It was unusually warm this past week in Minnesota with sunny weather in the 70s. That never happens in November and we’ve been ‘living outside’ every day. Tomorrow it looks like we get back-to-normal in a hurry with a cold front dropping the temperatures into the 30s with rain quickly turning to snow. In Minnesota, it’s not an exaggeration to say these might be the … Continue reading Minnesota Winter / Florida Sunshine
Last fall, we took a wonderful 3 week trip through Europe with some good friends. I frequently think of the terrific time we had in the Loire, Alps, and Tuscany. The hilltop town of Sienna came to mind recently as Settore Polizia Municipale sent me a lovely ticket in the mail. The tracked me down for ‘Circulating In A Limited Traffic Area’. Old town Sienna … Continue reading Postcard From Sienna
For the most part, we are living our lives during the CV19 ‘Lockdown’ without a lot of issues. We are blessed. Fortunately, most of the activities that we enjoy this time of year are outside and that’s about the best place you can be to stay safe and keep others safe. Everyday, in my Facebook ‘History’ feed, I see pictures pop up from great trips … Continue reading Minnesota Getaway
Like a lot of people, we are sitting on the sidelines right now when it comes to making any travel plans. One of the crazy things about this pandemic is that there is no where to go to hide from it. I read recently that it has spread to over 200 countries. We didn’t have any travel booked when the outbreak began, but we were … Continue reading Thinking About Post-Pandemic Travel?
If you travel internationally a lot, you may have what I have: little ziplock bags with extra bills & coins in foreign currency. I probably have a hundred US dollars worth of Japanese Yen, Israeli Shekels, UK Pounds, Czech Crowns, and EU Euros from trips we’ve taken over that last 10-15 years. It seems that at the end of each trip I have local currency … Continue reading Funny Money
We’re about halfway through our Florida Snowbirding experiment and so far it has been wonderful. It is quite a bit different than any other trip that we have taken for a few reasons, but most all of them have been pleasant surprises …. STAYING PUT – Unlike most trips of a week or more, we aren’t packing up and moving at all. We moved into … Continue reading Snowbirding Surprises
Today’s the final day of packing for our first-ever retirement snowbird getaway. We leave for Florida tomorrow for our extended escape from the Minnesota deep freeze. Related: 2020 Snowbirding Practice Since we haven’t done a 3+ week trip ever before, packing is a bit different. We need to pack like we are going on vacation for sure, since we will be in Orlando. But, at … Continue reading Snowbird Packing
This Wednesday, the high temperature in Minnesota where we live will be 0F degrees, while in Orlando FL it will be a balmy 82F. While our home, family, and ‘life’ are here in the cold, we’ve decided to engage in some ‘weather arbitrage’ and escape to Florida this winter. I wrote about Snowbirding a few years ago with the advice of my friend Russ and … Continue reading Snowbirding Practice 2020
Now that we are into Fall, I thought I would share a few travel posts on some potential places for cold-weather vacations. We live in Minnesota, so we are always looking for some interesting places to warm up in the winter time. This past year we used New Orleans as a jumping-off point for a Caribbean cruise. I had already been to the city several … Continue reading Carefree New Orleans
We are off for sunny weather on our third year of “No Responsibility January”. Our son is off of college for the whole month, so each year we’ve taken the opportunity to escape from the bitter Minnesota winter weather and enjoy a beach trip. I’ll share more on our 2019 travel plans in a few weeks, but for now I thought I would reflect on … Continue reading FIRE Travel – Magical Miami
