I Wonder as I Wander…

This last trip, was not just a wandering type—it was a major vacation trip of a lifetime. We (Ross, Richard, Bob and I) went to Italy! This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And then Pastor Heather and Matt went last year and showed their pictures and I was so anxious to go. So….I made the offer to my kids that we would give them airline tickets for Christmas…IF we could come along. We got a ‘that would be great, BUT…’ response. So we let it drop. Then right after Christmas, I said ‘and none of you wanted to go to Italy with us?’ Kara said she absolutely couldn’t because she teaches until June 8 and then starts classes for her Masters on June 12. Ross and Richard said ‘We’ll go’. So they started booking tickets.

The tickets were much cheaper to fly to London and then take Easy Jet from there to Rome. That was great, because three of us hadn’t ever been to London before. We had a day and a half when we arrived to see all the sights in London—and we really packed it in. Did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour, rode the Eye (big Farris Wheel), and watched the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.

We had an interesting B & B there—a room with one double bed, two twin beds and two chairs and about a foot of floor space around them. The bathroom was out in the hall and really small also. In the shower, if you dropped the soap, you had to do deep knee bends to get it, because the shower wasn’t big enough to bend over in.

Then we flew to Rome and spent four days. One day did pagan Rome, the next did Christian Rome, did the hop-on-hop-off bus tour (I love those—they give you 24 hours to ride all over, complete with narration). Climbed the dome at the Vatican (425 steps), climbed the Spanish steps (200 + steps), sat in piazzas, walked and walked and walked, drank wine, ate and ate and ate.

I couldn’t get over how huge all the monuments, fountains, Vatican parts, castles were. It was as if each Ruler/Pope had to try and outdo their predecessor. I was surprised at how many Pope’s names were on the monuments—so much for being humble.

Then we went to Venice. Rode on the Vaporetto (water taxis) all over the place, plus walked and walked and walked—up and down over canals, through skinny little alleys, visited St. Mark’s square, fed pigeons, took the lift to the top of the bell tower, visited all the little islands (bought lace on Burano and glass on Murano), enjoyed a gondola ride, drank wine and ate and ate and ate. (Do you see a pattern here?)

I love Venice, but it is really sad that the local population is declining. They used to have 200,000 people living there and now have only 65,000. Their only industry is tourism. The city is sinking--they used to have about eight days per year where they had flooding--now they have up to 40 days per year of flooding. Many homes and businesses have abandoned the bottom level of their building. Everything is very expensive, because it all has to be brought in by boat.

Next we jumped on a train to Florence. Again did a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. Climbed the Duomo (464 steps), sat on the 6th floor terrace of our B & B, which had a great view of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo, and Campanile, walked and walked and walked, ate and ate and ate. One day, we had booked a Tuscany Wine tour. We went to two different vineyards for Chianti Classic and drank and drank—man was I tipsy. Then went to Pisa and Ross and Richard climbed that leaning tower while Bob and I sat on the steps guarding the eight bottles of wine that we had bought. The kids waved at us from every level—it made me remember when they were little and used to go on rides at the amusement park and wave every time they would see us.


It’s just so overwhelming to see all the things that you’ve heard or read about or seen photos of. But nothing prepares you for the real thing. Like how massive Michelangelo’s David is, or how the Leaning Town of Pisa looks like it is going to actually fall over, or how every square inch of the Sistine Chapel is covered with beautiful paintings, or how the buildings seem to be right in the water in Venice.

I actually felt like I had 'art overload'. There was just so much to look at. I found myself walking through museums or Churches, just looking for things that I had heard of--a person could have spent an entire day in every museum if they wanted to study every picture and read every placard.

We went back to Rome for a day and a half, back to London for 12 hours (in the airport), eight hours back to Mpls, and a five hour car ride home. The kids (29 & 33 yrs old) had such a good time (even with the old folks) they want to make a major trip as a biannual affair—Sweden next?? Although we have to get Kara out of graduate school, so she can come along!

Some things I learned:
-Pack old clothes or ones you don’t like and throw them away after a few days wear—especially undies.
-Hubby and I can get by with one carryon with wheels and one backpack—clean out the clothes and fill with wine and souvenirs for the trip home.
-I need to keep in shape, so I can get up 300 steps without puffing.
-Bring and wear only tennis shoes and good socks with a pair of moccasins for lounging and long plane rides.
-Book tickets for Scurvy Tour at Vatican, Academia, Uffizi Museum, and other places on-line before you go.
-Get up early to hit the popular places, then check back later in the day for others.
-May is the perfect time to travel—crowds weren’t too bad and temperatures were perfect.
-B & B’s are the way to go for a group, BUT a private bathroom is a MUST!
-On a wine tour—DON’T drink all the wine offered!

