It's Always Good To Come Home, Plus The Weekend Ahead

 

We much enjoyed our trip, and the weather was beautiful, but even though we're currently about 15 degrees cooler here in coastal Orange County, it's good to be home.

And . . . I returned home three pounds lighter, so just seven pounds to go to reach my goal of 115 pounds!

I achieved the weight loss by working to maintain the same mindset on the ship that I work to maintain here at home. Firstly, cruise ship fare is cruise ship fare, even on a somewhat elevated line like Oceania Cruises. It's prepared in mass, and it doesn't come to the table piping hot, ever, so it's not worth blowing my caloric budget on, at least in my opinion. Plus, we walked miles around the deck almost daily, and never, as in never-ever, used the elevator, so we climbed a good number of stairs each day.

This was our fifth cruise to the Caribbean, though most of the islands we visited were first timers for us. I did, however, decide that in spite of enjoying ourselves, this is likely our last cruise for the foreseeable future. In comparing our three days in Miami pre-cruise, to our 11 days at sea, at this point in our lives I find that I really prefer the ability to speed up or slow down as we wish, without having to mind the clock to ensure we return to the ship on time. Plus, any ports that involve tendering are more stressful on both the front and back end, and stress is something I 'm continuing to try and minimize as I age.

So, I cancelled our previously booked August Iceland cruise. Doing it by land is now the more appealing option, though I'm still a bit undecided as to whether that will occur this summer. Summer is our funnest season here in coastal S. Orange County!

Below is a list of the cruises we've done. This is primarily for me to have someplace to keep the list other than at Cruise Critic, so my apologies if it's less than stimulating to review! 😄 

04/2025  Caribbean w/Oceania

08/2023  Alaska Inside Passage w/Celebrity

06/2023  Greek Isles w/RCCL

12/2020  Mexican Riviera w/Princess

02/2020  South America Circle w/Princess

09/2019  New England & Canada w/Holland

05/2016  Grand European River Cruise w/Vantage

12/2015  Ultimate Caribbean w/Celebrity

02/2012  Hawaiian Islands w/Cunard

03/2011  Panama Canal Transit w/Cunard

05/2010  Alaska Inside Passage w/Princess

01/2010  Australia & New Zealand w/Princess

11/2008  Mediterranean w/Cunard

06/2007  Baltics w/Celebrity

05/2006  S. Caribbean w/Princess

04/2005  E. Caribbean w/RCCL

10/2004  Pacific Northwest w/Princess

06/2003  Mexican Riviera w/Carnival

06/2002  Alaska Outside Passage w/RCCL

08/2001  W. Caribbean w/Carnival

04/1997  Mexican Riviera w/RCCL

The morning after returning home we had a fence installation scheduled, the final project of the 18 month long remodel we launched into immediately upon closing on our home in Fall of 2023. So that took care of most of Wednesday (I stick around to deal with the myriad of micro decisions that always arise), other than a quick dash to Trader Joe's for some essentials.

Yesterday, Thursday, I made a menu, and did a thorough grocery shop, stopping in at Aldi's, Trader Joe's (again), and Ralph's. Ralph's was solely to chase loss leaders - I picked up 20 Kind bars for $1 each, and three salad-in-a-bags that were discounted to $1 due to being close to their use-by date. I ate an entire bag of salad on my own yesterday, half for lunch and half for dinner, as my husband had a men's fellowship dinner event, and I never cook for just myself.

Additionally, I forced myself to make two unpleasant returns on Thursday, yesterday - a damaged  Caribbean travel book to Barnes and Noble that was 60 days past purchase. I discovered, too late, that every few pages of the book had printed blurry, though I did struggle through it for purposes of our trip. I received a store credit in exchange, which I'm more than happy with considering their store policy is to limit returns to 30 days.  The second return was to Pacific Sales Appliances for an unneeded $35 set of hoses for a recently purchased washer/dryer set. Even though we had brand new hoses installed as part of our recent whole-house repiping, Pacific Sales forces all customers to purchase new hoses, subject to return if their appliance installer determines on site that they are not needed. In our case, the installer determined our current hoses were just fine, but he forgot to leave the new hoses with me so that they could be returned, necessitating a series of frustrating calls to their worthless corporate customer service line. Because the installer neglected to log the unused hoses back into their warehouse, the normal process, I had to go visit a Pacific Sales location in person to plead my case. Which I did yesterday, and which, nicely, resulted in my refund being processed.

Whew! A lot of effort for $35, but the principle of the whole thing kept me moving forward - I will not be taken advantage of lightly!

