1978

1978

Thank you for the wonderful stories of your most meaningful travels, sent in response to my call. It’s a secretary’s challenge to do them justice, so let’s get started.

But first, some news: Gerry Widdicombe has been named chief financial officer of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, which oversees a 138-block area ofthe nation’s capital, including more than 500 properties and 24 acres of parks and open space. Gerry has served as the group’s director of economic development during the last 20 years. Congrats, Gerry! And thanks, Steve Strauss, for sending.

Now, ’round the girdled earth we roam.

Jim Mizes writes: “So blessed to regroup with Frank McNerney, Drew Breen, and Buck Kelly last fall in Sunriver, Oregon.”

Geoff Crew writes: “Dashing off to yet another visit to the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array Observatory in northern Chile...black holes and all that—66 big radio telescope dishes at 5,000 meters in one of the stranges places on the planet.”

Wendy Muello writes: “Maggie Fellner Hunt and I went to Cuba on the Dartmouth alumni travel tour in March. It was six days full of art, history, and culture, including a tobacco farm and cigar-making lessons. We got a good sense of life in Havana through the years of feast and famine and of the hopes and dreams of young artists and performers there.”

Doug Benham writes: “My wife, Diane, and I spent February in New Zealand, a major bucket list destination for me for a while. We rented a camper van, did a lot of hiking and some kayaking.”

Don Hunton and his wife, Nancy, made their long-planned trip to New Zealand a few months later: “This may be a ‘small’ country by some measures, but in terms of its vast beauty it’s a very large small country.”

Duane Peterson visited Hiroshima, Japan, this year. “I’ve been an anti-nuclear activist my whole life, and I finally got to the site of the first atomic bombing and heard firsthand from folks who suffered that catastrophe. Now I’m again working to keep the memory alive to prevent humans going there again.”

Barbara Dau writes: “Moab, Utah, in the spring or fall earns the description ‘Awesome!’ The red and yellow sandstone canyons and arches surrounding this hip town are a hiker’s paradise that will make you wish you had been a ‘rocks’ major.”

Bruce Davidson’s most memorable trip was in 2018, to Antarctica—“the only place on the planet without countries, currency, or weapons!” Also along was a group of Buddhist monks, “whose daily prayers for world peace also brought us fabulous weather.”

Marc Brovender and his wife, Mary, after a tour of southern Iceland last August, spent last New Year’s Eve in Reykj avik for “three great days (albeit very short ones) of scenery, museums, beer, bonfires and fireworks, beer, and absolutely phenomenal meals.”

Karen Kurkjian writes: “My most memorable recent trip was two weeks in Alaska last summer to hike, bike, and visit our daughter who was working there. Still plenty of wilderness left there—gorgeous!

And we’re just getting warmed up! More, much more, in the next issue.

—Anne Bagamery, 13 rue dePresles, 75015Paris, France; abagamery78@gmail.com; Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com