MA-NY Happy Returns

One of the big post-retirement challenges for Bob and I has been trying to be more spontaneous.  A couple weeks ago we learned through Facebook that Bob’s Aunt in Massachusetts was turning 90 and there was going to be an open house in her honor.  We decided to go, and immediately booked some tickets.  We were able to use airline miles so the trip would be inexpensive and we were glad we could put it together.   It was a spontaneous decision and a wonderful celebration!

Bob’s Aunt lives in Western MA; we flew to Albany NY from our local airport to Minneapolis, then to Detroit, and finally to ALB.  One of the drawbacks of living on the West Coast is losing three hours when you travel to the Eastern US.  It took us the entire day with layovers and travel time, leaving at 7:00am PST and arriving in ALB at 10:30pm EST.  The joys of traveling on free tickets.  I don’t normally comment on where we stay but let’s just say that we hadn’t seen this plaster before; it was very strange!

Unusual plaster on all the walls

The next day we drove into MA from NY and had fun visiting the small towns Bob remembered from childhood.  His Grandmother lived in Great Barrington and Housatonic.  Both are charming towns, dotted with art galleries and prominent churches. We particularly enjoyed lunch at the Pleasant and Main cafe in Housatonic, a former textile and paper mill town.

Housatonic River

Stockbridge is known as “home to Norman Rockwell” and is a picturesque little village popular with plenty of tourists (not bad this time of year).  The Red Lion Inn and the General Store are featured prominently in Rockwell’s paintings. 

Stockbridge General Store

Red Lion Inn

Yep, it's real!

Stockbridge Church

Stockbridge Church

Great Barrington is the final resting place of many of Bob’s relatives.  We found the Mahawei cemetery and paid our respects at the family plot.  I found it interesting that many families have large plots, with a central towering monument and all the other graves around it.  A bit of family history . . . William Stanley, Jr., inventor of the first alternating current device, which was the precursor to the electric transformer, was a relative of the Taylor family (Bob’s mother’s ancestry.)  William Stanley, Jr. founded the Stanley Manufacturing Company in Great Barrington. Stanley’s company was later acquired by General Electric. 

Taylor Family Memorial

Bob's Grandmother's Family

Bob's Grandmother, ETT

Our primary destination was the town of Pittsfield.  Once home to General Electric it has suffered a dramatic downturn in the economy and population since GE pulled out in the late 1980’s.  Bob’s Mother grew up in Pittsfield, which is also home to his Aunt whose birthday we were celebrating.   Pittsfield is in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains.  It’s a beautiful part of the country, especially in autumn.  We were too late for the peak of the fall colors but still very scenic.  One of our favorite sights was the town square, decorated with 500 US flags in honor of forthcoming Veteran’s Day.

Honoring Our Vets

Pittsfield Church

Pittsfield Church

Pittsfield City Hall

 We really surprised Bob’s Aunt.  Her family opened her home to all of her friends and neighbors; it was a busy afternoon and I’m sure she was pretty tuckered out at the end of the day.  She repeatedly told us she “couldn’t believe we would come all that way” just for her.  It was our distinct pleasure to visit and we are honored to have been able to be part of her 90^th birthday.  She’s a sweetheart of a lady, and a blessing.

Bob and his lovely Aunt

Happy 90th!

Bob's Aunt and four of her children

Over the weekend Bob was able to re-connect with his Taylor cousins.  He has seven cousins “on his Mother’s side” and six of them were present.  We hadn’t seen them in several years but are hoping to close that gap.  In a nod to social media, Facebook has helped them reconnect with one another.

Our hotel's coffee  was terrible so off we went both mornings in search of some (seriously, we needed it!).  When in the Eastern US you have to go to Dunkin Donuts, because you just have to!  So we hit that one morning but the next day we spotted a local shop.  We figured it would be good . . . let the photos say it all. 

We only had one!

If the Police like the donuts . . .

The Berkshires are Shaker country!  Just outside of Pittsfield is the Hancock Shaker Village, worthy of a visit . . . however, it was closed for the season.  We did get a couple photos; note the round barn which allows the farmer to stand in the middle on the upper level and feed up to 52 cattle at once by throwing the hay.  We'll hope to catch a visit on another trip earlier in the year.

