Growing up, my grandfather, an avid learner, would take my brothers, cousin and I on day trips to Civil War museums and battlefields. I recall visiting Antietam, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, Monacacy, Bull Run (Manassas) and many more. I loved the time we spent together walking the battlefields in gorgeous weather, running from monument to monument, and learning about what had happened in each place. These trips, along with Grandpa's enthusiasm for learning, sparked my interest in history and helped develop my love of education. Thanks, Grandpa! :-D

I greatly enjoy learning about the world first-hand through travel and I suspect that my three-year-old daughter has already caught the travel bug! Although she is still too young to travel on her own with her grandmother, I have already seen how excited she gets when we talk about travel, whether it is for a short getaway to Grandma's house on the beach or to more far-flung destinations such as Chicago or Bogota. A couple of weeks ago, I went on a business trip. She and my husband dropped me off at the airport. During the drive over, she prepared me for my trip by telling me that my luggage would go in the airplane's belly, my shoes would need to go through the "tunnel" (but I would get them back), and I needed to eat a chocolate chip muffin. Ah yes, an experienced traveler in the making! It amazes me how much she remembers about our little trip to Chicago this summer so I can only imagine how much impact a special trip with just Grandma will have in a few years!

Of all the memories I carry around with me today, the one I value immensely is of some time I spent with my grandfather in England. We sat along the prominade in Morcambe with our paintbrushes and canvases and he taught me the basics of landscape drawing and painting. Together, we each rendered our own artistic representations of the view before us as we chatted the afternoon away. I will always appreciate the time he would set aside as my grandfather to teach me what he knew about painting and the arts and to this day, the painting he did that afternoon hangs in my dining room at home for my kids to now enjoy. As a known painter and archeologist in England, my grandfather was a man I deeply admired and although he is no longer with us, this memory can never be taken from me.