I am continuing to plan a trip south to Florida. Not sure when I will leave but I have a wedding to go to! Here is one of my pages from my planner. I plan to stop in Memphis and in Natchez before heading east. I am working on drawing in state flowers for this part of journey. Any thoughts on the journey and where to stop? One suggestion I have received is the World War II museum in New Orleans (I am assuming I will swing east through here). I have some ideas for food, always have to plan out your food! My handwriting got a little messy on these pages, not sure what is going on with that! Need to refresh my penmanship I guess.
Today was a fun day at work! We had a total of 13 teams sign up to participate in the Office Olympics today, as part of our annual Wellness Initiative. It encourages teamwork and healthy activities! We had finger races (typing), paper airplane building & flying, balloon races, obstacle courses with cups of water and charades. I enjoyed myself, and it seemed like everyone else did too. I thought for sure it would be very embarrassing, but winning a medal helped! I got second place for typing! 61 words per minute, basically one missed comma and one missed letter. 😦 But having a medal to wear helps! My teammate (and supervisor) Patrick won a gold medal for the obstacle course, he hardly lost any water at all.
Last week was a big week, it was recognition week at work and it was my 25th anniversary. Wow, I can’t believe how fast it went! I always thought that I would stay 15 years and find something new, but that never quite happened. The work kept changing and I met so many wonderful people that I just kept on going. Then I had some health issues and I just kept on going some more. The last couple years have been the best of all 25 years, so glad I stuck it out. It was a great job to have during the lockdown too, being able to work at home and yet still able to meet a lot of really nice people.
I did it! My plans for Amsterdam are one step closer as I have rented a room for the week before my cruise. I am getting so excited! Now to set dates and places for all the rest. Arghhh!!!
Starting to plan a one week journey to the Netherlands and need to end up in Amsterdam for a boat cruise. But I am terrible about making up my mind!! Where is a good, relatively inexpensive but safe place to stay? Somewhere I don’t need a car, where I can walk around, absorb the scenery and get used to the time zone before I pick up my daughter to carry on with my vacation. I go around and around and drive myself crazy.
Took the time to go to the Van Gogh Art Experience last weekend, and I enjoyed it very much. I read some reviews (afterwards thankfully) that weren’t all positive, that you didn’t learn anything about Van Gogh or his art, that the museum would be a better way to spend your money. But I don’t agree. This isn’t meant to be a museum, or even necessarily educational. It is an “experience”. A place to relax and watch the art blend from one piece to another, to listen to the music, to be captivated. They did a good job bringing in one piece of art and slowly blending that one out while bringing another one in, so that they merged, then came apart. The animation, pages turning in the book, cicadas running over the screen, etc. I thought it was interesting, but I love Van Gogh’s work so I wasn’t there for an education. I say, if curious just go ahead and go.
Today I was out assisting with a wetland delineation review. Although in town, it felt like the middle of nowhere. But I ended up a little overheated and dehydrated. Not good! Took myself to Peoples Organic afterwards and had a lemonade and chocolate donut. Yum!
Glad to be outside Hungry butterfly Looking over a wetland
Finding that I am starting to use my idea of retiring next spring to do things I normally wouldn’t do. The other day I saw a stand of jack-in-the-pulpit in someone’s front yard and I had to get down on the ground to get a good shot of them. So I laid down in a complete stranger’s front yard to snap a picture! I told him that I am retiring in a few months and I am taking as many pictures as I can to document my last year of working for the City. He just laughed (thankfully).
Do you ever get to a point where everything just seems blah? All you have time for is work? That is about where I am at right now. I did have a wonderful weekend babysitting my granddaughter (I mean kitten), Freya. My daughter and her husband celebrated 18 years of marriage last weekend (what happened?) and Freya is too young and way too mischievous to leave home alone. Took her 2 seconds to chew through my computer cable, as I was plugging it in. Sigh But, I did have a lot of fun playing with her and watching the birds out the window together! Unfortunately the next day was a long 13 hour day of work including eating breakfast and dinner at the desk and Tuesday wasn’t much better. But better days are coming! I am starting to think about vacation again, I want to spend 3 months in Europe next year, in August, September and October maybe. The question is where is a good place to go? Maybe one spot per month? Do I have the courage to go? Arghhhh
I have been continuing my bucket list in my new travel journal. Right now I am starting with a western driving tour over the course of about 3 months, maybe in 2023. Yes, I am planning for what seems like a long way in the future! Over the weekend I sat down with my oldest nephew to go over what I am thinking. He has done some rafting trips and such out west so he has more experience out there than I do! For example, I had no idea there was so much to see and do in Utah. I am very excited to get out there and do some hiking and exploring. I will have to work on my knees so I can do some horseback riding too, I hope.
A page from my Travel Dreams Journal
My next state to take a closer look at is Arizona. I have spent quite a bit of time around Phoenix as my grandparents used to live in Sun City and I had a very close friend (Scott and his partner Angel) who lived in Phoenix. I would typically fly down once or twice a year to visit and once in a while Grandpa would even let me borrow his car (I was in college at the time, so I was broke all the time). The furthest north I went though is Prescott, never made it to Sedona. So my plan is to go down into northern Arizona and visiting Lake Powell, Sedona, Tuba City and Jerome.
After that I will start looking at New Mexico and Oklahoma! At the very least, this has given me something to dream about and draw about and think about. What will I do after we come out of Covid-19? After retirement? All such good questions.
If you have any thoughts on what I should absolutely NOT miss in eastern Wyoming, Utah, Arizona or Oklahoma please let me know! If you are wondering about what the left side is mentioning, it is Longmire Days! I am a huge fan of the Longmire tv series and have read some of his books too. I highly recommend them!
I saw this template on Pinterest and fell in love with it. Each location will have a “card” where I draw in a feature of where I want to go. Sometimes a location, sometimes a feeling. Then you separate the pages into different boxes to write down ideas or thoughts. I am so sorry that I didn’t write down who had the original idea.
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