My Heritage: Travel, Wine and a Collection of Starbucks Cups

As a Navy wife, I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the world. It started when my husband was stationed in England for three years. It was the first country I had ever visited—and I immediately fell in love. Everything was so old and there’s so much history. Not to mention, the royal family lives right down the street. You just don’t get that here in America.Since then, we’ve visited around 21 countries. It’s hard to keep track sometimes, especially when there are two or three countries within a train ride from each other. Some of the countries include Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Spain and Portugal. My all-time favorite though is Norway.There’s a humbleness and beauty about Norway; it reminds me of my childhood home in Alaska. While we were there, we went to the Arctic Circle and ate fresh shrimp right off the boat—I even tried whale…that was an adventure! Our first visit was during summertime, and it was light for about 23 hours a day. Our second trip was in the winter. It was so dark it felt as if you could reach out and touch the northern lights. It was an experience that just didn’t seem real.I picked up cooking during my travels and spent some time studying with chefs. I have a robust knowledge of different cuisines and have most recently been working on a cookbook to publish. Cooking was easy to get into over there. Not only because I grew up eating Spanish cuisine but because the food is so fresh.

And with cooking, there was always wine. My husband and I weren’t big into wine when we moved to England, but all of our friends kept saying “Try this!” and “Try that!” Eventually it became a way of life. Now, my husband and I are club members in Washington and California and continue to enjoy wine from all over the world. And anytime we’re together (he’s currently deployed) or we have friends visiting, we go wine tasting.

Lacey's home wine bar shows off her collection.

We haven’t been able to travel recently but my husband and I are excited to plan our next trip back to our old stomping grounds in England. We’ll make a special stop at Starbucks, of course, so I can pick up a coffee mug. I have 53 mugs and counting. The collection has grown so much that friends actually send me mugs from the places they’ve visited! My most precious mug is from a friend’s father, who traveled through Germany, Belgium and France before it was finally delivered. It won’t ever get used (I’m too scared to break it), but I’ll cherish it forever.Happy travels!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lacey Potter is the customer service center department manager at Heritage Bank. She started at Whidbey Island Bank as a teller and held a number of other positions. After the merge with Heritage Bank, Lacey knew she wanted to stay with the team and has been in her current role for the past nine years. She’s been the wife of a Navy chief for 20 years, they have two Border Terriers and is a recent graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School.