We recently embarked on a journey focused on celebrating the retirement of our brother-in-law, visiting our youngest daughter in Sweden (twice), hunting for trolls in Denmark, visiting our Danish exchange student and his family, and looking for ancestral clues on my side of the family. What follows is a brief summary of our trip. Portugal […]
Author: Gary C
Reflections on Three Years of Self-Realization and Actualization
A very good friend of mine commented recently “it would be interesting if you went back and reviewed your blog posts to see if you agree with what you’d previously written.” Hold it. I know. That sounds as dry as toast. But he had latched onto something I’ve discovered is very real, which is the […]
Ecuadorian Adventure
Thank you for your interest in our trip to Ecuador. Let me begin with a little background information about Ecuador from Wikipedia. “Ecuador [meaning “equator” in Spanish], officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean […]
Where is Abisko anyway?
Sweden, January 10 – 24, 2024 This blog entry describes a trip to Sweden that involved time in Stockholm, the small arctic town of Abisko, and the city of Luleå (pronounced LOO-lee-oh). The objective of the trip was to visit our youngest daughter, to travel north of the Arctic Circle to see the Aurora Borealis, […]
Exploring Central Asia
When exploring our 2023 travel destination, we noticed a gaping hole in our wall map that shows the countries to which we’ve traveled. Taking note of that fact, and after looking at multiple alternatives, we decided to travel to “the Stans” to discover an area and cultures with which we are generally unfamiliar. I also […]
31 Days of Pura Vida!
This blog entry describes, on a day-by-day basis, our recent 31-day visit to Costa Rica! But, for those of you who just want the basics, here’s an executive summary. So much for the summary. Now for the agonizing detail, Internet links, and pictures! Sunday, February 12 Flew out early from MSP (7:54 a.m. departure). Flight […]
Reflections – One Year of Retirement
Well, it’s been one year since I retired from active employment. The purpose of this post is to briefly reflect upon the events and learnings of the past year, as well as to discuss the plans for the coming year. Hopefully you’ll find it to be of interest and, perhaps, helpful in some way. As […]
Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and a Boat
Wed, October 5 Today our journey began as we flew from Minneapolis to Paris arriving at CDG at 7:30 a.m. on Oct 6. Thurs, Oct 6 We picked up our Hertz rental car, always an arduous process, and made our way out of Paris. We selected a manual transmission car which added an additional layer […]
Venice of the North
Our youngest daughter moved to Sweden in mid-2021, the first in our family to live abroad permanently. To show support for her and to incorporate a travel opportunity into retirement, a family trip to Sweden was planned for July 2022. The itinerary was, roughly, to allow the family to see and experience Stockholm and Gothenburg. […]
Reflections – Six Months In
Good morning, everyone! It’s now been six months since my retirement date. But, there have been so many milestones in the past twelve months that warrant mention. First, it was exactly one year ago we became full-time residents at our lake home. Plus, during the past year two of our children and their families have […]