Celebrate love with DIY Cards. This screenshot was taken at the AARP free class: Make Your Own Valentine’s Day Cards and Envelopes, Hawaii 1/31/23
It’s February! That means it’s Carpe Diem Seizin’ – or for you language purists, Carpe Diem Season (I love a good pun!) There are so many February holidays that celebrate love.
We all know about Valentine’s Day, but peek into one of those sites that list all the many, many holidays you never heard of and you’ll find that February also has little-known special days that celebrate love.
Of course, you can celebrate love by sending a card on any of these thousands of holidays, but I’d like to highlight a few of my favorites:
Carpe Diem Day (Feb.26)
Celebrate Love during Carpe Diem Seizin’
That’s right people, Carpe Diem Day is coming up on February 26th, but of course every day is a good day to celebrate! (Note that this Website carpediemday.com, was created in honor of CarpeDiemDay!)
I love that Walmart has an option to create your own custom cards with photos! This was such an easy and affordable option! For those of us that have difficulties getting our traditional holiday cards out on time, this is an opportunity to write back to those who sent us holiday cards! I love including photos with memories of the times I spent with the person I’m sending the cards to.
I love that Letter to an Elder Day is on February 26th! That’s the same day as Carpe Diem Day! This is a NEW special day. But what’s even more cool is that I’ve volunteered for the organization that created this day: Love for our Elders.
Watching a sunrise or sunset will inspire awe and might help us with finding purpose in retirement.
Finding purpose in retirement was one of my January goals.
I’m a bit obsessed with self-help literature. My self-appointed retirement “job” is to be as healthy and happy as possible. All the positive psychology literature says that “purpose” is very important.. kind of a pre-requisite to happiness and health! In fact, I keep reading articles about how having purpose is instrumental in longevity. It’s come up over and over again as one of the most important factors for health and happiness.
Anyway, I admit, my purpose has been kind of sketchy lately. If I split life into 5 different 20-year segments, I’d say my purpose was/is/will be:
Years 0-20: School / Learning
Years 21-40: Good Mother / Job / Good Wife
Years 41-60: Good Mother / Job / Look for new Husband
Years 60-80: Play?!?
Years 80-100: TBD
Yes, I’ve been doing a LOT of playing in these retirement years when no one is dependent on me. We’re down to the final 40 years of life and I didn’t do nearly enough playing in the first 60. (Maybe that’s why I never found that new husband…)
But I digress…
Besides “playing,” I do find purpose during these retirement years in accomplishing goals. It helps me to have a Yearly Project, such as my 2022 Year of Microadventures.
My 2023 project is focused on Learning. I plan to take a class each month and be very focused and engaged, finding opportunities to apply what I’m learning to my life. My topic for January was Purpose.
Finding Purpose in Retirement through Coursera Class: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life
Unlike the usual way I take Coursera classes (which is to listen to a couple of videos and then never finish the whole course because I get distracted by tons of other things) I stayed focused! I was super-intentional about doing the readings, listening to the videos, doing the exercises, and even participating in the forums. I was very purposeful about taking this course on purpose. (Yup, pun intended.)
Books for finding purpose in retirement
I also read 3 excellent Self-Help Books that addressed purpose:
Finding Purpose in Retirement from reading “The Power of Meaning”
Stella loaned me this book and it’s probably the first self-help book that I read cover to cover. (I’m always so motivated in January to meet my goals!)
The book split Meaning into Four Pillars: Belonging, Purpose, Storytelling, and Transcendence. I had a lot of “ah ha” moments and very deep reflections about the meaning of life. Way too much for this blog post that I’m trying to write fast since it’s the last day of January.
Wow! This is an amazing book! I saw that the Boulder Library was looking for people to lead a Book Circle with their One Book One Boulder Program, so I signed up! I’ll be blogging more about this so stay tuned!
Finding Purpose in Retirement by reading, “Los Cuatro Acuerdos” – The Four Agreements in Spanish!
The third self-help book I’m re-reading (but this time in Spanish!) is Los Cuatro Acuerdos (The Four Agreements) by Don Miguel Ruiz. This is a classic! I’m reading it with my friend, Cathy, so we’re having both a Spanish-practice session as well as being reminded of these Four Agreements:
Be impeccable with your word
Don’t take anything personally
Don’t make assumptions
Always do your best
Spirituality
One common thread in a lot of the literature about purpose is belief in something greater than ourselves. I’m a Christian, but admittedly, I haven’t spent much time in church since Covid began.
