About Me
Hello! I’m Monie. I’m a native Californian, born in San Francisco, and my husband Chuck is originally from Des Moines, Iowa. We were each traveling in the United States for business, carrying our newly acquired scuba diving certification cards in our pockets, headed for a weekend in the Cayman Islands, one of the most beautiful diving destinations in the world. They paired us together as dive partners on the boat for our first deep water dive. There we were, holding hands and swimming under the archways of black fan corals, among one of the most beautiful undersea vistas that there is, and I’ve never let go of his hand since, and that was over thirty years ago. We’ve been exploring the world together. In the beginning, most of our travels centered around our love of scuba diving, having accomplished over two hundred dives together over the last three decades, but we’ve branched out a lot since then.
As a home economics major, I started my career as a teacher, but soon realized that this job was never going to be a big income earner. It did give me a huge appreciation and skill for food presentation, and preparation though. Yep, I love making and eating great food, and I’m lucky that my husband thinks I’m the best chef in the world.
Chuck spent his career in the financial services industry, and for those three week vacations you get during your working career, we sandwiched in vacations to other parts of this beautiful planet earth. (Remember the Europe on $39/day books?)
Life has been good to us, and now, we have a second home in Hawaii so we can go to the Islands and go diving whenever we want.
We are finally in a place in our lives where we don’t have to work anymore (Yay!), and we now have time and finances go to far away places to explore far corners, its people, culture, and food. So we are done with backpacks, and books for traveling on $39 a day, but we are not posh and fancy either. We are simple and down to earth, but can adapt to a luxury hotel, and fluffy bathrobe, and a great swimming pool pretty easily too.
I love to paint, and I make movies with all the photos and video I shoot during my travels. I could also spend all night on a salsa dance floor. My husband has a passion for all things having to do with WWII, cars, boats, and airplanes…basically anything with an engine that will take him somewhere. I have a passion and thirst to continually learn and experience new things in this school of life. God shines through a cheerful and happy heart, and I am so thankful for a blessed life, with an appreciation of the beautiful world around us.
We hope you follow along on the journey with us. It will be fun!!
