At the San Francisco Bay Area Travel Expo
It was on a muggy afternoon last February 18, 2018 when Marc and I attended the Travel Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center. It was the first time for us to go to such an event and we were quite excited to see what it was like.
We had read earlier that Rick Steves, the European travel expert and writer, as well as TV travel program host, Samantha Brown, were going to give talks and so we went. We also had the pleasure of meeting Pauline Frommer, the current president of Frommers guides. Who hasn't heard of these guide books? I always get a copy each and every time I travel to a new destination. Having my pictures taken with them alone made the entire trip well worth it.
There were cultural dances, airline booths, and local and world tourist info stalls about cities from California and countries worldwide. Anyway, we had fun. As to be expected, 99% of the attendees were travelholics like us.
Upon entry, we saw this exhibit of huge dumplings right by the booth manned by the Taipei Tourist Office. There sure was a line to have pictures taken with them. We went a few times to get a shot without people in the background.
For decades now, I had watched Rick Steves on tv as he traveled all across Europe and it sure was a delight to have my picture taken with him at the expo. He sure was tall. I'd say he was at least 6'2. He was so down to earth and very friendly. The line to get his autograph and to have pictures taken with him was needless to say, long.
With who else? Samantha Brown.
With Pauline Frommer of the Frommers Guide empire!
This was Rick Steves as he gave his talk. We waited and hour and a half to get his autograph and picture.
Saw this in flight suitcase on top of a table. What do you say?
With one of the cultural personalities from the South Pacific. How cool is his costume?
This was the talk about travel to Iran. I was really interested in visiting given the friends I've made on Instagram. However, the speaker's wife, who answered questions by all those interested in traveling to this Middle East country confirmed my suspicion and fear. American citizens or US passport holders like myself cannot travel independently there. If I went, I'd have to go with a package tour and under no circumstances was I going to be allowed to wander about by myself. If I was to go and visit, I would have to be escorted at all times even when traveling from one building to another. The entire notion of traveling in such a guarded way truly put a damper on my hopes of getting to know the cities and the people at my pace and liking. Travel to Iran remains an elusive dream for me. Too bad! Too sad!
