Armchair Traveler

Come share the wonders of the world in the virtual company of other UMRA travel enthusiasts. We have four, 90-minute programs each year, and for 2024-25 these programs will again be offered via Zoom. Each program shares travel highlights from two speakers. 

See all UMRA events. Preview future program topics; scan the diverse topics and speakers for the entire year.

We have seen Mongolia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Poland, the Muir Trail, Italy and more. Next year's programs will include: Scotland, US Baseball Fields, Tanzania, Jerusalem and Egypt, Japan, Norway and Sweden, Rwanda, and the San Juan Islands and British Columbia Coast.

See all 
UMRA events.

A Zoom invitation will be sent to all UMRA members via email a month before each program. For now, mark your 2024-25 calendars for 10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 25, November 20, January 22, and April 23. Contact Lynn C Anderson for more information or if you would like to share travel photos and memories in 2025-26.

 
 

Interest group chairs—to get your events on the annual calendar, please send the event title, date, time, contact information, and description to the webmaster.

News & Stories

Recordings and media are here.

Israel, Egypt, and Tanzania

Event date:
UMRA member Paul Letourneau takes us on a safari in northern Tanzania and Brenda Knapp-Polzin shares photos and insights from a 2023 family trip to Israel and Egypt.

Knowing Iceland

Event date:
For our Armchair Traveler Program on January 24, 2024, Kate Maple took us to western Iceland.  Her photos are incredible and her descriptions are informative and poetic.  She and her friend and traveling companion Michelle Schermann had an amazing experience exploring some lesser-known parts of Iceland and we had an amazing experience hearing all about it and seeing amazing pictures.
Banana Island

From northern Spain to western Africa

Event date:
Enjoy the recording of UMRA’s first Armchair Traveler program of 2023–24. Nanette Hanks shared fabulous pictures and information about the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Tom O'Toole told us about his return visit to Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Pieranna Garavaso and Lory Lemke's visit to Pavia and Verona, Italy

Event date:
Pieranna Garavaso and Lory Lemke, retired professors of philosophy at UMM, took us on an incredible visit to Pavia and Verona, Italy.

Mount Kilimanjaro and the Cleveland Way in England

Event date:
Watch the recording of the January 25, 2023 Armchair Traveler Program and be transported to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and enjoy a hike along the Cleveland Way.

Korea and Japan: September 2022 Armchair Traveler

Event date:
At this presentation, we traveled to South Korea with Marilyn DeLong and to Japan with Kathy Jensen and Gary Engstrand.

Turkey: April Armchair Traveler Program

Event date:
Jean Kinsey and Frank Busta spent 3 weeks in Turkey in 2013. They share their incredible experience through pictures and wonderful descriptions that include archaeological, historical, religious, political, culinary, and geological perspectives.

January 26, 2022—Inuit Art Communities on Baffin Island and Aussie Travel and Trivia

Event date:
This Armchair Traveler Program featured two very interesting presentation about two very different parts of the world. Kathryn Hanna, retired faculty member from the Waseca campus and the College of Biological Sciences on the Twin Cities campus, talked about how her interest in Inuit art resulted in a trip to Baffin Island where she visited three Inuit communities and met many Inuit artists.

September 22, 2021 -- Jewish history, Sweden and Norway

Event date:
The UMRA Armchair Traveler Program featured a compelling presentation by Charles Muscoplat about his wife Sue's and his visits to the WWII Concentration Camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland and Jewish historical sites in Budapest and Prague. Lynn C. Anderson shared pictures and information about her 2019 visit to Oslo, Krokerøy, and Bergen Norway and Tanumshede, Orust, and Uddevalla Sweden.

April 6, 2021 -- Muir Trail & Amazon Rainforest

Event date:
We had two fabulous presentations. Craig Swan, economics professor emeritus from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, presented on the John Muir Trail. We traveled with him and his family 211 miles along the trail from the Yosemite Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney, from 4,000 to 14,500 feet. Her presentation was in three parts: the Huaorani Ecolodge, the Kichwa Añangu community, and a “toxic tour” of oil exploration sites in the region. 

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