I started a new Sunday morning tradition to get up to see the sunrise, take a long walk along the beach, and then go to a church service.
Finding purpose in Retirement: The Feeling of Awe from watching the sun rise
Finding Purpose in Retirement: The Harvey Memorial Community Church
Walking distance from Leffis Key in Bradenton Beach where I watch the sunrise is this little community church that I attended last Sunday. The congregation was welcoming (I was the only new member!) and the Reverend was an excellent (very funny!) speaker.
Summary
This blog post has already gotten long so I won’t try to recapture all that I learned about finding purpose and meaning in this short summary. I will tell you, though, that many times when I reflected on the wise words of these teachers, authors, and speakers, I was moved to tears.
Life, and the meaning we bring, is such a mystery. It’s easy to think none of what we do matters.. we all die..
But what we do now, while we’re alive, will matter to the other people who are alive now. And what we do now will influence others, who will in turn influence future generations.
I guess what it all boils down to is love. I started the year thinking my purpose was “to be as happy and healthy as possible” but I’m going to update it to this: My purpose is to love.
Yvy (pronounced “Evie”) and BB at Robinson Preserve
Last year I blogged at least once a week about my Microadventures. This year I’ve been going with “Healthy Aging” as my loosey-goosey theme. I’ve also thought about blogging each week about someone I admire. I can do a twofer with this post by blogging about Becky and how she contributes to my brain health!
Healthy Aging
One thing that’s super-important for healthy aging and brain health is having good friends. Having new experiences is also great for the brain, so new experiences with good friends is like a double-dose of brain food!
During my snowbird months while I’m in Bradenton, FL, I’ve wanted to get into a routine. My best and very wise friend in the area is Becky Burns. We are both busy with our various projects, but I asked Becky if we could have a weekly get-together while I was in Florida. I love weekly rituals and rather than comparing calendars every week, it’s so much easier to just have a regular day/time blocked off so I can look forward to “BB Time!”
We agreed that Tuesday mornings worked well for both of us and Becky suggested that each week we could do different “microadventures” such as walks, paddle-boarding, cafes, beach, etc. Perfect!
A New Experience: Robinson Preserve and Sage Biscuit Cafe
I asked Becky to pick our first outing. The next morning I got an email titled, “2023 Tuesdays with BB & Yvie #1: Robinson Preserve.” I love the title of the email, both because it caters to my systematic titling of activities and uses my self-suggested nickname! (Though, I like spelling it Yvy, even more to really confuse people!)
Robinson Preserve is a 600+-acre coastal preserve located in northwestern Bradenton.Plenty of scenic hiking for Jack, Becky, and I to enjoy.Delicious healthy brunch at Sage Biscuit Cafe in Bradenton
Someone I admire: Rebecca Burns!
Becky is a wonderful blog-post topic for a variety of reasons:
She’s always interesting, fun, creative, witty, and willing to try new things.
She doesn’t mind being the topic of blog posts!
She’s one of the few people who reads my blog and often sends me a supportive comment, even when I know I’m being lazy about the writing.
In the Spring of 2020, we were Covid Lockdown partners at her home and she was my co-host on Season 2 of my Carpe Diem Connections Podcast.
Knowing I’d be in Florida for the winter, Tony invited me to join him in Orlando for yet another flying adventure! (I’d also had an unexpected hang-gliding adventure in November).
Wow! Another opportunity to fly? I only wish I’d had my SuperCarpeDiemWoman cape! (Well, actually, we had to wear a special flight suit so… nevermind about the cape. At least I had my butterfly pants and Carpe Diem shirt for the pre-flight picture.)
iFly Indoor Skydiving was yet another activity that I didn’t even know existed!
“Cousin” Tony is friend, family, and most importantly, a VIP Carpe Diem Adventurer!
What’s it like to have an iFly Indoor Skydiving Adventure?
Tony, an experienced iFlyer, had bought us each three flights with one of them being a high flight, where the instructor brought us up high in the wind tunnel and spun us around.
We didn’t have our phones or cameras when we were all suited up and flying, so no pictures of me flying, but here’s a YouTube video of what it’s like:
Yeah, that’s exactly what it was like! OK, we weren’t doing any fancy flips, but our instructor, Ryan, did tell me I did “very well.” And for the record, he didn’t say that to everyone. I was a proud graduate of the First Flight of iFly Flying School.
My Certificate of Completion of my first iFly flight
iFly Indoor Skydiving is for every age!
