Retirement Diaries 2024: Back in Minnesota

After three weeks in Washington and Oregon, I’m back in Minnesota.  I had so much fun, seeing friends, visiting my favorite places, and getting in plenty of beach time. 

The weather is so much better than when I left!  Instead of lows of 7 degrees and snow on the ground, the weather has been mostly sunny and in the 50s and 60s since I got back.  Until today at least; it’s raining now and it is supposed to rain off and on until Monday.  There are worse things in life.

The grass is green from the recent rains, and once the rain stops I’m going to be getting out into the yard to work on pruning and trimming back the dead foliage.  The lilac bushes are starting to leaf out, so there will soon be the sweet smell of lilacs blooming!

Cora and Yellow were of course happy to see me, and have forgiven me for being away.  It is so nice to see how bonded they are; they regularly snuggle and sleep in the same puff, even though they have lots of options.  At the moment, I can hear Yellow snoring in the other room; they really have a good life!

Mom was kind enough to think of me when she went to the library book sale for the next town up the road, and she got me some books on the Civil War.  She’s always so thoughtful!  There is also an upcoming book sale at our town library, so I’ll be helping move books from storage next week to get ready for it.  I’ll be considered the young person with the strong back among the other volunteers I’m sure.  It reminds me of helping mom to purge her books before the move last year.  That was a lot of boxes of books!

On my way home from Washington, I spent a couple of days on the Oregon coast, camping, looking for agates and just enjoying the beach.  I did get rained on a little, but it was pretty good weather for the most part!  After I left the coast, I spent a few days getting home, doing a little bit of sightseeing on the way.  A winery along the Columbia River Gorge, and a few museums in Montana and North Dakota.  After leaving Oregon, it got too cold for camping, so I splurged on a few nights of hotels.

Along the way I had a few lovely chats with people I met on the beach, at the winery, or in the restaurant bars – I like sitting at the bar when I’m dining alone, it just invites more social interaction.

Of course, now that I’m back I’ll be able to write more regularly again.  Not much driving to interfere with my downtime!

I hope everyone is well – and enjoying spring!

Retirement Diaries: A Full Cup

I’ve been in Washington nine days, and what a whirlwind they have been!

I have spent my nine days visiting the places that bring me joy and peace.  I have spent some days at the beach, and gone to visit some of my favorite nearby towns.  I have poked around in shops that I love, and gone to restaurants old and new.  I have taken walks on some of my favorite trails and in the parks, and watched the sunset over the water.

I have spent the nine days visiting friends who are dear to me, catching up, laughing, hearing stories of joy and hardships, and sharing my own.  I have reconnected with people I have missed terribly.  There is something so powerful about being able to connect in person with friends who I usually only get to talk on the phone with or text.

I do love my home state and miss it, but it is my people that I miss the most.  Seeing them has filled my cup!  I feel so blessed! 

Retirement Diaries 2024: Packing Up…

Last Friday, Mom and I headed over to a garden nursery for a planting event!  You could choose to plant a container garden or a hanging basket.  Then you pick your plants, plant them in the dirt and you are done!  The nursery takes care of your baby until Mother’s Day weekend, when you go pick up your plant and see how much it has grown!  The cold weather in Minnesota makes greenhouses a necessity.  In Washington your little container gardens would already be out soaking up the sunshine and the rain! It was a fun drive over; we saw farmed elk and bison on the way, and a wild Bald Eagle. 

Early Sunday morning, it started to snow.  And it pretty much continued non-stop until Tuesday evening.  It came down relatively slowly, but I would guess overall there was 8-10 inches.  Today the skies are back to being blue and sunny! 

Sunday Morning

 

Monday Evening

Sunday morning was also the Agate Swap!  Mom hadn’t been to one before, so we braved the snow and checked it out.  It is basically a rock show, with lots of vendors selling their wares.  You can bring in agates to trade or sell, but mostly the Lake Superior Agates I have found are small and not very impressive, so no trading for me.  I did buy a few agates and an antique agate marble that caught my eye.  I’m slowly filling up my house with rocks! 

