Goffredo, Goraidh, Geoffrey – who is he?

Imagine being a young child and visiting your world-traveling grandparents. Seeing all the interesting objects around their home. A large, captivating blue light hanging on the wall. It was called a Geochron – a moving map illustrating where the sun was currently shining. From my earliest memories, the world fascinated me.

I was raised in Bellingham, Washington (state). In the 1970s, I could step out my front door and look east at the summit of Mt. Baker, our local stratovolcano. It was steaming at the time. I was fortunate to be able to visit the nearest planetarium, the H.R. MacMillan planetarium, in Vancouver, B.C., often on my birthday. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography, with minors in Cartography and Geology, I moved to Tucson, Arizona. My intent at the time was to do graduate work using satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. That didn’t exactly work out.

I began learning Scottish Gaelic in Tucson, from Muriel Fisher, a native speaker from the Isle of Skye. I saw the listing for her Continuing Education class in the local community college bulletin, and as I had much Scottish and Irish ancestry, I thought it would be an interesting and fun class to take. It must have ‘stuck’ because I ended up teaching both the language and the history of its people for 14 years.

During that time I took seven semesters of Gaelic through the University of Arizona and seven weeks of summer short courses at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic medium college on the Isle of Skye. I ended up completing their distance learning program, as well. After returning to the Pacific Northwest, I offered courses through several local colleges and distance learning privately and for other organizations.

Over the years, my husband and I have become world travelers ourselves, although we have not matched my grandparents and their two trips around the world. It gives us something to aspire to.

I hope you enjoy the content of my website and follow along as we explore the world.

Updated 8/31/2026