I've been leading group tours to Europe since 2012, starting as a short-term study abroad leader at the university where I teach (I'm a physics professor). After years of successful study abroad trips, my husband (a history professor) and I decided we wanted to be able to offer group tours to a wider audience, not just as part of a college class.

We founded Leaping Hound Travel for group tours to Europe with specialty focuses (like "vampires!" or "cakes and coffeehouses!"). As a travel agent, I further put to use my years of experience arranging all the tour details for the groups we led, years of doing detailed research on European travel (in destination as well as studying and reading), plus years of informal travel arranging for friends. 

I help people create amazing, unique European vacations that are perfectly suited to them.

How it began: I first visited Europe when I was 18, traveling to see family in the Netherlands. It was a life-changing experience, making a huge impression on me. Seeing parts of the world besides the United States, where I'd been born and grown up (and still live), opened my eyes to the world in a way that getting information from books or TV never could. I was immediately determined to make travel part of my life.