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10 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2021 When I was growing up, traveling meant getting in the car and driving from Oxnard, California "back home" to Raymond, Washington and also an occasional drive to Las Vegas to feed my mom's slot machine thrill. It would be many more years of working as a special education teacher, and eventually becoming a school principal, before I experienced my first "foreign country" travel. It was a Rotary Club trip to our club's sister city in Costa Rica. After this initial experience, I yearned to see more of the world. The next opportunity came when our Foreign Language teacher asked me if I would be interested in chaperoning a student tour over spring break to Spain and France. A chance to see Europe! The tour took us from Malaga to Gibraltar, then on to Tangiers and then to Seville. I was hooked. I needed more, and I wanted to learn the castellano (Castilian) Spanish. When I got back to my office, I tore out an ad from my Let's Go Spain travel guide which was for a "Summer in Seville" Spanish language class. It was a six-week course, but I only had time to do three weeks. I booked it and made my travel arrangements. I would be staying in an Andalusian private home. My staff and colleagues were shocked. "Aren't you afraid to go alone?" they asked. "How could you just travel to Spain by yourself, are you crazy?" they said. Well, that turned out to be the first of many trips to Europe on my own. Christ- mas break, Easter break, summers… every opportunity I could manage I would spend exploring Spain and Portugal. I met locals wishing to do language interchange, and they would give me tips on where to explore next. Solo travel does not mean you are alone, as long as you are open to interacting with the locals and making new friends. Fast forward to the Millennium New Year's scare: People were panicking at what could happen when the year turned to 2000 and were canceling their cruises. As a result, cruises were now selling at bargain prices! A teacher friend of mine suggested we take advantage of the deals, so she and I booked a Caribbean cruise. That is where I met my future husband, Stan. He was the show drummer and, finding out he lived in California near us, we exchanged contact information. He was hoping he had found a couple of willing drivers to enable his hang gliding passion. The next year, Stan and I decided to get married. Once we were married, there were cruise ship benefits called "relative travel" so I could use my vacation time and join him on cruises. I had to learn how to find my way to various ports around the world. I had to figure out how to get to the ship and hope that space would still be available to accommodate me in the crew quarters. I found my way to cruise ports in Panama, Acapulco, Tokyo, Sydney, and others. Now that we are both retired, the last thing Stan wants to do is travel after more than 20 years of being at sea for months at a time. So I discovered solo travel with river cruising and small group travel tours. Several companies offer special prices and accommodations for solo travelers. It turns out that solo traveling, and especially women travelers, is an increasing market. Who knew? It is much easier than the way I used to explore Europe when I went totally on my own with no tour groups. I was making up my itinerary as I went along, following Let's Go guide books and By Sandra Butler-Roberts My first solo river cruise, Rhine River, Amsterdam to Vienna Enjoying traditional churros y chocolate in Aranjuez with an old Spanish friend Sandi with view of Monte Carlo from gardens Solo Traveling… It's the Latest Trend!