2021 was our 50th anniversary year. COVID numbers were going down. Vaccinations were going up. We felt it was reasonable to take a trip to Hawaii. We made reservations and bought plane tickets in March. By summer things were going pear shaped, and in August Hawaii asked people to stop coming. We got nearly all of our money back for our September trip, but our anniversary trip was significantly reduced. It was a nice trip to the Finger Lakes region of NY but …
This year we decided to give ourselves a great 50+1 anniversary trip. We rented an apartment in Paris near the Jardin des Plantes for 11 days. It was magical. We walked 120 miles; ate at 30+ wonderful cafes, bistros, restaurants, boulangaries & patisseries; visited 20+ amazing museums, gardens, cathedrals, & cemeteries. One of our favorite things about the trip was that we were staying in a Parisian neighborhood. We were near the Sorbonne and the University of Paris, high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. People went off to their jobs, shopped at the markets for dinner, and lived their lives. It was very different from the first time we visited Paris 3 years ago for just 4 days and stayed in a hotel near the Louvre. I liked the first trip; I loved this one.
It may not have been retiring well on less, but it was definitely retiring well.
Sounds great. You gotta do these things while you can since things can change suddenly. I’ve been in a walking boot for months with no healing and anticipate surgery and who knows what after that. The boot isn’t that boot except most things require walking and doing much of that with the boot is difficult so all trips are pretty much on hold.
I’ve never been a Paris person but others love it.
I hope you get to get rid of the boot soon. Our best trips involve a lot of walking - the High Sierra of Yosemite, the canyon country of Utah, the Grand Canyon, Kawai and the Big Island of Hawaii, and now I’m adding Paris to the list. As I rapidly approach my 37th 35th birthday, I agree with you that we need to keep doing these things while we can. We just never know when things will change. That’s a lesson that was hammered home to us in 2017. That year I was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer and my wife suffered a serious spinal injury that could have left her in a wheel chair or worse. We both got through those with only minor inconveniences so we’re going to keep on going as long as we can.
I can sympathise. “For months” is a heck of a long time (depending, of course) and if there’s any need for surgery, I’d say yes sooner rather than later. Here’s why…
Just about a year ago I had bunion surgery…a lapiplasty to be precise. What this does is actually rearrange the bones in the foot and splint them so that the deformation that causes the bunion is corrected. A fracture would’ve been easier. I was in a boot full time with no weight bearing for close to 6 weeks, same for the next few weeks but for PT (and homework) and a steady return to weight bearing and normal exercise over the next couple of months. It didn’t take too many weeks from the surgery to notice a definite loss of muscle in the calf and the thigh on the affected side. Even now, I don’t have the full muscle mass back…and that’s with specific focus on dealing with it.
I actually had the other foot scheduled for this upcoming week but am postponing it as I’m dealing with an unexpected medical issue…a surprise diagnosis of coronary artery disease😱. The ASCVD that plagued my mother’s final years manifestly wasn’t just due to smoking but a familial dyslipidaemia…and my super high HDL and exemplary lifestyle choices weren’t protective enough.
Slow travel is the way to go if you have the time and capital.
My dream is to spend at least a month in one Country at a time, to soak up the sights and sounds, without feeling rushed every day to see as much as possible.
The hard part is deciding on which Country.
Japan, Thailand, Vietnam are on my list, but not sure in which order…