Depending on how you look at it, I am either off for a new adventure or just continuing the journey of discovery I’ve been on for a long time. I realized many years ago that researching made me really happy, and it didn’t matter whether it was my own family’s history or someone else’s.

Tomorrow I leave for Lithuania and will be there until 1 September when I fly from Vilnius to Warsaw. A lot of the places we’ll be visiting are towns, cities, museums, repositories, I’ve been to previously, but an adventure in my mind, includes a deeper exploration of those places, and seeing some new spots.

The flight I’ll be taking is not exactly direct. I’ll be flying from Phoenix to Minneapolis to Amsterdam, and then to Vilnius. I think it is about 17 hours of flying (perhaps that includes the time between flights) but of course it doesn’t account for the arrival at the airport 2 hours early and the time in Vilnius waiting for bags. After a couple of recent flights to and from Ft. Wayne, Indiana where my computer roller bag didn’t fit under the seat or in the overhead, I made some packing decisions which may mean the backpack I’m carrying with electronics is going to be too heavy as I trek through airports! I’m checking that roller bag because ultimately, knowing the challenges I always face when confronted with books, I will need an extra bag!

In 2018, when I was first in Vilnius with some of my team: Marek, Lindsay, Ola, Lina, and a photographer, we went into a beautiful old hotel in downtown Vilnius, the Narutis, for lunch.

It was so elegant – not only the restaurant, but also the lobby area. This year, the opportunity presented itself for us (Lina and I) to stay somewhere other than the several hotels we’ve stayed at, we decided to try it. I’m really looking forward to arriving there late Saturday afternoon. Sunday will be a quiet day, catching up on emails, wandering around the city, and meeting Lina (who is arriving later than I am) for dinner.

Stay tuned for more.