I think I got the travel bug at the age of 10, when my dad handed me a TripTik from AAA for our upcoming family vacation from Michigan to California. I was amazed to see I could follow our route on a map, and even decide which sights to see along the way. My passion was reinforced by my mom when she started taking my sister and me out to the Detroit Metro Airport to watch planes take off and land while we visited with my dad during his lunch break. He was working a second part time job afternoons for a local airplane food catering company at the time.

My first overseas trip was to Paris, France for 2 weeks in 1977, and then to Bordeaux, France for 8 weeks where I worked in a bank and became fluent in French. (I had even started dreaming in Technicolor French!) I hopped over to Geneva, Switzerland for a long weekend. My next international journeys were to London, England; Cologne, Germany; and Tokyo, Japan while working as a reservation agent for a predecessor of Delta Airlines. I took full advantage of those travel benefits!!  Add in some Caribbean islands (St. Maarten, Grand Cayman, Antigua, Aruba, Guadeloupe), Italy after my law school graduation, Hong Kong in 1997 and my wanderlust was cemented. I now have a goal to become a member of the Traveler’s Century Club, an organization representing world travelers who have visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories. I have been to 70 countries so far, and all 50 of the United States.