Our January-March snowbirding trip was sadly interrupted by a family emergency two weeks ago. My wife’s father passed away unexpectedly, but peacefully. After the funeral, we decided to come back to Florida for a couple more weeks and flew back yesterday. In doing so, we found ourselves oddly packing for the same exact trip we packed for last month. I consider myself an expert packer, … Continue reading Packing – It’s Always Something
We’re back in Florida this winter, snowbirding from the Minnesota cold. One bucket-list item I got to do today was drive down the sands of Daytona Beach in a bright red Jeep with the roof panels taken off. That was fun! Recently, I’ve been reading about people’s disappointments with some of their bucket list experiences. It started with THIS POST on EarlyRetirement.org, where people shared … Continue reading Bucket List or Garbage Can?
The pictures above show the beautiful 3-bedroom condo that we booked for 11-nights in January on New Smyrna Beach, FL. It looked like a fantastic place, but it was a bit of a splurge at $391/night. Since it was right on the beach, was pet-friendly, and had a lot of room, I figured it was worth the price. I thought we could host some friends … Continue reading Fees, Fees, Fees: Damn You VRBO!
We’ve had a lovely time staying at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island this week. It was a terrific place to spend our anniversary and the weather was fantastic. The Victorian island experience here with no cars – only carriages & bicycles to get around – is really enchanting. As I wrote recently, staying at this hotel has long been one of my wife’s Bucket … Continue reading Midwestern Getaways
We were at a wonderful garden party at our friend’s house recently. It was fantastic. The kind of elegant party you would see in a Southern Living or Sunset magazine spread. Great food set on lovely tables (with splendid linens) overlooking a lush backyard in summer’s full bloom. In the backyard, I noticed the host’s collection of colorful bird houses that are photographed above. They … Continue reading Something Fun To Come Home To …
Our son has been in Paris the last few weeks and he mentioned how inexpensive the city seems to be. Much cheaper than things seem to be back home in the USA. That surprised me as my perception has been that Paris is usually on the more expensive cities to visit. Then, I saw that the Euro is trading especially low against the US dollar … Continue reading Cheapest Time To Travel In Europe?
Almost everyone has heard of a ‘bucket list’, but have you ever actually put one together? We did. About 20 years ago we sat on our big living room sectional and made a list of about 120 things we wanted to do. I was surprised that we could come up with that many experiences. We were just a few years from 40 years old at … Continue reading Bucket List Adventures
We love to travel, but during the pandemic, all you could really do was read about interesting global destinations. We’re starting to plan a trip for later this year and I checked out these two magazines at the bookstore. People seem to love checking off boxes on their ‘bucket list’ and these magazines are organized in checklist fashion. The first one was for US destinations … Continue reading Bucket List Adventures
I’ve had pretty good luck with rental cars over the years. Other than the one time a city bus plowed into my (parked) SUV in front of a hotel in snowy Aspen, I’ve never had a reportable incident. Until this year. I just got back from a board meeting in Michigan, and on the way back to the airport a rock flew up from an … Continue reading Rental Car Curse!
Our Florida ‘Winter Summerland’ escape took a strange twist this weekend. I was at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona auto race and saw a random text from someone named ‘Andy’. I looked at it and realized it had something to do with our February month-long AirBNB rental outside of Orlando. Andy was the AirBNB ‘host’ and he said our reservation was immediately CANCELLED “due … Continue reading Homeless in Florida?
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