Happy Father's Day!

Today we pause and reflect on the fathers in our lives. Pictured above is my dad with me and my sisters. As the firstborn of my dad's 4 daughters, on Father's Day, my dad always thanks me for making him a dad.

My passion for travel was inherited from my parents. As a child and young man, my dad's travel experiences were limited to visits to his family - traveling from Chicago to Milwaukee to visit his mom's relatives, or to Richmond, Indiana to visit his grandfather. (He did participate in a historical American event - his family hitchhiked from Chicago to Washington, D.C. as part of the "Bonus Army" when he was a toddler.) Drafted during the Korean Conflict - my father was deployed to France, serving as a clerk-typist to a unit of architects and engineers. Being stationed in Europe was a life-changing experience for him, and he took advantage of every day of furlough to explore the continent. After his discharge, he returned home to Chicago, and met my mom while they both worked for Lions International. At the time, my mother was planning to enter the convent; she was visiting relatives in Mexico on what she called her farewell tour when she ran into my dad on a Guadalajara sidewalk. "What are you doing here?" she asked him - and he responded that he had been moved by her descriptions of Mexico's beauty, and wanted to see it for himself. The rest, as they say, is history - and I can honestly say that I owe my very existence to my father's curiosity about the world, sparked by his travel experiences.

As we continue to navigate these unique times, I for one am hopeful that by Father's Day next year, we will once again be able to enrich our lives by exploring more of the world.
Happy Father's Day!

Save The Dates

During July, I'll be hosting three virtual wine and travel nights, featuring wines from South Africa, France and Italy. I'll be partnering with a bay area wine merchant, from whom you can order the wines we'll be tasting - as well as travel partners with expertise in each of those countries. The ZOOM calls will be at 5 PM Pacific, 8 PM Eastern, on three Thursdays - July 8, July 15 and July 22 - details will be released shortly. I hope you will join us for these physically distanced but very social events.

From Joan's Kitchen

If you missed my live demo of how to make my mother's non-traditional Gazpacho, never fear - here's the link for the video. To request the recipe, click the button below the video. And on Monday June 22 at 2 PM Pacific, 5 PM Eastern and 4 PM Central, I'll be in the kitchen again - this time, making a Mexican Shrimp Cocktail! tune in to my personal page on Facebook, to follow along.

Request the Recipe HERE