Retirement has most certainly brought on a huge changes in my routine, but I have adjusted well. Here are some things that have been definitely working for me during my first year of not doing a 9-to-5 gig anymore. Friday September 3, 2021 marked the last day I headed out the door for work. After a 38-year career as an engineer, I had taken a SNR. It's my playful turn on a very common engineering term, Signal-To-Noise ratio, which I turned into - Sabbatical with No plans of Returning. I'm still uncomfortable calling this next phase in life, retirement. For a long time, retirement had conjured up in my mind an image of old people moving to the sunbelt, first to play golf and then to die. Yes, I live in the sunbelt, but I have not yet discovered the joys of golf, and I'm sure as heck not yet ready to die.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania had been on my travel bucket-list for many years. Scaling the tallest free-standing mountain in the world is the type of adventure that appeals to me, especially as I enter what is likely to be the last 1/3rd of my life here on earth. So, when the opportunity arose to go climb it with a group of other equally enthusiastic Adventurers, my answer was a swift and empathic, “heck yeah!!!”
The fog was thick, and the thin ribbon of a roadway disappeared around yet another hair-pin turn in less than half the length of a football field ahead of us. CA-1, the Shoreline Highway in Northern California, was empty except for our car and one other, with which we had been trading pull-out slots with for several miles now. But this time, instead of racing ahead, our roadway partner pulled in behind us, unwilling to pass up the views that had all but compelled us to stop.
Approximately 13,505 days after I started my first job following graduation from college (that’s approximately 37 years for the arithmetically less inclined), both my wife and I retired on the same day. Fueled by our newfound freedom and antsy from spending too much time at home, we thought, what better way to start this next phase of our lives than with a long and what we hoped would be an epic road trip. We dubbed the trip our Silvermoon Adventure.
Our Christmas 2020 holiday travels took us through the National Parks and Monuments of New Mexico. Here’s my Travel blog chronicling our 1800 miles adventure.
It's mid October and it feels like Autumn everywhere expect here. The oven that is summertime Phoenix is still too hot to truly enjoy the changing season, and Colorado is too far a weekend drive to quickly get to cooler temps. So I settle for someplace closer to home, a trip to the high country, in and around Flagstaff AZ. My only plan for this three-day road trip is to get in lots of hiking, and to interrupt each hike with many stops to take pictures of the colorful changing leaves.
35 years ago this month, Vivien and I were a freshly-minted married couple. A day after our wedding in a small New Jersey Baptist Church, we boarded United flight 99 from Philadelphia and flew to Los Angeles. In LA we rented a car and headed up the California Central Coast. We spent the next week of our honeymoon driving towards San Francisco, along the famous Route 1. We wanted to see a part of the country, which up to that time, we hadn't seen before. Turned out to be a great call. Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) did not disappoint.
Vivien and I have made many trips from our home in Phoenix Arizona out to the coast of California. From San Diego in the south to San Francisco in the north, twice a year, the ocean waves have always pulled us from our desert dwelling. On those trips west, with our beach destination fixed in my mind, I would pass the exit for Joshua Tree National Park, off I-10 West bound, going 85MPH, and would often say "next time," I'll have to budget some time to stop by and check out the park. Over the years, I had heard so many wonderful things about Joshua Tree NP - the great camping, the out worldly rock formations, the lovely hiking trails, the smaller crowds when compared against its Grand Canyon sister a couple hundred miles to the northeast.
I have had the very good fortune of visiting many of the world great cities, including Beijing, London, Paris and Rome, but one of my favorite is San Francisco. This is all very subjective of course, but San Francisco has always been one of my top 5 cities in the world.
For me it started many years, when my beautiful young bride and I, spent our 2 weeks honeymoon traveling up the Pacific Coast Highway (The PCH), going from Los Angeles all the way to San Francisco. Along the way we stopped off at all the usual spots - Oxnard, Morro Bay, San Simeon, Monterrey Bay, Santa Cruz and finally San Francisco.
Golden Gate Bridge From Baker Beach
Having grown up outside of NYC, I was accustomed to large cities, but San Francisco was just very different to me. Its coastal breezes, rolling hills, cable cars, the winds and fogs, and of course the iconic yet very accessible Golden Gate Bridge. I just fell in love with the place.
Granted, being on my honeymoon meant I was already predisposed to seeing the world through love coated lens, but throughout the years that love, both for my bride and and of the city, have not wavered.
Golden Gate Bridge From Marine Headlands
However, not all has not been the Good-Ship-Lollipop between San Fran and I. For one, on our first visit, to our surprise, we both had chattering teeth on the boat ride to and from Alcatraz - in mid August no less. And many a mid afternoon fog have rolled in, swallowing up the Golden Gate Bridge and my photographic plans. But like any small spat between lovers, brighter clearer days are never far away.
Since our Honeymoon I have revisited San Fran many times. And on several occasions have acted a personal tour guides for work colleagues visiting from India and China. I also count is as a great blessing to have accompanied our my teenage daughter, during her first walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. One of life's simple but unforgettable moments for me.
Golden Gate Bridge At Sunset
On many of my visits to San Francisco The GG Bridge has been covered in fog. But this past October, on the tail end of a business trip, it turned out to be a wonderful, clear, crisp day and evening. I was ready to take some good pictures. Below are few that I took that weekend. They are some of the best I have taken of the Golden Gate Gridge. I hope you enjoy them as much I have.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA
Until next time, I wish you peace, love and happiness.
Arizona, my adopted home state, is a wonderful place to live and is filled with many beautiful photographic opportunities. I like to take advantage of living in such a photographically rich environment, so several weekends each year, I load up the SUV with all my camping and camera gear, and just takeoff; spending 2 - 3 days car camping, hiking and taking lots of pictures.
Balanced Rock At Watson Lake
On this particular weekend, I spent two days hiking around Watson Lake, in Prescott, and car camped at a local campsite. The weather was wonderful, with the skies filled with fluffy low hanging clouds, that filtered the sun, giving many of the pictures I took, a warm soft glow.
I had seen a picture similar to one above in one of my favorite magazine - Arizona Highways - and wanting to take one like it, was one of my motivations for visiting Watson Lake.
I started hiking along the southern end of the lake, and came across these water fowls enjoying the morning sun. They took flight after one of the kayaker stopped to admire them.
Birds On Watson Lake
Birds On Watson Lake
There are many trails that surround Watson Lake, and besides hiking there are many other recreational opportunities such as fishing, boating and camping. On the weekend I was there, there was a Gothic convention of some kind going on, with folks dressed up in Period costumes, and about to overthrow the old regime, and install a new King and Queen. Not exactly my cup of tea, but some of costumes where quite beautiful and very ornate. This guy below, didn't care much for the Goth costumes, but I imagined he was enjoying himself fishing. I took many pictures of him, and never once did I see him reel in a fish, but he was just casting away, with not a care in the world.
I waved at this couple from the bank of the lake as they leisurely paddled along, stopping often to point out a feature here and a bird there, along the cliffs that overlook the lake. Great "couple time" I thought to himself, maybe next time I'll bring my wife and enjoy to view from down on the lake. But on this day, I was enjoying spending some alone time, behind the lens in a beautiful place.
There are many other beautiful places to photograph in Prescott, and I have visited several of them. I will be sharing some those pictures with you in another blog sometime in the future.
For now, thanks for visiting, and please leave a comment, letting me know you were here.