We stopped off at Ross and Richard’s, unpacked our suitcases, washed two loads of clothes, repacked, caught a few hours of sleep, and then Ross drove us downtown to catch the light rail—so we’re off again….


This time we’re off to Seattle for the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention. Which means we went across three time zones and from one corner of the country to the other--from Tampa to Seattle. The staff arrives on Monday. Tuesday is unloading the truck and setting up the office. Wednesday is a Chapter Officer Academy, Regional Officer Academy, and an Advisor pre-conference. Thursday has several educational forums and the first General Session is on Thursday evening. The Convention ends with a Gala Banquet and Hallmark Awards on Saturday evening.

I’ve been to quite a few Conventions as an advisor and Regional Coordinator, and last year I was Sr. Coordinator and consultant, but this is the first time I was a full-time employee. I had several events that I was responsible for and also I presented three different break-out sessions. I helped organized the Advisor Pre-Conference. I helped organize the 45 educational forums. And I was responsible for the ACA Luncheon. Plus I was note-taker at a focus group. So it was a busy time.

Bob helped with most of the things I was responsible for, as well as doing room checks and helping with the International Officer election. I don’t know if it was because he was there—so I slept better, or that there were no students with me that I had to worry about, but I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I normally am after an Int’l Convention.

I think I mentioned that we've been walking up steps. We were on the 10th floor of the hotel in Tampa and we took the steps almost every time we went to and from our room. When we were checking in to the Sheridan in Seattle, the lady said “you are on the 25th floor’. We looked at each other and thought, “I don’t think we will be doing steps here”. Although we did go up 10 flights—back down 15 flights—and back up five flights—so we did 225 steps two different times.


Monday when we arrived, Bob and I walked down to the Pike Place Market. Along the street there were cherry trees that were just covered with blossoms—mmm beautiful and fragrant! The Market always has so many beautiful flowers for sale there—this time of year it was lots of tulips—all different colors. Also Pike Fish Market is the place where they throw the fish and have developed a leadership series called FISH. The premise is that even dirty, smelling work like at a fish market can be rewarding, if you make it fun and interesting. It’s really fun to watch. We sat in the park along the harbor for a while, watching the boats come and go.

Tuesday was mostly standing around waiting for the truck to get up the ramp—I guess it had transmission problems. And we couldn’t unload the truck or move stuff to the right area—union people had to do that—we could only point and say “that goes there”. And I didn’t really know what went where—so I wasn’t a whole lot of help. That evening, I took the ACA Officers out to Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for our bimonthly meeting. We had a fantastic meal—halibut and then the four of us split two wonderful pieces of cheesecake—a chocolate fudge swirl and multi-berry—yummy!

Wednesday was our pre-conference stuff and it went really well. I love it when people come to my session and say their friends told them they had to attend it because it was the best! Makes my head swell—just a little. I’ll see what the evaluations have to say!


The Convention was phenomenonal—Madeline Albright gave the best talk and then answered questions. She is so bright and funny also and really appealed to college students—and everyone! But for us it was seven days of nonstop running. Several days I would get to the convention center at 7 am and not step outside until midnight.

I love convention—I get to see so many of the great friends I have from all over the country--and spend time with my colleagues from work who I never see, since I work from home. People are winning awards and are so excited! I probably averaged getting 50 hugs a day. I was fortunate to be able to present awards to some of the long-time advisors—some of whom are good friends!

And the highlight of the evening was one of my favorite students from our region was elected as Division III VP. Preston Schmidt is a wonderful, talented fiddle player and just as cute as can be. Last year at convention, I said “Maybe you should run for Int’l Office” and he said "I just might think about it!" And now here he is—how exciting! I’m hoping I’ll be assigned to attend some events with him.

It’s so exciting to be seated with a region—and I still have so many ties to Minn-Wi-Kota, that I love celebrating with them—several staff members were watching on the web-cast, but I think you experience it so much more when you’re right in with the crowd.

So now I’m caught up with my travels for just a few hours, because at 7 pm tonight—Bob, Ross, Richard and I LEAVE FOR ITALY!! There will be lots to write when I get back….

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write anything and it wasn’t because we weren’t traveling, it was because I was too darn busy during the travels and getting ready for the next one.

