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Hi. I'm Kara. Never far away is my furry shadow, Kona.
By day, I'm a higher education consultant. I specialize in helping higher education employees be more innovative and engage with new forms of teaching, learning, and working. I also create content online about personal growth, productivity, and technology, faith, and my well lived life.
I'm honored that you've taken a few minutes to stop by my little home on the Internet. While you're here, subscribe to my newsletter, learn about my coaching services and classes, or participate in one of my free events. And you can always scroll on down and read about what I'm up to.
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The Journey To The Journey
A photo from our time a Keukenhof Gardens near the end of the trip Gayle here! If you read the previous “Origin Story” you know the basis for this adventure was booked more than a year in advance. Not only do I/we regularly book this far in advance, but also this is needed when you have limited offering, must-haves for an international trip! That means A LOT of things can and did happen along the way. So here’s a run-down of all that transpired (& a great example of how a Tra
Gayle Hartleroad
Apr 18, 20253 min read
Let's Go To London
We're off on our journey! Sunday, April 6, 2025 Hi all. It’s Kara getting us started off today. After the change in travel plans that Gayle discussed in The Journey to the Journey, she added a surprise for this trip - an upgrade to business class on the Indy>Chicago and Chicago>London legs of the trip. We both prefer to fly Business Class or at least Premium Economy on all international trips. We were booked premium economy for both international legs, but Gayle snuck in and
Kara Monroe
Apr 17, 20253 min read
Day 5 - Hamilton on the West End
Us at the Victoria Palace Theatre before Hamilton started. Gayle: After having re-set the “bedding barrier” and a FULL day with Harry Potter, we each gloriously slept for 9-10 hrs! There’s no guilt in that, as this trip is a marathon, not a sprint. Kara had originally booked us for a Harry Potter tour today. It was to show us sites used in the filming of the movies, like Millennium Bridge, and personal locations, like Daniel Radcliff’s school. While it would use the Tube, in
Gayle Hartleroad
Apr 13, 20255 min read
Day 7 - Exploring Amsterdam
It’s Kara starting out again today. One of the ways we like to learn about a city is through its food. Fun fact, we’ve had at least two other food tours booked together, and we’ve had to cancel both of them due to delays and other issues. So, gratefully, we got up this morning to gorgeous warm weather with full sunshine and went to meet our tour guide, Roman, at 10am. (Fun Fact: It rains 266 days out of the year here, so the fact we got two beautiful days back to back is a l
Kara Monroe
Apr 10, 20257 min read
Day 8 - Let The Adventure Begin
On board the AmaLucia Hi everyone. Kara starting off again today. We had, as our British friends would say, a good lay-in this morning and allowed ourselves to sleep in until about 8:30am this morning. The only thing on our agenda today was to check out of the hotel, have a nice brunch or lunch, and head to the ship. More on how that could have gone differently a bit later. Breakfast We showered, dressed, and finished packing and took our bags down to the bell stand by 11am.
Kara Monroe
Apr 9, 20257 min read
Day 9 - It's Tulip (Picking) Time
Besties in a field of tulips Hi all. Kara starting out again today. Our river cruise is starting out with what we've learned is an unusual occurrence! We have two mornings in a row that are sailing mornings. As such, we had a nice leisurely morning. Wind turbines like those we see in Indiana are even in the water here in the Netherlands. We learned that the tops of them rotate to catch the wind. I woke up at 6am and went down to the coffee machine in the lounge to get my fir
Kara Monroe
Apr 8, 20257 min read
Day 10 - Go With The Flow
Disney had no idea how much meaning "Going with the flow" would take on today! ADVENTURE!!! Hi all. Kara again. Let’s just say that the theme of today’s post is going to be adventure all the way through. Remember that 82 page travel guide I made for us. We threw it out the window today! Before I start today, let’s rewind back to Sunday night after dinner. We met with Adventure Guide Michaela to go over the plan for the week. We learned then we were going to be docking in Brui
Kara Monroe
Apr 7, 20255 min read
Day 11 - Wed., April 16, 2025 - Nibbling Through Ghent
That's right Donald!! Today was our first early morning of the cruise. With alarms set at 7, we got up, I (Kara) went and got coffee and our colored tour cards for the day, and we got ready and headed to the lounge for our first tour which departed the ship at 8:15am. Today’s plan was to do two different walking tours of Ghent. The first is the Fairytale City of Ghent Walking Tour with Canal Cruise . The second is the Nibbling through Ghent tour . Unlike most days, today’s b
Kara Monroe
Apr 6, 202510 min read
Day 12 - Thurs., April 17, 2025 - An Appetite for Antwerp
Entering the Groot-Bijgarden Castle. Good morning Adventurers. Kara here again to get us started today. I’m going to actually start today’s post with a little hiccup from last night . Each evening at about 6:30pm we gather together in the lounge for some complimentary cocktails (including both an alcoholic option and a mocktail option), some group celebrations led by our Adventure Guides, and a run down of the next day’s activities, also led by our Adventure Guides. If there
Kara Monroe
Apr 5, 202510 min read
Day 13 - Fri., April 18, 2025 - Architecture-New & Old (Rotterdam & Kinderdijk)
Pin of the day Hi all, Kara again. If you recall at the beginning of the cruise, we learned that rather than docking in Delft, we would be docking in Rotterdam. This was the best plan that could have happened for us. We had planned to do on our own time in Delft - which quite honestly might not have even happened as we weren’t all that excited about Delft. However, we were thrilled to get the opportunity to explore Rotterdam on our own. We decided not to set an alarm, knowin
Kara Monroe
Apr 4, 20254 min read
Day 14 - Keukenhof Gardens
Hi friends. This is future Kara writing to you from July 2025 - exactly three months to the day from when we returned from this trip. Posting these blog posts has been a labor of love that has taken longer than either of us would like. And, now, as we have reached the end of the trip, we've realized that we didn't write anything for this day or our trip home (which thankfully was mostly non-eventful with just the usual horrific wait to get through customs in Chicago and catch
Kara Monroe
Apr 3, 20253 min read
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