About Us
Glenn Gordon
Hmmm, Glenn in a nutshell.
A visitor to this website might have the impression that international travel is new to me and my wife, yet on the contrary, we both have had the pleasure of visiting several extraordinary global destinations due to family life or business opportunities.
In 1973, on a bit of a whim, my folks purchased a seen-better-days 8-room motel in the Turks & Caicos Islands, and reopened a few months later as the still-popular Salt Raker Inn. As a consequence, I spent the ensuing six summers living the tropical life of Riley with my three brothers in an island culture very different from anything I’d previously experienced.
Travel seed planted, no doubt.
An English degree and teaching certification from the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!), marriage and the birth of two daughters, five years teaching, a 2-year stint with Alaska Airlines, divorce, and then it’s 1991 and I apply for a sales position with an educational publisher (textbooks and stuff). Then, for just shy of 30 years, I travelled an average 125 road nights annually to schools in 39 states (including several combined months in the frontiers of Alaska), presenting K-12 math and science products to interested teachers, then returning after purchase to train them in best implementation practices. Cool way to make a living!
Four months into that job I met Nancy, who worked in our company’s Orlando offices. Love at first sight – at least on my part. We dated long-distance for two years, then she moved to the Northwest and we tied the knot in 1998.
My dad married a lovely Brit for his second marriage, and traveled with her to the UK and elsewhere in Europe before buying humble homes in Lincolnshire, England, and Kumlubük, Turkey, then tri-splitting his time between those abodes and an island home on Salt Cay in the Turks & Caicos. Our trips to visit him in Turkey during the later years of his life bolstered our joy of traveling, and inspired a new appreciation for retirement in the warmth and coastal comfort of a more equator-proximate community.
(Those Turkey travels included memorable visits to Istanbul and Santorini. If interested, you can read about those adventures at my previous blog here: https://glenngordon.net/2012/06/; and here: https://glenngordon.net/2012/07/ )
Nancy Polichene
I’m the other half of this adventurous duo. And those who know us well are depending on me to keep Glenn reined in, when necessary.
Hailing from 2nd generation Italian-Polish Midwest roots, I enjoyed a traditional upbringing in Ravenna, Ohio, with three go-get-’em sisters, a father with 40+ years at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., a devoted mom who loved all things Cleveland professional sports and who also taught me to cook up a quintessential Italian wedding soup, and a K-12 education packed with seasonal sports and music, and jobs at the local bank, drug store, and hospital. A marketing degree from Kent State led to jobs at Sea World (Nancy the dolphin whisperer!) and their parent company Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in New York City and Orlando, Florida.
That marketing and event production work continued after meeting Glenn and moving to Redmond, Washington. Multi-year stints at Attachmate and Sonicare led to the formation of my own company and 15 years of contract work in the PNW tech sector, primarily with Microsoft. My most rewarding gig with them was 5 years managing their annual Partners in Learning Global Forum, highlighted by multi-week jobs in London, Athens, Dubai, Brussels, Prague, Barcelona, and Budapest.
Travel seed planted, no doubt.
Though, let’s be clear. My husband’s the writer. 99% of what you read here will be his fingers on the keyboard. Yet, as in most successful marriages (and nomadic partner undertakings), all roads – and posts – pass through me.