Blog » Page 41 of 60 » Adventures of Empty Nesters

Empty Nest Renovation – Before Photos and Video

July 30, 2019September 21, 2015

Built in 1937, this little fixer upper needed some love and updating. The perfect empty nester adventure!

Oh my goodness this Empty Nest downsize and house renovation have been quite a ride. Just last summer we put our house in Laguna Niguel, CA (Orange County) on the market and this adventure began. We sold the house for the first time in late September, it fell out of escrow and then we sold it for the second time in December. We moved in to our fixer upper in Pasadena on January 5th, 2015. I have written several detailed posts that will help fill in the gaps for you:

We were only able to cram just about one third of our belongings into our little house in Pasadena. The balance of which is in storage and we know perfectly well that most of the rest of this “stuff” will never make it into the house. There is just not enough room and it will be time to purge when we move back in…which is actually a very good plan.

There are restrictions by the city as to how many square feet we may add based upon the size of the lot and the possibility of encroaching on our neighbors. We settled on adding a small master bath and walk-in master closet. The current closet was so small that we were forced to place a chrome hanging bar at the foot of our bed to hang the balance of our clothes. Very chic.

empty nester renovation — The closet was so small that we had a portable hanging rack in the middle of our master bedroom.

The Journey of Becoming a New Grandparent

March 24, 2020September 15, 2015

Teri and Roger are owners/innkeepers for the 1802 House Bed and Breakfast in Kennebunkport, Maine. Teri was was kind enough to share her personal thoughts about becoming a new grandparent. The beautiful 1802 House Bed and Breakfast is a member of the Select Registry Distinguished Inns of North America, has been awarded the TripAdvisor.com Certificate of Excellence, and is a BedandBreakfast.com Diamond Collection property.

Becoming a new grandparent – Insights from Teri

My husband and I are currently living in Maine where I’m lucky enough to be living my dream of owning and operating a Bed and Breakfast. My husband is English and we met in Boulder, Colorado 20 some years ago working at IBM when he was on assignment to the USA. We married and my daughter and I moved to the UK. I spent 20 years there and while it certainly feels like home now, I always had this desire to own an Inn. And really, the USA is the place to do that. We talked about it for years, looked occasionally and couldn’t find anything, then kept on with our corporate lives. In 2012, while we were in Kennebunkport on our first Maine holiday, we found THE INN. Perfect location, perfect size and a really beautiful property. Six months later, we had moved back to the USA and became the new owners of the 1802 House Bed and Breakfast.

Our Dream Adventure at the US Open Tennis Championships

September 14, 2015

US Open tennis — The walk in from the subway to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center ~ Spectacular!

You do not need to be a fan of the game to be aware of the tremendous upset in the world of tennis. In the biggest surprise of the tournament, Roberta Vinci, an unseeded Italian veteran playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, defeated Serena Williams, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Williams’ dream of tying Steffi Graf’s Grand Slam record of 22 wins and to be the first person since Graf did it in 1988, to win four Grand Slam tournaments in one calendar year was shattered on September 11, 2015. However, my dream of attending this historic Amercian tennis tradition came true.

Upscale and Urban: The Hyatt at Olive 8 in Seattle

September 8, 2015

We never tire of the spectacular views of the Seattle skyline and have been coming to Seattle for the past 9 years. Our daughter attended the University of Washington and never came home.(We have adjusted to this fact over time) Craig and I have discovered over the last few years that we prefer to stay at the …

Photo Friday – More of The Road Trip to Seattle

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015

photo Friday - Redwood Forest, CA — These Redwood trees are so enormous that it is extremely difficult to capture the size. However, we were so in awe that we kept snapping photos over and over.

Photo Friday is a great way to share additional favorite photos of the week. We have just arrived in Seattle, one of the most picturesque cities in the United States from a road trip we took from Pasadena, CA to Seattle, WA. Our route took us up the breathtaking Oregon Coast and there is no question of it’s photo worthiness!

Rocky coastlines, emerald water, towering sand dunes and grazing elk were just a few of the postcard views that we enjoyed. You can click here to read up on the adventure specifics of the trip. For now, I offer more of this Kodak moment that lasted for a thousand miles.

Have a great weekend.

photo Friday, Blueberry Pancakes smothered with butter and syrup — No post is complete without a photo of food. These buttery, Oregon blueberry pancakes were even better than they look

Experiences for Empty Nesters

June 12, 2016September 2, 2015

Making it happen in the empty nest.

Fall has arrived and a new class of empty nester parents are drying their eyes and lamenting the fact that their last baby has left the nest. What will they do now that Johnny and Sally are at school? Where did all of the time go? What shall we do next?

Have some fun.

Experiences for empty nesters are the answer.

My husband and I are four years into enjoying life as empty nesters. I do not wish to make light of this emotional, transitional, monumental time in our midlife years. However, what I have learned through these past four adventurous years is that there are many ways to be happy in the empty nest.

Make lists, take a class, dream big, explore the world, perfect a skill! However, what I truly believe will get you out of that slump and put a smile on your face is to go out and find adventure. Get out and make experiences happen and you will thrive. Pick up this motivating bestseller called Thrive by Arianna Huffington. It is an inspirational book to help you “remake the world in your own image, according to your own definition of success”

Road Trip to Seattle: Would I do it again?

