Welcome!

Hello, there!  Yes, its just me--another newcomer to the blogosphere hoping that what you might find here is in some way useful to you and more interesting then how old my cats are and what the weather is like here.  As you can tell, traveling the world is both a professional business for me and a personal joy and I hope to share not only that love with you, but also provide some insight along the way.

First some background on me and this page, however.  To begin with, I am a native of Muskegon, Michigan living in Chicago since 1995 when I graduated from Michigan State University.  While working in the field of community development for the better part of fifteen years, I earned my MBA from North Park University here in Chicago.  In June of 2010, I struck out on my own and founded North of Bethlehem, Inc.--Bethlehem being the English translation of my last name of Betlejewski, an acronym for the street I grew up on in Muskegon (NOB Hill Drive) and a geographic description of where I have always lived, literally north of Bethlehem in Israel.  As part of this business, I continued to do work as a consultant to organizations in the non-profit sector while working towards my dream of becoming a travel agent.  That dream was realized when I bought the rights to a CruiseOne franchise and began working with people all over the U.S. on making their vacation dreams a reality.

But enough about me.  As I mentioned, I wanted to keep this blog useful for YOU and your own life.  To that end, I want to make a commitment to you as a reader that I will always strive to provide the best, most relevant information I can about the world of travel.  Hopefully, then, what I will accomplish is to paint a picture for you from my own experiences that allows you to envision your own dream vacation.  In the meantime, I really hope you enjoy this little blog of mine and I would welcome any comments or suggestions or questions you might have.