Shaker Barn

Shaker Village

On Sunday we left Pittsfield and drove north toward Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts.  The road to the 3491’ summit winds through hardwood forests laced with hiking trails, including the Appalachian Trail.  The views from the summit are stunning and encompass five states, MA, NY, CT, NH, and VT.  At the summit is a Veterans War Memorial in the form of a 93’ high tower with a lighted beacon at the top.  After visiting the summit we took an alternate route, Notch Road, down the mountain into the town of North Adams.  Approaching the town reminded us of driving off Whinlatter Pass in the Lake District of England; a winding narrow road with blind curves into the village.  We continued west to Williamstown, the crossroads of the Taconic and Mohican Trails.

Mt. Greylock War Memorial

Views from Mt. Greylock

Williamstown is home to Williams College, a top-ranked small private liberal arts college.  The campus is beautiful and the town is full of beautiful old buildings.  The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute of Art, simply known as “The Clark” is an outstanding art museum and art history research institution in the community. www.clarkart.edu/
We were astounded to see the large number of Renoir, Gaugin, and Monet pieces along with an impressive collection of other American and European artists’ works.

The Clark

Leaving the beautiful northern Berkshires of MA we crossed the Taconic range back into NY.  Albany is the capital city of NY, and part of the greater metropolitan area including Schenectady and Troy.  It lies along the Hudson River and is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies.  The State Capitol building is impressive, and combines different styles of architecture as the building was expanded over many years; it is designated as a US National Historic Landmark.

NY State Capitol Building

When we arrived in Albany we saw highway marker signs for the suburb of Loudonville and remembered we had friends living there.  We took a chance (again, practicing our spontaneity!) and called them, and luckily they were in town.  Bob and Stan were good friends in college, but had not seen each other except at a reunion last year.  It was great fun to get together with them for an afternoon visit and early dinner. 

With this trip to MA and NY, Bob and I have visited 25 states since mid-May (WA, OR, CA, NV, ID, UT, CO, KS, MO, IL, KY, TN, OH, IN, MI, WI, MN, IA, NE, WY, SD, MT, AK, MA & NY).  It’s been a fun year and we are grateful.  Our insight into retirement this week is we hope we can be as blessed and delightful at 90 as Bob’s Aunt, and MA-NY Happy Returns to her!

Coming Out

It wasn’t easy but Bob and I have finally come out.  We are bloggers.  Our first post was March 6, 2015, which also happened to be our 34^th wedding anniversary. This post is our 44^th post in eight months.  How did we get here? 

Well, we are blaming it on our daughter.  Yes, it’s all Amy’s fault.  She sent us a link to a blog she thought we’d enjoy.  Amy’s words (I’ve kept the text) were that she could "see us doing this."  The blog she directed us to is wonderful.  Check it out!  Senior Nomads In Europe can be found at seniornomads.blogspot.com .  Michael and Debbie Campbell are from Seattle.  They sold everything and began traveling all over Europe and blogging about it.  They primarily stay at Airbnb accommodations (airbnb.com/) and those experiences provided a theme for their blog; they are well into their second year of full time travel and blogging.  The Seattle Times newspaper featured an article on the Senior Nomads, which is what Amy read and suggested we could also do.  We thought she meant blogging . . . she was actually suggesting we sell everything and travel the world.  Amy may have had some hidden motives!

Our lovely daughter, Amy

In early March we were less than two months away from retirement, or to be specific, Bob was retiring.  We knew it was going to be a major transition, and maybe others would appreciate our challenges.  We had four major trips planned and wanted some way to combine our photos with our experiences.  Blogging seemed to be a good fit.  Until this week we hadn’t shared it with anyone other than our four adult “kids”, Amy & Mike, Shane & Alex.  They seemed to enjoy it and encouraged us to continue writing and taking photos.

But now we are out.  Coming out is an interesting term, isn’t it?  In higher social circles “coming out” usually refers to parties where young women are considered of age to be a part of society, or in the Victorian era, eligible to marry.  The girls, considered debutantes, are literally making their entrance into society.  In modern times (1960’s) I guess the equivalent is going to prom . . . something I did and most of my friends did . . . and fifty years later we are retiring.

   

Today, the phrase “coming out” is generally used as a self-disclosure of sexual orientation, primarily within the LGBT community. As parents we’ve been on the other side of that conversation and know that love for a child means unconditional love. 