But we did spend five days in beautiful Tampa, FL in April. Bob is part of the Nat’l Bus. Assn. And they have their convention so it ends the Saturday before Easter—so we have spent Easter in some really great places around the US (Boston, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, San Antonio—just to name a few). Since the convention is around Easter, many times our kids would have a few days off school—so we would pull them out of school for a couple extra days and spend a week in one of these great cities. Bob would go to his meeting and the kids and I would wander around, visiting museums and other great places.

Well, this year his meeting was in Tampa, Fl. We went down there on Tuesday and checked in to the Marriott Waterside. It was a beautiful place that included a marina and lots of places to walk right alongside of the bay. We had a cute little white Dodge Vibe. When we checked in, they said we were on the 10th floor. Since we have been trying to walk and do steps to get ready for our trip to Italy—we decided we would take the stairs most of the time.

We did the steps at least two and sometimes three or four times each day. We go up the big open staircase to the third floor--it's 79 steps and then get in the stairwell and go from 3rd to 10th floor--it's 105 steps. I can do both without stopping--although I'm gasping for air at the top. You’d think after five days it would have been a lot easier—but it was still a lot of work.

Kara came down earlier because her boyfriend, Paul, was staying at his mothers, helping her get ready to move. Tuesday evening, we went over there—met Betty and then all went out for dinner together. It was very good. The road that we drive on is right along the bay—there is a great walkway that was just full of people biking, walking, or jogging. After dinner, we went back to Betty’s and had home-made key lime pie (Kara had made it—yummy). Then Paul and some of his friends were paying in a club at an ‘open-mike’ night. We enjoyed hearing them play and meeting Paul’s friends. One friend who plays the drums will get so ‘into it’ that he starts growling.

Wednesday, we went for a walk along the bay and spotted a grocery store—so walked over there and got some water, fruit, juice and pop. Why is it that the more expensive the hotel—the more you have to pay for things like internet service, parking and no continental breakfasts? On the way back about three people stopped us to ask where we had found the market. Bob helped with registration and I worked from the hotel room. We ate lunch in an outside café at the hotel. I went to the opening session with Bob. Later, for supper we walked over to a seafood restaurant and had supper outside. I love eating outside! We called it a night pretty early.

On Thursday, Kara came to hang out with me. Paul dropped her off early and she came up to the room. We went looking for some Chai Tea, but the Starbucks was all out of Chai, so we just wandered around the hotel a bit. I had to work and Kara took a nice long nap. We ate outside again and got a fair amount of sun. Kara had a massage. Then we picked up Paul and went out to Clearwater Beach. It was too cold to swim, but we walked along the beach and waded. The sand is just like sugar—so fine and feels so good on the feet.

Friday, I had a massage in the morning and it felt so good. Then in the afternoon, I had a facial. I had never had one before because I have rosacea, and have always been nervous about doing anything to my face, in case it might really flare up. But they had a special just for people with rosacea. It was really nice. She put stuff on it, then put warm clothes, then misted it, more stuff, a warm light, more mist, more stuff. It was an hour of just pampering my face. I’m sure I was extremely beautiful!

Paul is working at a Church that is building a new sanctuary, so we went out there on Saturday to volunteer. Bob build a couple window frames and Kara and I did some wiring, painting doorframes, and then a lot of clean up, since on Sunday a lot of people like to tour through the building project and they wanted it to look as nice as possible. The church is going to be beautiful—I hope I get a chance to see it when it’s totally finished.

We got tickets for the Tampa Bay Lightening Hockey Game. So, after Cold Stone Ice Cream (a tradition), we got ready for the game. It was a great game—Tampa got off to a 2-0 lead, but then Carolina tied it up and it went into overtime. Tampa scored with 10 seconds to go.

Easter Sunday we had to leave for the cities at 6 pm, so we had time to go to Church—at Paul’s Church—which was fun, because his group played and sang for the service. When it was over, we went back to Betty’s where we had the traditional ham dinner. It was wonderful to have a great Easter Dinner with family. Since we travel so much over Easter—we don’t get to do that very often. Betty’s quasi-cousin, Jean was there and she and Betty are both fun-loving, fire-crackers!

We flew back to the cities, where Ross picked us up from the airport. We dropped by Ross’s and stuck in a load of clothes in the washer. Since Applebee’s has 2 for 1 appetizers—we went there for a late supper. Got back and finished unpacking and washing clothes and repacked because we were off in the morning again…..