I’m glad the weather system has now passed through, because I’ve been packing up the car to get on the road!  It’s spring, and I’m ready for a trip!  It was strange yesterday hauling things out to the car in my snow boots.  It will be too cold to camp on the way out to Washington, where I will spend a few weeks with friends, catching up with everybody and seeing the sights.  Hopefully I will be able to camp on the way back though, so I’m putting all my gear in the car just in case.  I haven’t been to Washington in almost seven months, so I’m beyond excited!

I’m sure the kitties will miss me, but Yellow is doing well with his new food and daily fluids, so I don’t have to worry about him as much as I was.  Cora is doing great!

On the way back, I haven’t decided my route yet.  I suppose it will probably depend on the weather.  Stay north and go back through Montana, or cut down through Oregon again and maybe do some of Highway 20?  There are so many choices – and so much to see!   

2024 Retirement Diaries: Back from Michigan

My Mom and I got home from our trip to Michigan on Sunday evening.  We were away for about ten days, and had a wonderful balance of doing some sightseeing, antiquing and thrift shopping, and relaxing.

We headed out the Thursday before last, heading out from Minnesota at about 7:30 in the morning, and made the 10 hour drive in one day.  Fortunately, the weather was pretty decent for the Midwest mid-winter, with some rain, no snow and periods of sun.  Traffic through Chicago was light; way better than what I generally experience going through Seattle in the mid-afternoon!  Other than rest areas, gas and a drive-through for lunch, we basically just cruised all day and arrived in Michigan around 7 pm, in time for a delicious chili dinner at my aunt, uncle and cousin’s house!

The next week we kept busy, but not busy at my usual travel pace.  We checked out some antique stores, some thrift stores, and a new rock shop in town.  The rock shop was huge and had so many cool rocks!  It was hard to control myself. 

My cousin and I went to breakfast with her coworker and went to the beach at Lake Michigan to look for rocks.  We were there for about an hour before we were completely freezing, but it was a worthwhile trip.  I found an amazing agate!

We had lunch and dinner with another aunt, uncle and cousin.  I took some walks out in the neighborhood, and one day it was even too warm for my coat.  It is unheard of to be wandering around in the winter in just a fleece!

One afternoon we went to a local high school play and that evening we ate seven layer dip with tortilla chips and watched the Superbowl.  Wow!  The game was mostly boring with a lot of spice thrown in right at the end!  I thought the half-time show was rather meh…

We checked out a local museum in Kalamazoo, which had a small exhibit on the history of the mental asylum in the area.  It originally opened in 1859, and was known as the Michigan Asylum for the Insane.  The hospital is still in operation, celebrating 165 years this year.  Malcolm X’s mother and the inventor of the Gibson guitar were both institutionalized there.  It was an interesting exhibit, and they showed several books that have been written about the asylum and the asylum system.  Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t have a gift shop!

I got lots of reading done, and some writing, and it was nice to spend time with family.  One evening, we watched Oppenheimer.  I know it got mixed reviews even though it has been nominated for 13 Oscars.  For sure, it’s long, and it’s hard to sit for that much time without your butt falling asleep.  Plus it is a complicated story, so you have to pay attention, and it helps if you know at least some of the background for the development of the atom bomb.  But I thought it was a really good movie!  Better than Killers of the Flower Moon, which I saw a few months ago.

On the way home, mom and I did a two day drive and diverted to Galena, Illinois.  Galena is one of the most historic cities in the Midwest, with white settlement going back to the 1820s.  Plus, the Civil War General and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant lived there for a time!  In fact, nine Civil War Generals are from Galena.  There is too much there for Galena to not get its own post, so watch for that in the future!  It was also frigidly cold while we were there, and some things were closed for the winter, so this is certainly a little town I will want to visit again.

We drove a bit of the historic Route 20 (the longest road in the United States), and the Great River Road (which goes along the Mississippi River) on the way home as well.  We were able to travel through small towns and farmland, and get off the main highways.  Most of the attractions were closed, as we headed through on a winter Sunday morning, but it was a beautiful scenic route!

All in all, it was a fun family visit, with a bit of sightseeing, and well worth the trip.  Hopefully next time I’ll be able to see my family on the other side of the state as well!