Just as we were gearing up for our trip to Greenland, I got a text from our cruise travel advisor, Cheri, that made me do a double take. She sent me a photo from a mailer by Trafalgar Travel! And here I thought our 15 minutes of fame were over.

Sure enough, there we were—on the inside page of a national travel brochure, smiling alongside our fabulous travel director Tod and Avery, another guest. I’m so glad our friends always let us know when they see our photos, since we never seem to get the mailers ourselves!

And then, just a few days later, another text popped up—this time from our pet sitter, Julie. Now, Julie and Randy aren’t just our pet sitters. They’re the people our cats have secretly decided are their real humans. We’re just the ones who pay for the cat food.

Julie wrote: You are famous! I thought I recognized your red wheelbarrow in the picture on the front—and then we saw you with your garden on the inside!

It was truly an honor to be asked to participate in the garden tour. Our yard had been selected as one of nine gardens in the entire Trilogy community in Rio Vista—out of over 3,000 homes—and would be visited by nearly 200 people.

After we accepted the invitation to be part of the garden tour, a few weeks later I was invited to give the opening address for Sutter Health’s Experience of Care Summit, sharing from a patient’s perspective. Some of you know that journey—it was a meaningful opportunity, but it created a bit of a scheduling dilemma. Thankfully, our dear friend Andy stepped in and hosted the garden tour with Jay. It all worked out beautifully, and I couldn’t have been more grateful.

The funniest part? Our sister-in-law Lolly sent us a photo from the recording of Kelley and Mark and said, “You two are starting to be on more magazines than anyone who isn’t famous!”

So while our ship was making its way to Greenland, we were also popping up in travel mailers and neighborhood magazines. Who knew we’d be making headlines in two hemispheres?