Shane & Alex

For Bob and I, coming out as bloggers means we have publicly shared with family and friends an activity that has consumed many, many hours over the last seven months.  I really don’t know why we have been hesitant about sharing the blog.  The whole idea was to share it.  But for some reason, coming out and saying “we have a blog” was intimidating.  Maybe we don’t really like to call attention to ourselves.  Maybe we felt we didn’t have anything unique to share.  Maybe we felt that everybody and their mother have a blog . . . and now Amy & Shane’s mother and father do have a blog!  Regardless, it was a big step for us.

But I think we know we have something to offer, if only because we know most of our friends are experiencing many of the same things but we just aren’t talking about it.  We all talk about the fun things we do, the trips we are planning, and the visits with family and grandkids.  By the way, Shane just told us that all of our grandkids “are furry.”  We don’t have grandkids but have three fun grand dogs and a grand kitty.

Aiden & Ellie, double trouble

Phoebe, ever watchful kitty

Miss Daisy making herself comfy!

Regardless, we feel as if our retired friends aren’t talking much about the challenges of transitioning into retirement.  Fortunately I have a couple friends who did tell me it was going to be challenging to have Bob home all the time . . . we might not want to share the sandbox.  We decided to put it all out there . . . our “new normal” as Bob calls it.  Many of this summer’s posts have been about our travels but the blog’s intent is to be more than a travelogue.  There are all kinds of issues and concerns newly retired folks share and we want to touch on those as well, or at least share our experiences with daily retired life.  Several of the earlier posts do just that.

There are lots of “how to blog” books and articles and websites out there to use as tools.  

Resources

We just sort of jumped in.  I’d heard of blogger.com and went to that site.  The platform was relatively easy to figure out but there are all sorts of “add-on” features we haven’t tackled.  I’ve learned quite a bit from reading the FAQ and “help” sections of the website.  Somewhere along the line we realized blogger.com is owned by Google, so we could do more developing searches and interest.  Our tech savvy son, Shane, came over for Bob’s birthday and gave us a lesson on connecting to Instagram to post photos and develop a following. instagram.com/ourretirementinsight/ Instagram is owned by Facebook so it was only natural to create a FB page for the website blog. facebook.com/Our-Retirement-InSight The readership has jumped tremendously since doing those two simple things.  There’s a lot more to learn though, and we aren’t sure where we want to take the blog.  We’ll just take it slow for now.

But in the meantime, we appreciate all who have read the blog and given the FB page a “thumbs up” and the following on Instagram.  This particular blog post isn’t the most photo worthy but it’s a huge step for us to have acknowledged our “coming out.”  It’s one thing to have been doing it for eight months and only have a handful of people know; it’s another to let our extended family and friends know.  Thanks for your support, and welcome to our journey!

Autumn Leaves

After spending most of the summer traveling, we arrived home in early October.  It’s my favorite time of year in the Tri-Cities.  The temperatures are cooler, the sky is usually blue, and most importantly it is not as windy as other times of the year. 
 

Neighborhood pond, ducks & geese

We live in a desert; most people don’t realize that WA State has a desert.  It is known as the Evergreen State and though much of the state is covered with heavy forests, our southeastern part of the state is a dry scrubland with less than 10” of annual rainfall on average.  Without irrigation from the Columbia River we wouldn’t have anything growing except sagebrush.  Despite all the cultivation of the area, the wind blows briskly in the spring, fiercely in the winter, and there’s generally a hot breeze in the summer.  But in the fall the winds are calmer, most of the time.  That being said, the wind has been blowing most of the last three days!

Overlooking the Yakima River, West Richland WA

We lived in SC for four years and the autumn was beautiful there.  All of the fall colors that make New England famous move south and the hardwood trees burst with orange, red, and golden yellows. 

View from Caesar's Head, SC

Bob’s from MI and their trees turn beautiful reds; I’m from CO and it is known for the lovely golden Aspen. 

Autumn in Michigan

Autumn on Vail Pass, Colorado

Amy & Shane, 1977 Grand Mesa, CO

But in the Pacific NW we don’t have a lot of fall color because we don’t have many hardwood trees; our forests are evergreen.  Around the Tri-Cities most of the trees are ones that have been planted; they are not native to the area except for a few cottonwood along the rivers.

Leslie Groves Park, Richland WA

Leslie Groves Park, Richland WA

   

But this time of year we enjoy getting out and walking through the parks and our neighborhood. 