Today should be much more pleasant. I'm leaving shortly for a walk to the beach from our home, then I have a boutique to attend that's being sponsored by my women's club. After that my husband and I are leaving to have dinner with my daughter and her partner . . . he is such a good cook!

The rest of the weekend will be comprised of two longer beach walks, one of which will include a stop for lunch, a winery dinner & music event at 'our' winery, a fun vintage street fair, and spiritual services for us both on Sunday.

I spent some time on our vacation thinking about the concept of living the soft life whenever and wherever possible, so I wanted to ensure our first weekend home was lovely and vibrant, a concept I'll go into more in my next blog posting.

Bon Voyage!

After 36 action packed hours in Miami, we are off to the Caribbean for the next week and a half. It’s a lovely 78 degrees here portside currently, and we are already unpacked and enjoying our first cruise libation. After the last year and a half of remodeling, we are ready for this trip!

Our 36 hours in Miami included dinner at a lovely Italian cafe, a Bay view boat tour, five miles of scenic walking, and a guided food and cultural tour in Little Havana.

I brought along my trusty cruise shorts, my fail safe way of maintaining my weight. As long as they fit, I know my weight remains stable. As often as we’ve cruised, we’ve learned lots of tricks to avoid weight gain - try on those da@n shorts every morning, always use the stairs, walk several miles around the deck in the AM, have normal-sized breakfasts and lunches, and save the cruise food splurges for dinner only. So far, so good!

Lots Of Fun For Little Cost . . . A List Of Retirement Ideas

I do a lot of what I call 'big rock' planning over the course of any given year, whereby I plan out our travel trips, and plan out and purchase tickets for events that are significant to us, both far out in advance, often at an also-significant cost.  But in between, I also do a lot of what I call 'small rocks' planning - fun, easy to plan, and inexpensive fill-in activities.

Here is a list of some of my favorite small rock activities currently, most of which I think are accessible to all, regardless of whether or not you reside near the ocean. Swap out your local geography feature of choice (lake, river, hill, mountain, desert, etc.) for the ocean I reference below, and it think it remains an apples to apples list of ideas-

• #1 on the list, and the one we enjoy most frequently by far: Coastal walks of between five and ten miles that include a food or coffee stop, either at the end (for 5-7 milers), or midway (our 8-10 milers). Shared iced coffee runs about $5, shared pick-up burger, burrito, or sandwich runs about $12. Hours of enjoyment generally between three and five.
• Canyon hikes of similar mileage, with the difference being that we we sometimes pack lunches for the longer hikes if we know we'll be able to eat it while enjoying views. Otherwise, we'll do similar post-hike stops for coffee or a shared pick-up lunch for same costs and overall hours of enjoyment.
• Picnic dinners at the harbor, where we enjoy the watching the active marine critters come and go (Great and Snowy White egrets, pelicans, Great Blue and Night herons, sea lions, crows, and the rare, regal osprey) and the active human critters aboard sail boats, power boats, SUP's, kayaks, and the occasional electric surfboard. Cost runs $0, and hours of enjoyment anywhere from one to three, warmness of weather depending. 
• Sunset viewing from either our balcony, or one of the nearby coastal viewing spots where parking is either free, or we have an annual parking pass we can use. We'll drink/pack our own beverage, sparkling water midweek days, wine on weekend days, so cost is $0. Time frame for activity generally between 45 minutes to an hour.
• Yoga at the beach, which I try to do once a week, and which currently runs $10 a session. I'll generally go for a walk once the yoga session is over, so gone about two hours in all.
• Kayaking at the next harbor up the coast, where there are over 15 miles of protected paddling. We generally kayak between six and seven miles, and pack our own lunch to be enjoyed at one of the harbors many small beaches. (We tried eating while floating in our kayaks once - it wasn't fun! Even in a harbor there is a constant current, and we had to course correct continual to avoid bumping into a parked boat.) Sometimes we'll beach our kayaks and pick up an iced coffee midway, which we'll then enjoy back at our kayaks. Hours of enjoyment, and minimal (one iced coffee) or zero cost.
• Attend every reasonably close summer Concert In The Park. We pack dinner and bring our own libations, so many hours of fun at zero cost.
• Visit several nearby museums at zero cost, either by using the free museum day benefit one of our credit cards affords, or by having rooted out which museums are always free. We generally do a shared iced coffee or shared lunch afterward, so a $5 to $15 dollar activity, depending.
• Monitor the Facebook pages of all of my surrounding communities to watch for advertised free activities - there were so many once I started paying attention! Free Shakespeare in the park, free car shows, free art shows, free yoga classes, free lectures, free open houses, and free concerts, both on land and on the water - the later of which are the best! We launch our kayaks, and float and eat and listen. 😄
• Attend lectures at on a variety of topics - everything from AI to social causes to local owl habitation and behaviors- ranging from free to $10 a ticket. I've attended lectures at colleges, at community centers, city parks, county and state beaches, marine life centers, senior centers, and libraries.

