Yes, I am a “senior citizen”, and have been traveling since I was six years old. I was born in New York City, and claimed “upstate” as “home”, but lived in New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, the Washington DC area, Germany and England before I was 18.  My Dad was ‘career U.S. Air Force’, and thus my “travel bug”. The urge to move was strong, but I resisted and spent four years in New Haven, Connecticut at Albertus Magnus College, earning a Bachelors Degree in Sociology. An interesting major, but with limited career options.

I took the path common to women in my generation, and married right out of college. My new husband was working on an advanced degree at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, so I enrolled part time at St. Mary’s College. It took 2 plus years, including summers in South Bend and winter & spring semesters at Columbia University in New York City, to earn a masters degree in education.

I started teaching in suburban New York in 1965, and managed to teach elementary, middle, high schools, college, and even graduate level classes during a 25 year career, with time off to raise children.  I enjoy school, reading, study, and research, so loved teaching, especially Biology and the sciences. Truly, I wasn’t quite ready to retire, and found a job teaching the child actors in a touring company of the “Music Man”.  It was fun seeing the country, but living and teaching out of suitcases was tough, so the gig only lasted one school year. At that time I was due to have my first grandchild, closely followed by a second & third, as each of my three children gave birth to a son within eighteen-months. Now I am “Grammie” to 5 grandsons, plus four “adopted” grandchildren.

In 2008 I married Harry Potter Harris and we moved to The Villages in Florida. Yeah, a willing travel partner! We have explored Florida, parts of the U.S., and overseas. Once a year we go abroad for 3 to 5 weeks, and in 2017 our trip resulted in circumnavigating the world! Some trips include both cruises and independent explorations; two included volunteer work abroad. Since science and history are passions, my favorite trips were a 5-day float thru the Grand Canyon, following the footsteps of Darwin in the Galapagos Islands, observing the unique geology of Iceland and the animals of Costa Rica, and a trip to Alaska that included study at the University plus a cruise to see glaciers close at hand. We enjoyed interacting with locals in Turkey, and always check out food markets to see what the people eat. I could go on; there are no places I disliked totally, though there have been unpleasant experiences.

I travel to experience different cultures, see the world, and challenge myself. Travel has changed my views of the world and its peoples.