Travel Talkers Toastmasters

The theme of the May 4th meeting reminded all of us that there is so much to explore in our world. Our meeting included a speech by Kit Myers, the mystery destination presented by Avis Russell, and travel topics led by Antoinette Thompson.

Our Destination Master, Avis Russell gave us clues about a city she hopes to visit soon because her daughter recently took a new job in this city. Avis presented these clues:

• It is a city in Japan founded in 1589 as a castle town on the Ota River delta.
• It was the first military target of a nuclear weapon in human history on August 6, 1945. Since the end of World War II, it has become the largest city in the region.
• The city will host the 2023 G7 Summit on May 19-21.
• It is known for “okonomiyaki,” a savory pancake cooked on an iron plate in front of the customer.
• The climate is humid, subtropical with cool to mild winters and hot, humid summers.
• This city has a professional symphony orchestra and professional sports clubs for football, baseball, basketball, handball and volleyball. This city hosted the 1994 Asian Games.
• On May 27, 2016, President Barack Obama became the first US President to visit this city since the atomic bombing.

If you guessed Hiroshima, Japan, you are correct!

The theme of the meeting, “Never Stop Exploring Your World,” prompted Kit to give a speech about how her Mother always found joy and excitement in the world. Kit told several stories about her mother, including one about her mother waking her up one night to share the amazing sight of an owl perched on the telephone wires outside of their home near San Francisco. She ended her speech by reminding us to never stop exploring our world, no matter how big or how small.

Antoinette Thompson was our Travel Topics master and she asked us questions about our travel experiences including how we prepare for travel, how travel inspires us and what was the rarest place we ever slept. Kit told us about her rare experience at a youth hostel in a villa in Italy.

Antoinette also stumped us with some unique travel questions:

• Which is the busiest port in the world?
  • Container Port: Shanghai, China
  • Passenger Port: Port Canaveral (#1), Port of Miami (#2)
• Which country has the most lakes? Canada (879,800 lakes!)
• In which countries can you NOT purchase CocaCola? North Korea and Cuba

Join us for our next meeting on May 11 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Capital Cities.” Where will your next trip take you? We want to hear your stories. Join the meeting to participate in our Travel Topics session and guess the mystery destination.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters.