This week, we’ve been going over to Mexico for dental appointments.
It’s only a 20 minute drive from our home.
My favourite part of this is that we can once more enjoy authentic Mexican food. We didn’t get across once last winter, so now we’re making up for lost time.
I had some problems with my feature photo because of the shadows cast on the plate. I’ll be sure to avoid that next time.
Each of us ordered our fave dish : enchiladas for hubs and chile relleno for me.
We forgot that we could order one dish, split it, and easily have enough food for lunch.
What started out as an incredible year of long distance travel from January, to and including July, ended up with shorter trips from August to December that focused on weddings of family and friends, my Dad’s 85th birthday party, and lots of quality time with our own small family.
Each part of the year held its own memories and treasures, and the best part was that hubs and I were both now fully retired, so neither of us had to miss a minute of it because of work schedules.
We kicked off our retirement with a year packed with everything imaginable. It’s almost as though we were compensating for all of the things we had to cut short or miss entirely in our working careers.
Because the price of avocados and the variability of their freshness at home in Canada is more than a bit prohibitive, I look forward to our winters in South Texas.
We live close enough to Mexico that the avocados are reasonably priced, fresh, and don’t spoil in a day.
And … I can make guacamole… my favourite dip.
Easy Guac Recipe:
2 ripe avocados
2 TBSP Salsa
1 Small Red Onion (or 1/2 medium), chopped fine
Juice of 1 Lime
1 TBSP sour cream
Salt and Pepper, as desired
If you like it a bit more spicy, seed, finely chop, and add one small jalapeñopepper.
Mash avocados and salsa together in a medium bowl, then stir in all other ingredients until well blended. Store in tightly covered container in fridge for at least an hour (this will keep up to 1 day in fridge)
Carrying on with the incredible travel year that was 2016:
After hubs and I returned from the all-expenses paid vacay to the Mayan Riviera, things calmed down for a couple of months, and then I headed out on a road trip to Salt Lake City with two long time friends who had joined my MLM team.
The purpose of the trip was to attend the annual conference of the MLM company I had signed up with.
In addition to being a learning and team-building experience in SLC, the road trip itself both to and from the conference was fun and interesting.
Even though none of us belonged to the Mormon faith, Temple Square in Salt Lake City provides a great history lesson about the settlement of the state of Utah.
Lenna and I just “had” to pose with this fun signThe parent company to our MLM company Sherry, Lenna, and MeI tasted French Macarons for the first timeTemple Square is always an interesting visitThe famous Mormon Tabernacle The amazing pipe organ inside the TabernacleHow the Mormon Temple was constructed is a fascinating history lessonI spied these “on the way by” and commented about the skinny horsesAn unusual way to make a topiaryIdaho Falls was a great stop on the way homeMy pals, Lenna and Sherry, hamming it up – “posing” like modelsThe falls are in the middle of the city
My dear friend, Lenna passed suddenly and unexpectedly just four years after this trip.
I’m so happy I have this trip in photos and in memories.
Two days ago, hubs and I made another bucket list hit.
We visited Clear Lake, Iowa where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) played their last concert before they were all killed in a fatal plane crash just a few miles out of Clear Lake.
After watching the documentary about Don McLean’s song, “American Pie”, (titled the same as this blog post), we knew we could drive a new route to be sure to visit the Surf (feature photo) and the memorial site in the farmer’s field that has been maintained since the crash on Feb 3, 1959. The memorial is about 3 miles from town.
Because I was introduced to 50’s R&R from the time I was around four years old (by my aunt, who was a teenager at the time), the whole day was powerfully meaningful for me.
This immersive experience building just opened in September and is very well doneNot Fade Away is a 360° experience about the history of rock and roll music at the SurfThe museum in the new building houses many great photos and artifacts Buddy Holly’s jacket and mic from the last performance of his life If you love music, you’d love the Surf Ballroom This is the adjacent lounge. The number of artists from every genre of music who have played here is staggering The stage and dance floor of the surf. I felt like I had stepped into history The booths and tables were numerous Enough seating for 2100 people here and another 160 in the loungeStanding on that stage for a selfie was an emotional moment for meThe green room next to the stage. Every entertainer who has played there has signed Hubs found the booths a tad snugThe streets in Clear Lake are named in tributeThis is the parking lot for the memorial siteThe glasses mark the beginning of the walk to the memorial site. People leave glasses as a tribute. I left a pair of sunglasses It’s a quarter mile walk through a field to the memorial Memorial to the pilot of the planeThe memorial to the artists is simple and still very powerful This will no doubt be my only visit to a memorial in a corn fieldIt was a windy day, and I was quite sombre because of the experience
Our bucket list hit yesterday was the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota – the home of Green Giant Vegetables.
We enjoyed visiting the giant statue of the Jolly Green Giant, as well as a visit to the museum on the same property, which told the history of this well known brandof canned and frozen vegetables.
That’s me standing between Jolly’s size 78 feet!Great info about the statueHubs and SproutLots of old processing equipment was on display in the museumGreen Giant Merch from the past was endless!I was surprised to see the Pillsbury doughboy there
A while ago, I wrote a post about my office … the special place just for me in our home.
In this space, I’ve surrounded myself with meaningful memories.
My feature photo today is of a souvenir hubs and our daughter brought me from Graceland, when they travelled there together in the semi. On either side of the musical teddy bear is a photo of each of our grandkids when they were little. They both loved pressing the belt buckle to hear Elvis sing “Love Me Tender”
The parlour guitar above was gifted to me by Mom. She learned to play on it when she was a young girl. Her parents bought it for her from an old lady who had been a classical guitarist.
As a young girl, Mom was involved in a musical production for the soldiers who returned home from WW2. This is the same guitar, which, unfortunately, was refinished in much later years.
Mom eventually taught me to play on this same guitar. The instrument is well over 100 years old. I have fond memories of my mom playing this guitar and singing in her clear, sweet voice, at all of our family gatherings. (BTW, at 91 years young, my mom still plays guitar and sings beautifully- she graduated to a 12-string about 20 years ago).
Today, we start making our way to Texas, where we’ll spend the winter.
We’re taking a new route again to catch some travel bucket list hits, so I’ll try to do a few posts along the way.
Radically Retired 