That's probably enough for now, but I would love to read about any additional 'small rock' ideas you all might care to share. 

As my almost-90-year-old father often says when we finish chatting about his amazing and ongoing activities, "You can rest when you're dead, Tamara!"

Our 2025 Travel Plans

Other than some smaller driving trips, and trips to visit our granddaughters and family, 2024 was consumed with remodeling our new-to-us coastal home from pretty much top to bottom, bow to stern. But . . . with that now behind us, and with Social Security for both of us just beginning to roll in, we are setting our sights on a travel-vibrant year.

We are now without an RV, having sold it when we moved to our new home, deciding that after 20 years of joyful RV'ing it was time to turn our attentions elsewhere. So, all of our travel this year will be via brick and mortar lodging, or by cruise ship.

We started the year, as usual, by attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival. We stayed at a boutique hotel within walking distance of most of the film festival movie venues, which was really pleasant. Certainly the week in Palm Springs cost more than when we visited by RV, but that is one of the benefits our new Social Security checks are providing. 

In April we are headed to Miami, Florida for a couple of days of fun in the sun before we board an Oceania cruise ship for a 10 day Caribbean sail. We've cruised to the Caribbean several times before, but this will be our first time doing so with Oceania, so that should be fun as well. I did just learn, however, that our Oceania ship is a refurbished old Princess ship, which made me laugh. We've done a good number of Princess cruises, so our 'new' experience with Oceania may well feel oddly familiar! 

In July we'll be hosting our granddaughters here for 10 days, then returning home with them to Tennessee by plane, where Mike and I will then spend some time visiting before heading out to visit two new-to-us National Parks- Mammoth Caves in Kentucky and Gateway Arch in Missouri. That will bring our National Parks grand total to 47, leaving just 16 more to go before we can say we've visited all 63 of them. I question, however, whether we'll ever get to the three in Alaska that can only be accessed by small plane - see mention of my 'love' of flying below, ha!

In August we'll be flying to Iceland for a week of on-our-own touring, then board a cruise ship for the return home by way of upper western Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. We are very excited about this trip!

We'll celebrate my birthday in the Fall with a one week stay along the Central California coastline, where we'll alternate between coastal hiking and inland wine tasting.

In November we'll be meeting up with both daughters and their families in NYC to celebrate Thanksgiving, plus a significant birthday for one of our daughters.

The only wrinkle in our plans is that I experience immediate and severe panic attacks whenever turbulence occurs. I've done everything I can think of to overcome my turbulence anxiety, including attending lectures about the mechanics of flying, practicing meditation, and undergoing hypnosis, but so far nada improvement. So, I'll be visiting my doctor soon to discuss something stronger than the low dosage anxiety pills she previously prescribed. I do smile at how few she allots - 10 per prescription. In that I only take them when I fly, they last a good long time, so no concerns about becoming addicted. My multi-mile walks and hikes around here are more than adequate in keeping me serene in my day to day life!

Looking/Dreaming ahead to 2026, we are taking our older daughter & her partner to India (we took our younger daughter and her family on a Mediterranean cruise in 2023). In that I can't comprehend undergoing a 20 hour flight to India, we'll be doing a weekend stopover in London at the beginning, and a multi-week road trip around Scotland on the return. 

Any travel plans for you all in 2025 or 2026? Inspire me!

About Those Grocery Store Prices. And Restaurant Prices As Well!

 

Those Grocery Store Prices, and my workarounds

I've had a number of spontaneous, casual conversations in grocery stores recently, centered around how out of control prices have suddenly become - it felt like we had a bit of a backing off occurring, and then, bamm, up, up, up they went again.

Over here, however, our grocery spend remains unchanged in spite of this most recent round of retailer shenanigans. I continue to menu plan, I continue to shop supermarket loss leaders, and I continue to purchase in season produce as much as I can. I also shop for some items at specialty ethnic markets, where prices continue to remain nicely reasonable.

I do the bulk of my repetitive items shopping (Apples, oranges, bananas, spinach, eggs, nuts, condiments, dairy, deli meats, cheeses, and bread) at Aldi's and Trader Joes's, neither of which varies their pricing much. I peruse supermarket fliers for whatever protein is on sale that week, then portion and freeze in recipe-sized quantities. I have a regular list of items in my freezer at pretty much all times - salmon, shrimp, ground turkey, ground round, Italian sausage, bacon, pork chops, chicken breast, chicken thighs, and the occasional steak.

