Travel is my second career, and I cherish the opportunity to share what I love. When I was planning my own retirement cruise through the Panama Canal, my travel agent asked me, "What are you going to do when you retire?" Having seen my passion for travel, she suggested that I join her agency!

She said that over the years I made her job easy: I had invited my friends to travel with me to Paris, London, Ireland, Alaska, and on many cruises. I'd also put groups of 12 to 30 people together, arranged itineraries, and selected the best cruises.

In 2006 I opened my own agency, Above & Beyond Travel in Arnold, California.

My first-hand travel knowledge continues to grow as I visit new destinations around the globe. I have traveled around 6 continents.

I've toured extensively in North America and seen sites in San Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama in Central America & Machu Picchu in Peru.

In China, I realized two lifelong goals by walking the Great Wall of China and seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors. I have taken groups to Israel to visit the Holy Land.

Many occasions have taken me to Italy and the Vatican. Also in Europe, I've traveled to Ireland twice in 2014 to learn more about Irish culture and mingle with the Irish.

Other travels have taken me to:

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Greece
• Canada
• Mexico
• South America
• Panama
• Croatia
• Portugal
• Spain
• Great Britain
• Germany
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• France
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates

I have been featured in Travel Age West and Travel Weekly magazines for sharing my expertise on the Hawaiian Islands. I was mentioned in Agent @ Home magazine on the subject of group travel.

Recently, I was interviewed about senior travel on Public Access Television in Calaveras county. Moreover, I was awarded the Travel Age West Trendsetter Award "Best Group Booking Sales Effort for 2012."

My enthusiasm for travel is contagious where ever I go. I have met many new acquaintances who became not only clients, but also friends. Nothing gives me more joy than helping them take the vacations they'd thought about for years.

I can ultimately credit my dad for encouraging me to travel. He dreamed of seeing the world when he retired. However, at the age of 59, he was diagnosed with a tumor on his spine and became paralyzed from the waist down.

That dream of traveling was taken from him in the late 1970s, but my dad advised me "to retire as young as I could and to travel for him."

Little did he know that my retirement would bring me a new job in travel—and that I would help so many others to live out their travel dreams!