“Thank you for a very special evening. What a great final event for us to host in our D.C. home!” wrote Linda G after my last 2010 cooking class - at her lovely historic home in Washington, D.C. on March 20th. That wonderful “wrap up” cooking class was preceded by a tour through the home with Linda’s husband Tom who filled us in on the “bed-and-breakfast” past of the house, just recently sold. Our cooking class for their family and friends was to be the closing of happy years together here for Tom and Linda.
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With hugs, Rhea loaded me into a wheelchair for delivery to my flight to Washington, DC on March 19th. Old friend, David F, from junior-year-abroad-in-Rome years, picked me and after lunch together with his wife, Liz, off we went on a rapid round of shopping for my family.
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Felt like leaving an old friend when my Pennsylvania host, Judy, settled me into the wheelchair at the Philadelphia airport on March 16th. Wheelchair consignment to an aircraft has its positive side: rapid passage through security.
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Well, I guess that cooking class co-host Marilyn said it best: “Anne, this was a happening in Jefferson, PA…
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The Pennsylvania weather perked up in the morning of March 14th as I moved on to Devon, receiving a warm welcome there from my hosts, Bob and Judy. Though our first meeting - Judy had read about me and my US tours on the Net - I immediately felt that I was with friends…
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Little did I know but as “crutches-challenges” go, the worst was yet to come.
My final night in “la Grande Mela”, as the Italians would say, was with jr-yr-abroad Rome friends and new friends in a charming restaurant serving AMERICAN food (again, anything but italiano when I am in the US!)…
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Sometimes, last-minute events just creep into my tour itineraries. Early last February, I was wrapping up this year’s US tour itinerary, about to fly out to the US from Itay, when an invitation came in from Ashley to give a talk in New York…
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Thanks to Allison, my Manhattan cooking host, I met Beth and Rob M. and cooked for their friends and some co-workers of Beth on March 7th in their Mahwah, New Jersey home.
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A porter pushing a wheelchair loaded me on to the train in Pennsylvia and another porter-pushed wheelchair unloaded me at the taxi stand in front of Penn Station in New York a few hours later…
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This year I arrived in Pittsburgh from Milwaukee (with a 2-day stop for family visits) on February 3 and the snowfall dumps of the weeks before were all around…
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