I thought this might be a fun thing to do with Diego and Reneya and asked what age range could fly.
“The youngest is 3 and we’ve had a few people who are over 100,” answered Ryan.
Ages 3 to over 100! One of the women in our group was celebrating her 70th birthday. I love an activity that spans all generations! Maybe I’ll take Mom, too!
If you’re looking for something fun and exciting to do, fly it out!
Water Drinking is not usually considered fun, but it’s time to change that!
It’s a new year and I’ve really been struggling with figuring out my 2023 “theme.” The year of Microadventures was so successful and I wanted to figure out something equally fun that I could blog about each week.
I had a lot of different ideas that sort of fizzled.. a year of learning, a year of helping, a year of new people, a year of healthy habits. My friend, Michael Bolé shared an article about a woman who did a new thing every day! Oh! That’s appealing!
I’m nixing any of the “every day” ideas, though. I’m already pressured enough not to break my Duolingo streak (I’m on Day 1403, thank you very much!)
Healthy Habit For Week1: Drink More Water
The “healthy habit” I was focusing on for Week 1 was “Drink More Water.” So trite and boring. Been there, done that. Certainly water-drinking is about as opposite of a “new thing” as you can get. We literally do it every day and it doesn’t even taste that good! Which I guess is why it’s so hard to drink as much as we’re always told to drink. And don’t get me started at how inconvenient it is to have to pee so much!
Making Water Drinking Fun: Hydration Bars
But that new-thing-every-day article got me thinking: How can I have an “adventure” with water drinking – do something I’ve never done before.. I’d remembered hearing something about “hydration bars” and I excitedly googled “Hydration Bar near me” and several local-area options came up!
“That’s it!” I thought. “I will have an adventure at a Hydration Bar this week!” I pictured myself in a new-age spa doing something really edgy and trendy, yet healthy… a healthy version of a Hookah Bar experience. (This idea excited me. I once wanted to try a Hookah Bar experience… but then I learned it involved smoking.)
Anyway, I checked into Hydration Bars and found out that these aren’t really “bars.” They are IV treatments that start at about $150!
This idea quickly lost its appeal. I’ve had an IV and it’s not at all exciting. Also, I’m really cheap. I don’t even like to pay for the fancy waters in the grocery store.
And just because they call it a “Cocktail” does not make it a fun drink! Those are cockamamie tales! “Crocktales!” That will be my new word for these “Hydration IV Treatments” that you get at “Hydration Bars.” (Not to be confused with Mocktails, which really are quite lovely non-alcoholic drinks you can now get at some real bars.)
Poor man’s “hydration treatment”
I googled “Why do people go to hydration bars when they can just drink water?” thinking I must be missing something. The AARP article, The Truth Behind Trendy IV Vitamin Water Therapy confirmed my assumptions that basically, this would be a ridiculous over-priced “adventure.” (Come to think of it, that’s true of many “adventures” but I’ll save that rant for another day).
Cheaper Ways to Make Water Drinking More Fun
I decided to “be me” and do something cheap, yet pretty and different to liven up my water-drinking experience: Making infused water.
My attempt at “infused water”
The result was not nearly as pretty as the pictures in the article.. are the strawberries supposed to float? Of course, the “Squeeze the Day” quote on the water bottle makes it fun even if this doesn’t look like the magazine or taste much different from water.
I also splurged on a “fancy water” from the grocery story! ($2.49 is much better than a $239 Kate Crocktale!)
This was surprisingly delicious. It was sweet. I’m guessing that whatever sugar (or fake sugar) they put in this drink to make it so tasty negates any of the health benefits from drinking it. Oh well. It still was a new experience.
Finally, to round out this exciting water-drinking adventure, I bought a new water filter pitcher. This will not only keep my water clean, but helps me monitor that I’m drinking my daily quota. (Logging was not working for me.)
As for me 2023 theme? I’ve decided on “Healthy Aging.” .. on the cheap!
Visiting Patsy for a holiday lunch in her St. Augustine Home
A Holiday Lunch with Patsy
A couple of years ago, when I reconnected with my long-time poker friend, Chris Blakeslee, who would have guessed I’d fall in love… with his mother! Actually, I love his whole family, but I’ve been especially drawn to his mother, Patsy.
Patsy has such a spunky energy about her. An officer’s wife, she knows how to entertain and exudes southern hospitality. She always makes me feel so welcome and I really look forward to seeing her whenever I’m passing through St. Augustine.
