My Travel Notions is just that…my travel experiences to a lot of wonderful places that I get to immerse myself in, photograph and write about.
I’m Diana Petterson and I actually began my extensive travels close to 20 years ago when I took myself to Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris and London in celebration of my 50th birthday. And, since then, I’ve traveled throughout France, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Greece, Turkey, South Africa, Norway, Benin, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and so much more.
And, now in 2025, I am close to completing my countdown of 100 United Nations or U.N. countries before I turn 70 in March of 2026. At present I have visited 95 countries under my belt with the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia sheduled to visit in September 2025 ending the year with 99 countries.
For a little background, after 28 years of working for the U.S. Department of Labor, I retired at 60 to be free to travel about the world. In celebration of both turning 60 and retiring in March 2016, I embarked on a 60-day journey through 11 countries including Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. I was on two Rick Steves tours, one Cosmos tour and on my own from April 24 to June 22, 2016. Those trips can be seen on my blog posts “60 Day Europe Bash.” But, it didn’t end there as I’ve continued to explore the world and my home country of the U.S. ever since.
This website is my way of both documenting my travels and sharing these travels with you. I have no advertising or sponsors on my website because sharing the world, from my perspective, is an absolute joy for me.
In my personal life, I am mother to two incredible adults, my son Vernon Wells III, my daughter Sydney Wells and grandmother to two amazing grandsons, Jayce and Christian. And, my 92-year-old mother, Carmen, is still kicking and being awesome. When I’m not traveling, my family and my friends are the center of my universe.
Thank you for following along.