Last week I began (slowly) to make my way east from Salt Lake City. I’ve been in Santa Fe all week, working remotely but enjoying the culture of the “City Different”.  I managed to get in meals at 3 of my favorite restaurants: The Chocolate Maven, Pasqual’s and Blue Corn. I missed getting to Maria’s and her marvelous vegetarian tamales and margarita selection.  For those (like me) allergic to cilantro, Maria’s is cilantro-free!  What an exceptional trait.

The New Mexico skies were a cloud watcher’s delight. One thing we saw which we haven’t seen for years here, was night after night of huge blasts of thunder, preceded of course, by giants flashes of lightening.

Tomorrow morning, I leave for Albuquerque where I board a plane for Minneapolis, then on to Amsterdam and from there, to Warsaw where I will be meeting up with team members Marek, Lina, Lindsay, Rhoda and Ola. The IAJGS conference begins Sunday afternoon.  The conference has special significance for me – in 2016 I was the conference chair, last year I was honored by being named the 2017 JewishGen Volunteer of the Year, this year, I join the IAJGS board of directors.