I want to be careful not to impose, though. When I was driving from Chapel Hill to Bradenton at the end of the year, I asked her if I could stop by and maybe bring us some ready-made lunch. She said she had some soup and that if I liked that, how about I stop by at 12:30?
What a surprise I got when I arrived (30 minutes late) and stepped into the most beautifully decorated house ever! I just love Christmas decor! When I was a kid, I used to dream about decorating my house the way Patsy has (but soon learned how much work it is to have a lot of decorations!)
Photos from our holiday lunch visit
I love this beautiful sun room with the tree full of special ornamentsSanta was sleeping in “my” bed! (I got to sleep in this cozy room last time I visited.)Formal dining room with holiday decorEven the bathroom had sweet holiday touches
Patsy’s home always looks like something out of a Better Home & Gardens Magazine, but how special for me to get to see it during the holiday season.
And that’s not all! Patsy had made a gorgeous broccoli-vegetable soup, served on Christmas-themed dishware! We had sparkling Prosecco and I felt as though I was at the most elegant of Christmas luncheons! (And embarrassingly under-dressed!)
Broccoli vegetable soup looks as pretty as the rest of the decor
Patsy, of course, looked as elegant and stylish as ever. Doesn’t she look like she should be in a magazine, herself? I’m in awe of her grace and beauty.
Patsy, always so stylish!
As always, we had a lovely visit. I got to meet Patsy’s sisters and other family over the Thanksgiving weekend, so now I almost feel like part of the family myself!
Such a fun end-of-year visit with my charming friend and her little dog, Abbey. Patsy shows me that it’s possible to be forever young. I already can’t wait for our next get-together!
For my 60th Birthday my family and friends gave me National Carpe Diem Day!A special sign was made and the “Carpe Diem” Fish had the names of the people who had contributed
I rarely take the time to respond to podcasts, but it’s January 1, and I’m always motivated to take action in the New Year. Also, I have a great answer to these questions!
What’s the best gift you ever received? Who gave it to you? Why was it so great? If you have an answer to that question, make a voice memo. Use your phone. Just talk nice and directly into the phone, in a quiet place. Tell us your name, and send it to NSQ@freakonomics.com, and we may play it on a future show.
The best gift I ever received is “National Carpe Diem Day”! My friends and family, led by my daughter-in-law, Stella Min, were able to purchase and register National Carpe Diem Day on February 26th, my birthday, in the National Day Archives. The gift came complete with a Registry write-up that still makes me tear up. I was been inspired by my friend, Craig Dunham, who, despite an ALS diagnosis, lived fully until his death in December, 2010. Since then, I’ve spread the message of “Carpe Diem” in his memory.
Since receiving this gift, I’ve created a Website, CarpeDiemDay.com, and use my blog and social media to try and promote the same kind of Carpe Diem attitude that I learned from Craig.
Note 2: Stella is the most Stellar gift-giver EVER! I have to resist from telling you what she gave me for Christmas… ok, ok, I’ll tell you. I’m getting a photo collage every morning in my inbox of times we spent together.. On Dec.25th, there were 63 days until my 63 birthday, so it’s a 63-to-63 gift!
It’s getting late on New Year’s Eve and I’m enjoying a tradition that I’ve grown to love – quiet reflection about the events of the past year as I peruse my photos, journals, and blog posts.
Last year my New Years Resolution was to have at least one “Microadventure” a week with at least one other person and blog about it. I thought it would help me be more intentional about creating fun experiences with people I love and maybe make some new friends, too! It turned out to be a huge success!
Some of my favorite Microadventures
When I describe this project, people often ask what were some of my favorites. Here are some that are memorable for me:
Santa School Graduation – This was fun because it was a surprise (Thank you, Michael Bolé!), something that I loved and didn’t even know such a school existed!
Santa School Graduation
Hang-gliding in Nags Head, NC – This was special because I didn’t ever think I’d even want to try hang-gliding! Doing it with my kids was extra special!
Hang-gliding school in Nags Head
In this summer-time MMAP (Multi-MicroAdventure Post) (which was light on blogging), I loved realizing that my life was filled with daily Microadventures! I especially thought it was cute when Reneya suggested we go to IHOP as a Microadventure.
Quotidian Microadventures including IHOP with the kids!
Of course, I loved all Microadventures that included my grandchildren, but this Trick-or-Trot 5K race was another highlight for me because I never thought I’d be able to run another race!
