Suzanne 
Hey fellow adventurers! I wanted to check in to let you know that we are embarking on a BIG Summer Travel Adventure!
Craig and I will be traveling with our family to see The Palio in Siena, Italy with a quick couple of days in Rome! Next, we say goodbye to the family and fly to the gorgeous island of Majorca, Spain. We visited last summer and it was so spectacular that we just had to go back! And there’s more…
The Palio di Siena is one of Italy’s most famous sporting events. It is a horse race with unique rules and centuries-old history. My guess is that you may have never heard of it either! About ten years ago our close friends Nick and Victoria, who are world travelers (67 countries), shared their story of the Palio in Siena. Craig and I were captivated and totally hooked. We vowed one day we would see this special event as well!
Four years ago, I was having a bit of a struggle trying to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Where did I belong exactly? Our son was in college, our daughter had graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle and never moved back to California. My husband Craig was often traveling for business and I no longer had to spend every waking moment focused on what the family required. Everyone was happily doing their own thing, I was truly an Empty Nester and it was my time now.
Created in 2014, AdventuresofEmptyNesters.com has evolved through the years, with the original emphasis on my life in the Empty Nest. I adored offering advice to others who were about to begin this new empty nester chapter or already living it. As time passed, I allowed the blog to carry me and my thoughts along with it toward new adventures.
We recently had an absolute blast traveling to this exotic paradise with long time friends and our grown kids. Our dear friend Pam has lived on the island for 30 years and insisted on taking us to her favorite spots. We were able to experience Oahu from a locals perspective and now you will benefit too from her awesome ideas!
Lucky for us, Roni McGuire, an almost Empty Nester, took a chance and reached out to me via email. Why not she thought? Roni was looking for an additional way to market her exquisite rental property in East Hampton. So she researched empty nester travel writers and thought she and I would hit it off. She was right. After several phone conversations we have easily become fast friends. Empty nesters have so much in common and can connect on so many levels. We all totally understand each other from a parental perspective as well as a myriad of other topics.
Yes, it’s true, the Los Angeles Times is packing up and moving from Downtown Los Angeles. The new owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, announced in April, that he is vacating their historic, architecturally significant home and taking The Times to El Segundo because he could not reach a satisfactory lease agreement. The new building is just about twenty miles (but a long commute) from Downtown. The landowners wanted to increase the rent by $1 million per month. Wow!
This news came as a huge shock to the employees of the newspaper and Los Angeles history will be forever changed. The fearless leader of our Happy Hour Hiking Club, author and columnist Chris Erskine, has worked for the LA Times for twenty-eight years and he was able to arrange a special tour for us just before they all left for good.
Trying to decide what to see in Seattle is a major challenge, but a fantastic problem to have! The city is so amazing and there are so many tasty restaurants, picturesque spots and fun bars. Time and again many friends and colleagues ask me where to go and where to eat in Seattle. These personal recommendations are our absolute favorites and are places we go on a regular basis. This list does not include every single touristy activity – you can get those from another travel site or guide book. Of course there are several insanely great shopping areas (Downtown and University Village are our favorites) and a visit to the Flagship Nordstrom is a must.
Happy Friday! If you missed it…You can find this week’s post about == > How to Stay Fit When You Travel ===> HERE My Friday Roundup: Links to Awesome Stories You Have Probably Not Seen. Don’t you love it when someone else does the work? OMGee 20 Books everyone ill be talking about this Summer! …
Well, first of all this is a TALL order. Second of all, it takes some work. Third of all, nobody’s perfect, especially me.
I think there is a misunderstanding that when someone sees a post of an amazing restaurant dish or fabulous handcrafted cocktail, they assume that we eat this way all the time. No, not true at all. By the same token when we post happy things on Facebook all the time it implies that our lives are perfect! Nope, not true either! Read on my friend…
Here’s one more adventure to share from our recent trip to New York City.
It was late April, surely it was time for the arrival of Spring in New York? Right? The weather has been so strange this year. For most of the country and my friends in the Mid West and in the East the temps were still extremely chilly and they even endured a recent snowstorm. Ridiculous!
While on my recent trip to Nebraska in late April it was freezing cold and there was snow on the ground. What? When I agreed to attend an ecotourism conference in Kearney, Nebraska did I ever imagine it would be this frigid! Ha, joke’s on me! And there’s more…
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