March 24, 2020August 31, 2015

I am giving you fair warning that this post contains a great number of tedious details. Think of it as a road trip diary of sorts. I understand completely if you do not wish to continue, but thank you to the rest of you who are still reading. It feels good to for me to vent a little about our recent road trip to Seattle.

Did you take driving trips with your family as a kid? Did your grandparents land on the East Coast and make their way west by car?

Did you take your kids on family road trips?

My husband Craig traveled by car with his family every summer. He has fond, vivid memories of these vacations, discovering majestic national parks and visiting different parts of the United States. My family traveled by car only once to Missouri to visit family when I was 8. I hated it (for a multitude of reasons I won’t go into) then and the memory stayed with me.

With our young family of four, we drove as far as San Diego or Palm Desert and once we drove to Danville (Northern California) for a Thanksgiving Holiday with friends from our home in Southern California.

So other than an occasional short driving trip from point A to B, the Staverts always took a plane for vacation. Now as empty nesters, our focus has been on using airline miles and hotels points for parts unknown and usually far away.

When we decided to move to Seattle for 6 months (learn why here) we were moving with our dog Rocco (we did not want to ship him by air) and needed our car while in Seattle… We had to take a road trip. Yikes. That is not my idea of fun. I do not like sitting for hours at a time and Rocco had never been in a car for more than an hour. Craig’s job is very demanding and can’t be away for very long. This road trip presented some major personal challenges, but hopefully no disasters.

The Road Trip Plan

For reasons of comfort and tolerance (mine), we decided to break up the nearly 1200 mile trip into 3 1/2 days of driving and three overnight stays. We packed our SUV with as much of our belongings as possible which was mostly clothes, computers, dog stuff and flat screen TV. The only room left in the car was a small space in the back seat for Rocco’s bed and Rocco. Otherwise, every bit of air space was taken. This was truly a hillbilly-like situation.

Our first potty/food stop was a truck stop in Bakersfield at Burger King. Oh my favorite! It was a blistering 95 degrees and we found a small, dry stretch of grass for Rocco and we stood on this patch of grass while eating our “delicious” lunch. Rocco did his business and we were off. After easily 4 ½ hours of more driving, we traveled through San Francisco and tremendous traffic to stop in Santa Rosa for the night.

Skinny Dipping Can Kill You – 40th Anniversary of Jaws

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

Please welcome our newest Guest Adventurer, Steve Howen, who writes the very clever blog: Tales From An Empty Nest. Steve is married to M’Lissa and has two lovely grown children, Kelsey and Kendall.

Steve will captivate you with his stories. Do you remember when you saw Jaws for the first time? I was in 8th grade – How about you?

Forty years ago this spring, the beach seemed like a great place to my 14-year old male brain. Forty years ago today I would not have gotten into the waves if Cheryl Tiegs was waiting for me. I love the water and I loved Cheryl Tiegs (that year’s SI Swimsuit Edition Cover Model), but Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg ruined it all. According to the fine folks at the Florida Museum of Natural History, there have been just over a thousand shark attacks in the United States in the past 343 years, which seems like pretty good odds given the risks I am willing to take for a chicken-fried steak. Of course, like Mayor Larry Vaughn in the movie, the researchers may have had ulterior motives in protecting the tourism industry.

February always had one special treat. In 1975 it was Cheryl Tiegs. Photo Credit: Steve Howen.

Not much has been made of the film’s anniversary and I am not sure why. It is a seminal work in the thriller genre and one of the most popular movies ever made. Adjusted for inflation, Jaws still ranks seventh all time for ticket sales. But good, popular movies are made almost every year; it is the lasting impact of the film that sets Jaws apart. Other than dorky golfers quoting Caddyshack, I can not think of any film that is so strongly connected to an everyday activity decades after its release. And there are a lot more swimmers than duffers.

5 Excellent Reasons to Travel

August 19, 2015

A young monk welcomed us to Myanmar. — A young monk welcoming us to Myanmar.

This post is written by Tam Warner Minton of the super awesome blog: TravelswithTam

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett

Yesterday I wanted to meet a friend for lunch, but my car was in the shop. I called Uber and was quickly picked up by a friendly and delightful driver from Guinea, Africa. We began to talk about Guinea’s location, and he was overjoyed when he discovered that I had actually traveled to Africa and visited several countries there. A story emerged which highlighted, perfectly, why we should all travel. The driver worked on the morning of his daughter’s wedding, and he drove that day in the suit he was going to wear at the event. One of his clients asked him who it was that taught him how to put on a suit. You have to admit, that is a rather odd question. (The inference being, of course, that someone “civilized” had to have explained to him how to wear a suit). The driver, who speaks clear English and has been in the USA for almost 30 years, admitted he was very angry about it. People in America, he said, do not travel often enough, and have no idea about the cultures of other places. I agreed.

Since my discussion with him, I have done a little research, and yes, it is true that the vast majority of Americans have never traveled out of the country. I have had people tell me they are not interested in going to other places because America is the “best”. I’m not going to argue about patriotism, but my question is, how do you know? If you have never been to another country, how can you know what is “best”? And does everything have to be rated as good, better and best? Can’t it just be different? I realize that not everyone wants to travel, but there is no question that it provides invaluable experiences and insight to the traveler and to the people the traveler knows or meets. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” I agree, St Augustine, I agree.