The Arvada Trick-or-Trot 5K with my favorite “foods”
This post about a series of Microadventures while I was in Florida reminded me that the people were the magic ingredient that made my adventures so special.
This popular Big Panda quote capture the importance of the people in our lives.
Oh my goodness! Yes, there are so many more that I love because I love the people! I’m so grateful for all of the people who shared this year with me. What wonderful memories. My heart is full.
Worked well
The people! Whether family, good friend, or someone I was just meeting, doing this with at least one other person made it extra special!
Knowing that I was going to be writing about my Microadventures, I took more pictures, and paid closer attention to the details of the event. I often provided a hyperlink, and that would give me more information about the place I visited.
Writing the blog posts helped solidify the memory for me. Tonight, as I’m reading through the many, many (117+) Microadventures I’ve had, I’m amazed at all the incredible experiences I’ve had this year.
It helped to not plan too much! As I was thinking about my favorites, a lot of what made them my favorites is that they were unexpected or surprising in some way.
I was very flexible on my “rules”.. which made it very easy for me to come up with at least one Microadventure every week.
I had microadventures even on the weeks that were hard for me for some reason.. When I look back at the year, I’m reminded much more of these happy memories rather than my difficult ones.
Could have been better
My WordPress skills
My writing skills
I haven’t spent the time to write about all my recent Microadventures and its the last day of the year! I have a few more to catch up on!
What I’ll do next year
Continue weekly blogging
Take at least one class a month (including a class on writing)
Continue looking for new experiences and people to enjoy them with!
Microadventure #111: Stay at the Sunflower House in Wilmington, NC
After leaving Nags Head, Matt, Stella and I headed down the coast to the town of Wilmington, NC. We stayed at this charming Airbnb named the Sunflower House after the Van Gogh masterpiece.
Sunflower Mural on the side of the Sunflower House in Wilmington.
Stella needed to work our first day in Wilmington, but Matt and I ventured out to the RiverWalk and did another DIY Walking Tour (we’d also done one in Asheville), learning some of the history of the town. We also perused the Cotton Exchange shopping center, all decked out for the holidays.
Microadventure #112: Cape Fear River Walk in WilmingtonChristmas Tree decorated with Cotton in the Cotton Exchange Shopping Area
The following day we learned a lot more about the history of Wilmington at the very informative Cape Fear Museum.
Microadventure #113: Cape Fear Museum
This museum included a photo scavenger hunt, and, yes, even though it’s for children, I thoroughly enjoyed finding all the items. It was only a little embarrassing when Matt let the museum personnel know that I’d completed the scavenger hunt and should get the promised prize. It turned out to be a sticker which wasn’t enough to warrant the embarrassment, but I admit, I was curious about the prize myself.
One of the most interesting things we learned on the tour was about the 1898 coup at which White Supremacists overthrew the government in the only successful insurrection in America’s history.
I was amazed that I’d been unaware of this important and mostly hidden piece of American History. Matt, Stella and I watched the Documentary, Wilmington On Fire to learn more, and as we were leaving Wilmington we visited the 1898 Memorial.
Microadventure #114: 1898 Memorial
While we were at this Memorial, I saw a bus advertising Website, WilmingtonColor.com. Though we didn’t discover this site or opportunity to learn more about this heritage tour until we were leaving Wilmington, it’s on our list for our next visit.
Future Microadventure: WilmintoNColor Tour
Another thing I learned about Wilmington is that it is the home of Carnivorous plants, including the Venus Fly Trap. We visited the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden and learned that the Venus Fly Trap can only be found in a 75-100 mile radius of Wilmington! The Venus Fly Traps were really quite tiny and hard to find – not the big scary-looking plants that I’d imagined based on The Little Shop of Horrors!
Microadventure #115: Venus Fly Traps at the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden
One of the surprisingly interesting Wilmington Microadventures was touring the USS North Carolina Battleship with Matt. I say ‘surprisingly’ here because I’ve never been that interested in Battleships. I wouldn’t have picked this particular tour on my own, but Matt wanted to go, so I thought, ‘why not?’ secretly hoping we wouldn’t spend too much time there. We ended up spending at least 3 hours as we slowly went through the huge ship, taking it all in.
Microadventure #116: USS North Carolina Battleship
It was incredible to me that the men who served on this ship in the 1930’s might still be alive today and that all the technology that controlled the ship was before the age of personal computers or the Internet. Also crazy how uncomfortable and lacking in privacy it must have been for them with very uncomfortable looking bunks stacked up four in a row.
