My Story

About Nan

What would you do if a devout Catholic innkeeper insisted you and your boyfriend sleep in bunk beds in a room covered in posters of Jesus?

Or a priest sits you between the President of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day?

But not only that…the priest sends you to a local pub where a band invites you to the stage while the pub goers sing “Danny Boy” to you.

Yes, that happened, and it is the most cherished experience of my traveling life.

And all it took was two phone calls - innkeeper to priest, priest to pub owner. And it made me think how the local community connections made all that happen. (When we left Ireland, I cried getting on the plane - did not want to leave that wonderful country.)

But how I got there…

I spent my youth picking berries, helping on family farms, rockhounding on the beaches of the Oregon Coast with my grandmother, babysitting feral children, and dreaming of faraway places to explore. 

I loved reading, writing and maps, and would use my Barbie doll’s feet to land on a place on a spinning globe. Then I would go to the library, look up the place in the World Book Encyclopedia, and write a story about it. At 9 years old, a story I wrote in pencil about Madagascar was published in an Archie Comic Book special science edition.

I worked my way through college as a waitress and bartender, earning a degree in geography, with minors in history and writing.  I started a catering company that was immediately successful, then opened a restaurant where I learned a valuable lesson - the art of knowing your target market.

After selling both companies, I somehow got into marketing. First, medical communications (winning international and national awards), then direct mail catalogs (earning national recognition and speaker engagements). Then – somehow – got recruited into high-tech, where a whole new world opened up, working for smart people with PhDs and worldly views.

All this time, I dreamed of traveling, exploring and creating work in tourism. I heard of a highly rated master’s degree program in tourism from The George Washington University. Within 18 months, I started a tourism consulting business, specializing in rural areas.

And here I am, nearly 20 years later after earning that degree, am still living the dream. And remembering my Ireland experience.