Bob's morning walk thru the neighborhood

  

Autumn has long been a “family” season for us.  We try to spend some time together before the busy holidays.

Halloween, 2013

This year we enjoyed some one on one time with Shane who came over to visit for Bob’s birthday.  We went wine tasting at Bookwalter Wines (www.bookwalterwines.com) and enjoyed a relaxing sunny afternoon. 

Shane @ Bookwalter

Sunday afternoon wine time!

  

A couple weeks later we visited Amy & Mike in Walla Walla where we visited Burwood Brewing Co. (www.burwoodbrewing.com)

Amy & Mike @ Burwood

We also enjoyed a visit from a dear Port Townsend friend and took her wine tasting in the Red Mountain area, at Fidelitas. (www.fidelitaswines.com) and Hamilton Cellars (www.hamiltoncellars.com).   There seems to be a theme to these sunny fall afternoons!

Sunny afternoon in the vineyards!

We really do not drink very much.  Truly!  However, our region has become home to many vineyards and of course wineries. There are over 200 wineries within a 50-mile radius of the Tri-Cities.  Our town is central to vineyards in the Yakima Valley, Prosser, Red Mountain, and Walla Walla.  Each of the viticultural (raising grapevines) areas produces unique wines and the views of the vineyards are stunning.www.visittri-cities.com/what-to-see-and-do/sip-sample/wineries  

Grapes @ Walla Walla ready for harvest

 

Grapes are WA State’s fourth largest agricultural crop; a significant part of our local economy. www.washingtonwine.org/wine-101/regions/   
But the best part of being in wine country is that the vineyards and wineries have become interesting places to take visitors for tasting and many of the wineries offer great food.  It’s a fun afternoon!

It seems craft beer and brewpubs are also becoming prolific; there are hundreds in WA and several stand out in the southeastern part of the state.  But it’s also worth noting that one of the reasons the beer industry is thriving in WA is because we are one of the largest hops growing regions in the world.  WA grows 75% of all the hops in the US, and specifically approximately two-thirds of hops grown in the Yakima Valley region are exported worldwide.  washingtonbeer.com/breweries/ 

Yakima Valley Hops

 
And if visiting wineries or brewpubs isn't enough, the wheat fields, apple orchards, and potato fields always offer some beautiful and interesting scenery.

Wheat fields toward Blue Mountains

WA Apples

Yakima River Valley potato fields

Both of us have had a bit of withdrawal syndrome from our summer travels so we headed to Spokane for a day trip to the Apple Store and some shopping.  It’s a different world just 150 miles north of here.  Spokane has done a fabulous job of making downtown a fun destination and we enjoyed a riverfront walk.  One of the things we’ve been trying to “work” on is being more spontaneous so we decided to take in a movie, have dinner and stay the night.  Loved time in the big city!

Spokane Falls

Spokane River

Downtown Spokane

I said I enjoy autumn.  And, I do enjoy the weather, the fall colors, the smell of autumn leaves, football (Go Hawks!), and all of those things . . . but there is something sad about autumn also.  It makes me very reflective and I can’t help but think about the long winter to come and those I love.  I also remember those we’ve lost.  We realized in the last two years, we have lost two loved ones and five dear friends, one of whom passed just last week.  They haven’t all passed in the autumn but for some reason my thoughts turn to them this time of year.  I guess it’s a time for transition, just as the season changes and autumn leaves us.

We do have some great family times coming up!  Bob’s Aunt will turn 90 next week and we are cashing in our airline miles to fly to MA to celebrate and spend time with his cousins.  Alex and Amy both have birthdays around Thanksgiving, and we will celebrate the holiday together as well as their birthdays.  When Amy was young she always thought all of the Thanksgiving celebration was for her birthday because that was when we got together with extended family members.  It hasn’t changed much!

My insight into retirement for today is to take time to enjoy NOW.  Everyone tells us . . . travel now while we have the energy, patience, desire, and our health.  We will as long as the money holds out and also as long we like each other!  So far, it’s okay.  In the meantime we are enjoying retirement, the hustle bustle of the summer when we were on the go and the stillness of fall as the autumn leaves fall from the trees.  A couple years ago we spent some family time in late October at Lake Chelan, a beautiful area northwest of here.  I think Amy & Shane got a head start on relaxation . . . time for a nap!