I was talking with a friend that recently retired and asked him, “How are you enjoying your permanent vacation?” He answered, “fantastic!” with a big smile on his face. Of course, retirement isn’t exactly a “permanent vacation,” is it? It’s not like you are waking up each day in some amazing city, resort, or national park. You aren’t going out to dinner and enjoying first-class … Continue reading Permanent Vacation?
I just got back from a quick trip to Kansas City last week. I took my Jeep down there to see some sights, including a Disney 100 Exhibition that was going to end on Labor Day weekend. While I was in the area, I even drove up to Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri – the inspiration for Disneyland’s ‘Main Street USA’. It was a … Continue reading Planning Big Years
I took my final business trip earlier this week. On Wednesday night I flew back from my last corporate board meeting, capping decades of business travel. Appropriately, my flight home was delayed 4x and I didn’t walk in the door of my house until 12:01am. I’m a bit of a ‘list person’ and have kept track of all my travel – business & pleasure – … Continue reading Final Business Trip
When we bought our vacation place in Florida, we wanted something that was easy to ‘Lock & Leave’. We just finished our first trip down here and we are making a quick departure back to MN today. I asked a number of friends if they had checklists that they used before they locked up their vacation places – many were nice enough to share. I … Continue reading Flyaway Checklist …
A week ago, we drove 1,550 miles from MN to FL to drop off a vehicle at our new vacation condo. My trusty SUV is being retired to Florida – so that we can just fly down whenever we want and have some wheels here. We got arrived in the Sunshine State last Friday and it’s a good thing our SUV’s air conditioner is well-charged. … Continue reading Tropical Summerland
Now that we bought a vacation place in Florida, will we fly off to any other adventures? We have one group of friends that bought a second home in Florida and said that it consumed the entirety of their future travel budget. Another snowbirding couple we know still plans an overseas trip every fall. Travel has been a big part of our early retirement. We’ve … Continue reading Richest History Destinations
For my annual Christmas Countdown, I featured pictures of the Holidays at interesting places around the world … 🇫🇷 25 Days to Christmas … Galleries Lafayette, Paris’, France 🎅🏻 🌍 🇬🇧 24 Days to Christmas … Oxford Street, London UK; Oxford Street is home to some of London’s finest shopping, including Selfridges … ⭐️😎🇯🇵 23 Days to Christmas … Shibuya Illumination, Tokyo, Japan; Japan celebrates Christmas as part of months-long … Continue reading Christmas Countdown 2023
“You have maximized your retirement activities better than anyone I’ve ever met! It’s inspiring!” I shared pictures from my latest adventure online last week and a former MegaCorp colleague posted the nice response above. I do try to make the most of my early retirement time and share out my latest escapades – if for no other reason than to evangelize the benefits of FIRE. … Continue reading Quirky Up & Away
When I was a kid, if you were fortunate enough to spend the night with your parents at a motel, you made sure to clean the room out of little bars of soap, mini shampoo bottles, or matchbooks before you left. That was a big score when I was in grade school, but over the years we all came to realize how worthless that stuff … Continue reading The New Hotel Soap …
When we were in Italy last week, we stayed in a colorful little beach town just north of Venice. Caorle is a charming resort town of 12,000 that rarely sees American visitors. Our hotel on the beach said they had only one other American couple all summer. The town has a delightful little Old Town area with shopping and restaurants. At 12:30p each day most … Continue reading Pausa Pronzo
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