, etc. in the Caribbean.
