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Sat 12p-4p | Sun closed
MEET ANNETTE
Hello!
A domesticated introvert, married to my soul mate for eons, the mother of two adult daughters and a glamorous grand mom to two amazingly awesome grandchildren, Annette Bonds I am.
I love family oriented events, along with cooking and reading. My tribe calls me the family event’s planner; as I organize and host annual epic holiday parties and summer soirees, which is in stark contrast to being shy. Haha! I do this because I love creating memories and putting smiles on people’s faces. My life’s mantras: create memories wherever you go; and live life to the fullest, because you only live once. Since I love capturing and preserving moments in time, I often say I should have been a photographer—I love photos. One can usually catch me at home looking through old family photographs or organizing new ones for albums; it’s just the nostalgia in me.
My life’s calling is to educate those that God has placed on my path. Seeing the lightbulb of their minds illuminate as I mold individuals to evolve into their greatness is an honor.
From these experiences, I have had the privilege of interacting with various people from all walks of life. I have forged relationships and bonded with many. Because of these interactions, I have witnessed overwhelming disparities, racial divide, and culture ignorance—propelling me to concentrate on social justice advocacy and ethnic awareness. Due to this, I have learned to value and respect the differences among ethnic groups.
However, my life’s passions do not solely revolve around my family and educating the masses; traveling is very high on my list. My love affair with traveling stems from happy feelings and soul enrichment from my very first plane ride.
Coming from a very large family of nine children, my parents could not afford the luxuries of extravagant vacations—roads trips during summer months was how we saw parts of the world. I never cared much about flying to a destination because riding in the car with my family was quite satisfying. In fact, I was afraid to fly and vowed never to fly after a tragic plane crash occurred on the day of my prom—May 25, 1979 in Chicago. However, my dad (whose the greatest by the way) often said, “it’s much safer to fly than it is to drive a car—never set limits on yourself—go see the world”. Thus, at his urging and kind gesture in buying me and my sisters our very first plane ticket—we were en route to Las Vegas—the city that never sleeps. Oh the fun we had because we did not sleep-- haha! This trip did several things—it cured my fear of flying, it opened my mind to a world outside of my confines; and it showed me that there are so many more interesting people in the world besides my squad.
Consequently, my wanderlust began to emerge. I had an ardent hunger to see more of our beautiful world and meet all sorts of lovely people to learn their customs and to share mine. I simply love the joy derived from such encounters. And because I am an educator with a keen desire to impart others with knowledge, I travel quite frequently and mostly with my husband and off-springs. I have traveled quite extensively within America—with a few more states to hit; and outside of the country several times. However, it is now time that I venture off to continents outside of North America. But, the only problem with this idea is persuading others to travel internationally who aren’t afraid or want to experience more of the world other than the Caribbean Islands.
There have been occasions when an idea to travel abroad was in motion only to have people change their minds, or not follow through. I am on a mission to expand my cultural awareness, so that I am equipped to disseminate a message of hope and unity to those who I am charged to enlighten. I cannot allow anxieties to paralyze me and create inertia, hindering my ability to plant powerful seeds. I have decided that life is simply too short to waste precious time sitting back waiting on others to travel. Accordingly, this inspired me to launch YOLO…Let’s Travel.