Matt joins me for a fun Happy Huladays pose!
There’s so much more I could write about each of these microadventures. In fact, there are quite a few more experiences we enjoyed in Wilmington, including crossing the bridge from One Tree Hill, exploring unique coffee shops and dinner spots, and Civil War Memorials.
Mostly, it was just wonderful to be sharing these microadventures with Matt and Stella. Even when we all lived in Colorado, we rarely travelled together.. or even saw each other much during the Covid years. I feel super-grateful to them for this trip and for this past two months full of new experiences and memories!
Microadventure #117: One Tree Hill Bridge Biggest Adventure – Spending Holiday Time with Matt and Stella!
As I mentioned in my last post, hang gliding was just one of many microadventures I experienced in Nags Head, NC last week.
Microadventure #106: Dinner at The Jingle 12 Christmas Themed Pop-up
Matt, Stella, and I arrived at Nags Head on Friday, Dec.9th, in time for dinner. It turns out that this is the off-season in Nags Head and the first three dinner places we tried to eat at were closed (they really need to do better at keeping their Websites current.)
We’d passed this very festive-looking place called “Jingle 12” which I thought looked perfect! Matt, however, had given it a thumbs down. Even after three of his picks were closed, he wanted to go to the Outback.
It took a bit of persuasion, but I finally convinced Matt to try Jingle 12. We were all pleasantly surprised. Sure, it was over-the-top Christmas, but if you’re gonna decorate, go big, right? Every inch of this place was covered with lights and Christmas decor. The theme continued to the menus with holiday-themed drinks and dishes.
The food was delicious and unique. We even took home a cookie sampler as though we’d been to a traditional cookie exchange party.
All of this was a “pop-up,” only available for the month of December! Despite Matt’s initial hesitation, Matt, Stella, and I all agreed that it was the perfect way to start our Nags Head Microadventures.
Scotty arrived in Nags Head, joining us at the Airbnb late Friday night. Saturday morning, our first stop was Bodie Island Lighthouse.
We read about this history and debated about it’s ‘distinctive’ black and white design. (When Scotty and Matt are together, everything is a debate.)
We also walked through the grounds with the dogs (though, unfortunately, this is where they may have been exposed to ticks). Still, it was good to get some steps in and just the beginning of our very full day.
Me, Scotty, Stella, and Matt – Walking around Bodie Island with the Lighthouse in the backgroundMicroadventure #108: Elizabethan Gardens
The family discussions and walking continued as we roamed through the beautiful Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, NC. The grounds were gorgeous and decorated for the holiday season.
Matt, Stella, Mochi, and Choco
The snowmen bench provided the perfect photo op for family holiday cards.
These gardens were meant to recreate the gardens of England and as a memorial for the Lost Colony – settlers that came over to the area over 400 years ago.
Personally, I didn’t know anything about the Lost Colony, but one of the guides at the park, told us all about it. We got a kick out of his dramatic story-telling. Maybe I’m getting used to the faster speed that Matt & Stella listen to podcasts, because I was getting a bit impatient with his theatrical pauses and rhetorical questions.
I have to admit, the story was a lot more interesting than a typical history class and did whet my appetite for wanting to learn more.
After our hang gliding experience, we continued our busy day by going to the Wright Brothers Memorial and Museum.
The museum celebrates the history of flight describing Wilbur and Orville’s early designs and trials.
It’s really amazing that those first flights were a mere 120 years ago! We’ve come such a long way in such a short time.
Microadventure #110: Beach house Airbnb stay
One of the novelties of any vacation is the lodging. Since Airbnb has become an option, it’s especially fun to be able to stay at places other than hotels. Stella’s especially good at finding unique and beautiful places, and this trip was no different. We were at a house right on the beach where we could hear the waves crashing to shore from our beds.
After our busy Saturday of Microadventures, Scotty suggested we watch the Star Wars Holiday Special. This 1978 made-for-TV special apparently was considered so bad that it won the #1 in The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History. One of my favorite memories of the day was listening to Matt and Scotty laughing hysterically at some of the Chewbacca family scenes.
The next morning we played board games before checking out and eating our final meal in the Outer Banks. Scotty needed to head back to Virginia and Matt, Stella, and I were headed to Wilmington.
It was a short trip for Scotty, but fully loaded. And in just a couple of weeks, he’ll be coming back to North Carolina for Christmas!
