Armchair Traveler

Rwanda and the British Columbia Coast

Event Date: April 23, 2025, at 10:00 AM

The April 23, 2025 Armchair Traveler Program featured Cceya Patton-Bolman sharing insights, maps, and photos based on her 20 years of experience in Rwanda and Gene Allen sharing pictures, maps, and information about the British Columbia Coast and its San Juan and Gulf Islands.

Japan, Norway, and Sweden

Event Date: January 22, 2025, at 10:00 AM

UMRA’s first Armchair Traveler program of the new year included two presentations featuring travels in Japan with Wayne “Ironwain” Potratz and in Norway and Sweden with Lynn Anderson.

Israel, Egypt, and Tanzania

Event Date: November 20, 2024, at 10:00 AM

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.

Ballparks and Scotland

Tour all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums with Will Craig, and discover central Scotland with Craig and Janet Swan when UMRA’s Armchair Traveler program meets on Wednesday, September 25, via Zoom.

From South Korea to Germany

UMRA’s spring Armchair Traveler Program from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 24, will take us to South Korea with Marilyn DeLong and to Germany with Lynn C. Anderson. Please mark your calendars and save the date. 

Explore life above the Arctic Circle and close to home

Explore life above the Arctic Circle with Janet and Craig Swan, and closer to home with Carol Urness when UMRA’s Armchair Traveler program meets via Zoom on Wednesday, March 6.

Knowing Iceland

Event Date: January 24, 2024, at 10:00 AM

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.

From northern Spain to western Africa

Event Date: September 20, 2023, at 10:00 AM

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: April 26, 2023, at 10:00 AM

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: January 25, 2023, at 10:00 AM

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: September 28, 2022, at 10:00 AM

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: April 27, 2022, at 10:00 AM

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: January 26, 2022, at 10:00 AM

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: September 22, 2021, at 11:30 AM

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: April 6, 2021, at 11:00 AM

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.