Jubilee Newsletter:
Spring & Summer 2007
 Have Friends Will Travel
Jubilee residents and travel partners (L-R)
Jesse James, Ginny Albers, Ute Lee and Jody Mesojednik
Germany will never be the same.
This past December, four friends from Jubilee took
the country by storm as they toured the famous
Christmas Markets and cruised down the Danube.
In their wake, they left good will and new found
friends, drawn to the quartet’s vivacity and humor.
According to the four “partners in crime” – Ute Lee,
Ginny Albers, Jody Mesojednik, and Jesse James
– they didn’t stop laughing from the moment the
plane took off until the day they returned home.
“The trip was absolutely fantastic. Initially, Ute’s and
my husbands were supposed to go but had to cancel
because of injuries, so we asked Jody and Jesse to
join us. They jumped at the chance. We were like
four sisters traveling through Germany,” says Ginny.
Ute is originally from Dusseldorf, Germany but has
lived in the United States since 1980. She loved
having the opportunity to “show off” her homeland
to her three friends. “Germany is simply enchanting
in the winter with the holiday atmosphere and
quaint cities. And we all got along fabulously. I
think my husband was disappointed that he was
unable to go but I brought home a lot of German
goodies for him to enjoy. ”
Wherever they went, the friends made more
friends. “Everyone was so warm. We took a cruise
down the Danube to Vienna and people kept joining
our group because we were having
so much fun,” says Ginny.
A slow cruise down the Danube made
fast friends of four Jubilee residents.
Ginny says they even played Jubilee
ambassadors abroad. “Once when we
were having breakfast, some hotel
guests asked where we were from and
we started talking about Jubilee and
how much we loved living here. I think
they were a bit envious that we had so
many friends in the community that we
could vacation with.”
According to Jesse, one of the reasons
the foursome traveled so well together,
was that they felt comfortable touring
around together but also enjoyed
going off on their own. “The thing
about vacationing with more mature
travelers is you don’t feel obligated to
do everything together. We are all very
independent, so when we had things we
wanted to see or do on our own, we felt completely
comfortable doing so.”
Jody agreed. This wasn’t the first time she had
vacationed with friends from Jubilee. In 2005, she
and her husband went to Alaska with six other
couples from the community. She finds making
friends, and traveling companions, so much easier
here. “One of the reasons I think Jubilee enables us
to foster friendships like ours is that, at this stage
in our lives, we have the time and the openness to
appreciate and cultivate new friends. We’re more
accepting and just enjoy the moment.”
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