E2C_Travel

Not all travel is into the great unknown... some takes you 'home', to your people. I found my roots again after the pandemic with an aluminum love child named Bella and the 50 aunts and uncles who just can't seem to get enough of her. The Airstream community took me completely by surprise, but it's not the campers that create the connection -- it's the love of outdoors and nature, working hard to prepare an obscenely over-the-top family meal "just because", and genuine affinity for the stories that brought each of us here.

Any experience where you have an opportunity to learn the stories of others, try new foods, see how people live differently - each of those moments changes your life just a little. If you're lucky, your worldview becomes a patchwork of all those experiences. Mine has.

#mycuprunnethover

ABOUT ME

Hello Peeps.
This is my Why.

Part journal, part treasure map, part petri dish of thoughts about the future – this website is the synthesis of years of informal (and informed) study of the human condition… coupled with an unyielding need to explore every old tree trunk, breathe in as many back alley spice markets as I can find, admire the monarchs in every protected estuary along the coast, and climb the hillsides on gas-powered mules those few precious days the poppies raise their gorgeous orange faces to the sun. I'll do it all - every single mile - while my hands can still manage the camera.

The more time passes, the more I understand Thoreau's beloved Walden and his need to "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." With Bella and an increasingly more amazing collection of people in my life... my physical footprint has been smaller these past few pandemic-impacted years, but my "heart-print" has never experienced more reach.  To those who are with me, you are everything to me.  To those who will join our treasure hunt, I promise we're going to see the world... and see it differently, #together.

   

E2C_Connection

So many amazing people come into my life and teach me unexpected things. They make my life fuller and more interesting in more ways than I imagined. These connections are what drive me - they’re my secret sauce, my signature strength. Every success in my life is, quite simply, based on my love of people and bringing people together to do wonderful things.

This summer I joined the Board of a publishing company that enables people to publish their personal stories online (here’s mine if you’re curious: Tonya's Cues & Views). Working with this commitment, I’m even more convinced of the importance of sharing our journey to connect with others. I see firsthand the difference connections make when people recognize how much we are alike… not different. With that as my goal, I look forward to sharing my journey and story - sharing my connections and creating new ones on the way. Exploring2Connect. Join me.

#onwardandupward

Tonya2

Wonderful day at the office

Monday morning — April 23, 2012 Bet you don’t hear that much from me!  Today was a very loud day.  I told Sareen I was thankful he wasn’t there to “shush” me (he’s in Tokyo, will get to see him…

Tonya2

Welcome Back!

Monday — April 23,  2012 I arrived in Bangalore right on schedule — 4am, ugggh — and with all luggage accounted for.  (I always find myself saying a little silent prayer as that luggage belt rolls around…..  hoping/praying/begging for my…

Tonya2

Arabian Nights

Sunday — April 22, 2021 — touchdown in UAE!Fly fly away!  We had a little unplanned detour through Toronto – apparently to pick up enough passengers to fill the plane to the brim!  If we had flown straight to Abu…

Tonya2

Short Trip to my Beloved India

Friday — April 21, 2012 It has been far too long since I last set foot on India soil.  I leave tomorrow to make the trek halfway around the planet — stopping briefly in Chicago and then Abu Dhabi before…

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Outtakes & Bloopers

We made it home safe and sound… just ahead of Hurricane Irene’s march up the eastern seaboard. As I was thinking back on the week this morning while trying to hold my ‘standing head to knee’ pose in yoga, I…

Tonya2

Another picture perfect day

Today was catch-up day… We had intentionally left today pretty open to go back and take care of ‘unfinished business’… which meant we had time to buy more carpets! We had planned to start the day with one of the…

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Eating our way along the Bosphorus

Each day on this trip has had a theme… Monday was culture and history day. Tuesday was shopping day. And Wednesday was – without a doubt – FOOD day. We started the day with a cruise north on the Bosphorus…

Tonya2

125 Shopping Days until Christmas

I’m in Heaven… well, maybe just the Heaviside Layer. (get it? “Cats”?) The Grand Bazaar was the very last stop on the Silk Road and is one of the largest ‘malls’ in the world with 4,400 shops along 64 streets…

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Two Turkeys in Istanbul

Lee arrived this morning on a 5:30 flight from Beijing. Once we compared our ‘plunder’ from the previous day’s shopping (albeit from different continents), we went to work on our itinerary of the day. Today was sightseeing day and we…

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Party at the ‘drome!

The square in front of the Blue Mosque covers the site of the ancient “Hippodrome” – one of the most famous areas in Byzantine Constantinople. The Hippodrome was once the equivalent of the Roman Circus Maximus – the original was…

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