Wandering Educators

Here's what I love about a classic dairy bar in Sandusky, Ohio. This one goes on the (ice cream) bucket list for me! You’ll encounter a huge problem when you visit Toft’s Dairy in Sandusky, Ohio. Toft’s is a well-known dairy in the region, supplying everyone with milk, ice cream, and other dairy products. If you head to Sandusky and ask anyone local for food recommendations, Toft’s will probably be the first thing out of their mouth. Toft’s is over 100 years old and is a pillar in the community.

We once drove from Kalamazoo, Michigan to St. John’s, Newfoundland. All of it! Across Ontario, down through the Maritimes, onto the Marine Atlantic ferry, and out the other side onto the Rock, where the light is so bright and clear I have never seen anything like it anywhere in the world. (Our Epic Canadian Road Trip, we called it, and yes, the name stuck...even down to the food. "Remember the epic lobster roll in Nova Scotia? Remember the epic cod in St. John's?

My family and I l-o-v-e ice cream - tag along with me as we visit Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio. If you’re anywhere near Yellow Springs, Ohio, there is plenty to see and do. One of our very favorite things to do (and worth a long drive) is to visit Young’s Dairy. It has excellent homemade ice cream, and plenty of family-friendly things to do. It all started in 1869, with one red barn built by the Young family.

A big family trip can teach more in two weeks than a semester of worksheets. Historic sites, museums, national parks, cultural landmarks, another country entirely: kids learn things standing in front of the real object that no textbook photo delivers. Curiosity gets lit in ways a classroom cannot always manage. Then you look at the numbers. Airfare. Hotel rooms. Admission fees. Meals. Subway cards, and the guided tour that costs extra.

Australia is built for the open road. Its east coast strings together reefs, rainforests, and easygoing cities along one long, scenic route. For curious families, that makes a road trip the best way to see it. A drive also lets you learn as you go. You set the pace, stop where the interest is, and skip the rush of a packed tour. Sorting a reliable car early, from a provider like East Coast Car Rentals, takes one big worry off the list. Here is how to plan a trip worth remembering.

So. Your kid is going abroad for a semester. CONGRATULATIONS! (I mean that. A term overseas at eighteen or twenty reshapes a young person in ways that are still unfolding twenty years later. My PhD is in international education, I've lived and worked in Japan and London, and I have watched this happen over and over and it never stops being wonderful.) Need inspiration to dig into this hard stuff?

Planning your financial future is not about predicting exactly where you will be five, 10 or 20 years from now. Life rarely follows a straight path. Careers change (and may require a move abroad), families grow, unexpected expenses appear, and priorities shift. A useful financial plan needs to account for that uncertainty. It should give you direction without becoming so rigid that one major change throws everything off course. That means looking beyond your current income and expenses.

Flannel. Fall colors. Giant pumpkins. Beer. Sled dogs. A pie-eating contest. And, because that wasn’t enough, a lumberjack dating competition. Houghton, Michigan is going all-in on fall this October. The second-annual Canal Colors Festival takes over downtown Houghton Oct. 1-3, bringing several of the Keweenaw’s favorite fall traditions together for one packed weekend along the Portage Canal.

Every study abroad office in America has the same drawer. Mine did, when I directed the London study abroad program for a Big Ten university. It is the drawer (or the folder, or the increasingly neglected bulletin board) full of scholarship money that nobody applied for.

The research permit came through on a Tuesday afternoon. Six weeks of fieldwork in three countries (Morocco, Portugal, and Spain), starting in less than a month. Accommodation, transport, academic approvals: all of that had taken the better part of a year to arrange. How I planned to stay connected across three countries and three different mobile networks had not crossed my mind until a colleague asked, the day after the permit arrived. I did not have an answer.