The travel world is a community. Everyone has a story to tell or experiences to share. Learning about fellow travelers will better your own travels and give fresh insight. That’s why, each month, we are going to be featuring a different Tango Diva member.

About Mimi: I have worn so many hats (and husbands!) during my lifetime, I can hardly keep track. I’ve been a schoolteacher, restaurant owner, princess diva, second trophy wife and now have built a great career in Human Resources.

How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Literary, Full of Life and Dependable

How do these words inspire your travels?
I am always searching for the next trip where people live differently than I do, whether it is just to hang with the locals or to wear myself out going to proper museums. I crave seeing how other people in the world live, and eat, and play.

What inspired you to travel?
Books inspired me to travel originally. I was a farm girl from a small town in Indiana. My parents were wonderfully poetic and well-read. I would sit on the front porch swing from daylight to sunset on summer days reading about the world.

What is your favorite destination?
Hand’s down: Italy, Mexico

How do you deal with stress while traveling?
Since I usually travel alone, I plan my day to avoid any undue stress, however, I just take the lumps as they come, find a park bench or café, sit down, regroup with a drink, and forge on. I’m very accepting of what is handed out when it comes to travel (my worst event just happened, end of June, I decided to take a commuter train from San Diego to Los Angeles, just to see the scenery and the train ran over a man on the tracks in Oceanside – that was sad, but an event to remember.)

Who do you like to travel with?
Just me. That is my preference, but I am getting older now and finding that when I get tired I am not as ‘alert’ as I should be. I like to travel in Mexico, the last few times I have gone I began to feel unsafe alone, so in the interest of safety, I am investigating women’s travel tours that allow for a lot of independence, while at the same time, being with a group of people.

What are your favorite activities while traveling?
Walking, going to non-touristy places, exploring, talking to locals, reading, soaking up the scenery, napping in a hammock, and of course, trying out the local cuisine, but in back alley places, not well-known restaurants. And I like to regroup, recharge, and chill out, go to theatre, and most importantly, get up and leave whenever I feel like it!

What is the best advice you ever learned while traveling?
“A parrot is green wherever a parrot is.” In other words, don’t be depressed where you are or for what you are doing because you are you, no matter where you are. You can never really run away by taking a trip because YOU TOOK YOURSELF WITH YOU. I’d say that was really good lesson to learn, took me several ‘escape’ trips to learn that one.

What travel moment has stuck with you?
Being at a hotel in the mountains one fall day standing on my room balcony and just gazing over the city of Florence in awe – absolute awe at the beauty of the Duomo. No one was around, the weather was gorgeous and I felt like I had the city to myself, very peaceful.

What is your future travel goal?
I am researching South America next or France, but Italy keeps calling me back…and back and back. Why is that? Hmmmmm…

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