1992

More notes from our little Facebook experiment a few months ago. Since I am writing this around the holidays I decided to move aside and hand the reins over to Christine Coons Cunningham and her lengthy update.

“After selling my small retail business I have taken some time off to figure out what I want to do when I grow up,” she said. “We’ve been renovating an old house for the past 10 years and it looks like it is finally going to get done! Other than renovating I’ve spent the past year doing volunteer work for our small town library and other community organizations and have also been doing a lot of traveling. My husband and I spent two weeks in China last fall with a few days sojourn in Pyongyang, North Korea. We went into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with a great tour group, Koryo Tours, out of Beijing. After reading everything we could about North Korea before going we soon learned that the only way to know anything about the people or the country is to go there. This is the only place I’ve ever been where there is a multi-hour, required orientation before the tour group will take you in. While the tour did its best to make everyone comfortable and keep the security restrictions to a minimum, this is definitely not a luxury spa type of vacation. However, it was a great trip for the adventure tourist!

“This summer we decided to take the leap into another kind of adventure tourism and took our twin teenage boys to Beijing. Beijing was a good choice for our first big trip as a family and is a great place for teenagers—although they sometimes became bored with the ancient ruins and temples—the city was safe enough and the subway easy enough to navigate that we were able to let the boys head back to the hotel or neighborhood mall on their own. The city is a great blend of high-tech modernity and ancient Chinese culture so there was always something to find to do. Being teenagers, excitement is not an emotion readily expressed, but they seemed to enjoy the experience.

“We are currently trying to decide where to go next. There are so many interesting places and it’s always tough trying to schedule travel around work, school and sports. I’m still trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up so any traveling will have to happen before I decide to commit to the next job or business venture. It seems that as I get older there isn’t enough time to experience all that there is to experience in just one life.”

Also had some space to add Tina Mabley’s great news! “We just had a baby girl in October. Her name is Zia,” she said. “We are having a blast with her and our son Max. Life in Austin, Texas, is great. The whole family has moved here. My brother Lou ’90 is here with his wife and three boys. So Zia’s got a lot of boys looking out for her. I am still working as director of admission for the M.B.A. program at the University of Texas at Austin. I get a few Dartmouth grads coming through each year.”

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