And I'm still averaging $100 a week, the same as I spent in 2012 when I first retired! 

Most of the recipes I make combine a protein, lots of vegetables, fresh herbs (which I cut from my backyard herb garden) and a small amount of starch. We eat really well, with pretty much everything arriving at our table full of flavor and low of cost. My standard is to cook once, eat twice. I prepare our side dish produce fresh for each meal, and often add a seasoned piece of toast for my carb-loving husband. So whether a first or second time serving, the meal feels more freshly made than not.

This cookbook, in particular, is a go-to favorite for incorporating all the above.

Those Restaurant Prices, and my workarounds

We primarily eat away from home on the weekends, given that I put a lot of time and energy into maintaining our social calendar. If dining at a restaurant-type venue, we generally come in at about $60, usually comprised of one alcoholic beverage each, and two small plates we share, plus tax and tip. We have scads of great eateries in our area, with our preference being to eat small and frequent, rather than the opposite, really more to manage our calories and weight than our pocketbooks.

Happy Hours, wineries that serve food, breweries that serve food, and upscale fast casual (which I define as having really flavorful food we order at a counter, plus a full bar for ordering adult beverages) are our venues of choice when not attending dinner-included events. I admit I would feel a little cheap if we went into a traditional full service restaurant and attempted to order & eat small, so we generally don't do this type of dining out any more, other than for the occasional celebration.

One of the benefits of the alternative dining we now frequently enjoy, is that people seem more relaxed in general, and quite apt to start spontaneous conversations, as are the wait staff. It's been really fun, actually quite a bit more fun than when we 'do' traditional dining, plus our weight scale doesn't yell at us the next morning, lol.

Retirement Blogging Re-Entry

 

Greetings!

Exactly four years after signing off from this blog, I find myself with a few new thoughts percolating in my head. I'm now fourteen years into retirement, crossing into my 60's at this point.

Do I still have anything of value to share to the wider blogging community?' I'm not sure, but I'm comfortable putting my toe back in the water, and seeing where it all goes.

Some updates from when I was last here:

• We moved. We are now in a slightly larger home (by about 50 sq ft), and just 1 & 1/4 miles from ocean, compared to the three miles distance we were at previously. It's a small change, but it is also significant, both weather and walkability wise. Though we have a brand new HVAC, thanks to a whole house remodel we did during our first year here, we pretty much have just used the H (heat) portion, not the AC portion. I am amazed at the constant onshore breeze we now experience, and how other than one week last summer, when a heat dome descended, we simply did/do not need the AC. And being even closer to the ocean, and no longer atop a hill, has resulted in our walking to the beach and back almost daily from our house, because it's now such a relatively small effort to do so.
• We have done another complete remodel here at our new home, likely, the very last one, because it is way more exhausting to do in my 60's than it was in my 50's, LOL!  But, I will share that we received way, way, way over asking when we sold our first coastal remodel in 2023, primarily due to the extent to which we'd remodeled both inside and outside. So I take pride in that - I overheard one realtor in 2023 call our prior abode 'The Perfect House' when it hit the market, where it didn't remain for long - we received over a dozen offers within the first 48 hours, all for well, well above ask. 
• I have managed to lose and keep off ten pounds. I'm working on the last ten, which will put me back at my high school weight, and where I feel my best, appearance wise. I got there (115) briefly in 2023, due to the stress of moving and going through another remodel, but it returned and now I'm working to get it back off the 'old fashioned' way. 😊
• I'm still hiking, biking, kayaking, and SUP'ing, and dipping my toe back into running. 
• I still adore my two precious (not perfect, mind you!) granddaughters, and they now come out regularly for a week of summer fun at Nana and Baba's, without Mom and Dad (though an adult does accompany them each way for now, generally the Baba as he's a better flyer!)
• Lots of new hobbies have been taken up since we last spoke - Bridge, Sailing, Guitar, Women's Philanthropy Club, and Golf, and our social circle has also continued to grow. It is the sad and awful reality of being this age that some of our friends have succumbed to disease, and thus we realize we need to continue to make new friends to offset the inevitable contraction.
• We have created a life where we pursue our joint hobbies and separate interests during the week, and enjoy lots and lots of social, dining, and entertainment engagements over each weekend. Life feels full, but boy, do I see the difference in my energy now vs when I first retired. 

More to come as I settle back in. I hope you all are likewise doing well out there!

I stopped coloring my hair, and let it grow long during COVID.
I'm still having fun with both changes!
See the concrete floor? This was smack dab in the midst of the stress
of our recent remodel, hence my pretty thin 115 frame.
I'm on my way back there, though!