I'm leaving on a jet plane....

Well, I should clarify that...WE are leaving on a jet plane...and, unfortunately, I actually know exactly when I'll be back again...Tuesday. But, then again....I only have three days of work when we return home. Now there's a thought that will very happily get me through the night. I long for the days when I don't ever have to be back again, for someone else's schedule. My biggest issue with working......I never have enough vacation days each year, for all the traveling we want to do, but that is another story.

I'm at a point in my life, where there is so much I still want to do, so many places I still want to see, so many things that life still has to show me, and so few years, months and days to accomplish it all. It is the Catch 22 of every generation...you work hard, save money, take vacations, work some more, take some more vacations, then work even harder and save even more, so that eventually, you can retire when you are old and gray. It saddens me to think, there is a possibility we may run out of the ambition and energy, to do everything we wanted to do since we were young, and had the means to reach our particular goals. Taking into consideration the ides of getting caught on the work, life, vacation, money merry-go-round, we've made a conscious decision to actually fulfill our travel dreams now, which some couples put off until their retirement years. Let's face it, our income stream will never again be this healthy, no matter how much we save and sock away into our 401K and retirement accounts, it will just not ever equal our salaries of today. That being said, we are traveling as much as our little hearts desire and far as our little bank account will take us.

We both embrace this particular motto..."Don't put off till tomorrow, what you can afford to do today". Not to be downer, but do we really know if tomorrow will ever come? You always hear stories about older folks who retire at 65 or even closer to 70, then a few years later, they pass away. Not only that, who knows what our health will be upon retirement, there are no guarantees that we will have the capability to travel to all the places we have yet to see. I'd rather discover distant lands now and experience the world of travel while I am still able to enjoy it, without any major physical limitations.

We've witnessed plenty of elderly couples traveling on our cruises, and while they appear to be enjoying themselves, it seems to take an awful lot of extra effort to keep up the intensive pace from day to day. Of course, some vacations are more strenuous than others, however, I've listened to enough senior citizens complain about how they "just can't do that anymore" even when they truly desire to continue taking extensive vacations. How unfortunate that they must curtail future adventures, due to age and physical constraints. It has become very clear to me, we will eventually come to a point in our golden years, when traveling is no longer an option. When I finally arrive at that stage of my life, I want everything checked off my bucket list, without an ounce of regret.

Two items that appears regularly on our "to do" list, are trips to visit our married children (Stacey and Scott are already married in our eyes), whenever our schedules allow. Would we like to spend more time with them??? Well, that's just a silly question and the answer should be obvious to anyone who knows us. At this time, all six of our lives run in several different directions--it stands to reason that we are not all able to be together as often as we would like.


Our long weekend begins in South Beach, to celebrate my 50th birthday in November, 2009.

However, whenever we are enjoying the company of either one of our children's families, the special memories we create are always something precious to us, and are held very dear in our hearts. The time of the year matters very little, I personally feel the holidays are something that have been created for the general population, and don't require our participation or consideration for when and how we all come together as a family. I believe that will change slightly in the future when grandchildren are added to our family unit, only time will tell.


We were all dressed for dinner and ready for our delicious meal at Nobu


So sorry Scott, the waitress was kind enough to take the shot, she just cut you out of the frame :(

Realistically, our future travel plans will include many more group family visits, which is one of the main reasons, we are currently focused on international and cruise vacations. At the present time, grandchildren are not a part of our lives...not to say that won't change in the next few years. It is our understanding that both our daughter and daughter-in-law intend to have babies, it's just a matter of when the time is right for both of them. We will then schedule our vacation trips to Boston and Chicago, according to the appearance of our grandchildren....hopefully for everyone, sooner rather than later. Although we make our home in Florida, and they all live up north, it's quite obvious that we are never more than a 3 or 4 hour flight away.


Almost time to say goodbye, looking forward to our reunion in June 2010, at the beach house in North Carolina.

As I sit here, on our flight to Chicago, typing away at 38,000 feet in the air, I'm reminded of that young 18 year old newly married woman, who left home with the man she loved, on a plane for the very first time in her life. She has never regretted one moment of all the traveling she has done, and has only wonderful memories of each and every adventure over the last 33 years. Here's to another 20+ years of safe, interesting, exciting travel and life experiences....you should grab all that is out there with both hands, and never let go.