The 4 (or 5) Day Getaway - Part II

Looking for a 4 Day Getaway? Try these! 

• Asheville, NC 

Stay:  The Omni Grove Park Inn or The Inn on the Biltmore Estate

Best Spa (by far):  The spa at The Omni Grove Park Inn

Definitely see:  The Biltmore Estate (Mansion, Gardens, Winery)

Activity:  Segway Tour of the Biltmore Estate

Shop:  Downtown Asheville

Favorite restaurants:  Sunny Pointe Café (great farm to table) and Stable Café (historical)

• Monterey/Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 

Stay:  Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa 

Best Spa:  Vista Blue Spa - top floor of the Monterey Plaza Hotel 

Definitely see:  the beautiful Pacific shoreline via The 17 Mile (bike or drive) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Activities:  Hike Point Lobos State Reserve (gorgeous) and take a Starlight Bioluminescence Kayak Tour at Elkhorn Slough. 

Shop:  Carmel Plaza (feels like you’re in a storybook) 

Favorite restaurants:  Mission Ranch Restaurant in Carmel (Clint Eastwood is the owner) and Lulu’s Griddle in the Middle on Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey; get clam chowder in a bread bowl at any restaurant (we liked Lalla Oceanside Grill in Monterey right on Cannery Row).  

• Sedona, AZ 

Stay:  L’ Auberge de Sedona 

Best Spa:  L’Auberge de Sedona (try a massage by the babbling creek!)

Definitely see:  Chapel of the Holy Cross, Oak Creek Canyon, and the sunset over Sedona at Airport Mesa 

Activities:  Hike!!!  Sedona is one of the best destinations for hiking in the country.  If MOAB is too ginormous for you, go to Sedona.  It’s absolutely breathtaking.  Also take a Pink Jeep Tour (we liked the Broken Arrow).

Shop:  Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village

Favorite restaurants:  Indian Gardens Café and Market (best sandwiches EVER!), The Pump House Urban Eatery and Market, and Mariposa (go for lunch and sit outside for an extraordinary view).

• San Diego, CA 

Stay: Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island, The Sofia Hotel in the Gaslamp District (boutique hotel)

Best Spa:  The Spa Torrey Pines; if you book a spa treatment, you get full unlimited access to the fitness studio, steam room, sauna, and inhalation room.  

Definitely see:  San Diego Zoo, The Whaley House in Old Town (supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S.), Coronado Island, the sea lions sunbathing in La Jolla Cove, Balboa Park and Sea World.

Activities:  Hike Torrey Pines State Park (try an early morning hike followed by spa day at Torrey Pines), and a day of wine tasting in Temecula.  

Shop: Seaport Village

Favorite restaurants:  Herringbone in La Jolla and Casa de Reyes in Old Town.

• Chicago, IL  

Stay:  theWit (it has a nice view of the city, rooftop lounge with sweeping skyline views, a great spa, and it’s located near the theater district)

Spa:  Spa@theWit

Definitely see:  Navy Pier, Millennium Park, any of the great museums, the Shedd Aquarium, or a Cubs game (Wrigley Field is historical).

Activities:  beach day at Oak Street Beach on Lake Michigan, Broadway in Chicago musical

Shop:  the Magnificent Mile, Water Tower Place

Favorite restaurants: There’s a million places to eat in Chicago!  If you go to the theater, two favorites are Trattoria No. 10 and Catch 35, both near the theater district.

• San Francisco, CA 

Stay:  at a boutique hotel.  There’s dozens and many are like B&Bs.  

Definitely see:  Alcatraz (night tours are eerie), Pier 39, and Golden Gate Park (take a Segway tour or rent a bike to see it - it’s SO BIG),

Activities:  walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, take a hike at Muir Woods; the giant redwoods are incredible.

Favorite restaurant:  The Tonga Room and Hurricane Bar at the Fairmont Hotel.

• Washington, D.C.

Stay:  Holiday Inn Washington - Capital (SO CLOSE to the National Mall)

Definitely see:  The Smithsonian (two favorites are Air and Space and American History), ALL of the war memorials, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the White House, the Tidal Basin, U.S. Capitol, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jefferson Memorial and more - grab a map and see what you have time for.  If you can rent or bring a bike, do it.  D.C. is a bike friendly town and there’s a lot of walking at the National Mall.  

Activity:  You’ll get your exercise walking or biking the National Mall!

Favorite restaurants:  the food trucks - D.C. is known for them and there are dozens to choose from.  There are also dozens of historical restaurants like Old Ebbitt Grill, 1789, Historic Cedar Knoll Restaurant, Occidental Grill, and Ben’s Chili Bowl.   

• Virginia Beach, VA

Stay:  on Atlantic Avenue (ocean front)

Definitely see:  Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, Cape Henry Lighthouse, Virginia Aquarium

Activities:  Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Water Country USA, the Virginia Beach Boardwalk - biking, walking, rollerblading, horseback riding, surrey rental, fitness park 

Shop:  Town Center 

Favorite restaurants:  Chick’s Oyster Bar, Rudee’s Restaurant and Cabana Bar, Catch 31; for breakfast, The Bee and the Biscuit, Bay Local, and Hair of the Dog Eatery. 

The 4 (or 5) Day Getaway - Part I

Weeklong vacations to exotic locales are exciting and adventurous, BUT can be pricey and can eat up a lot of vacation time if you're not retired.  Sometimes all you need is a 4-5 Day Getaway somewhere in the U.S., maybe even your own (or a neighboring) state.  Retired or not, the 4 Day Getaway can be perfect.  If you’re still working, tack on a couple of vacation days to the weekend and the 4 Day Getaway will feel like you’ve vacationed without taking a lot of time off work.  For retirees, the 4 Day Getaway can save some cash by traveling between Sunday and Thursday.  You can pack a lot into 4 days - sightseeing, shopping, outdoor activities, and dining with time left to relax.  Planning the perfect trip can be a lot of fun once you get past the first 3 all-important (but most stressful) steps - Choosing Your Destination - Making Travel Plans - Booking Accommodations.  

We chose beautiful Monterey and hiked near Big Sur.

Destination.  Where do you want to go?  Whether flying or driving, you want to choose somewhere you can get to in a few hours to avoid spending a lot of time getting to and from your destination.  Choose a destination with weather conducive to the activities you want to include.  Our trip to Monterey in June was perfect for biking and hiking with temps hovering around 70, but if we were planning on beach time (in bathing suits) we would have chosen a different destination (brrrr).  

Travel Plans.  Road trip or flying?  If flying cross country, catching an early non-stop flight will afford you time to hop in a rental car and drive to your destination with time left to enjoy your first day.  Although we had to drive 2 hours to our Sedona destination from the Phoenix airport, we were fortunate enough to get an early non-stop flight, so we could take advantage of a full afternoon of activities on Day 1.  (The time change helped too!)  For closer destinations, there’s always the road trip.  Our road trip to Asheville, NC was 9 hours.  Flying time would have been the same (or more) after tallying up the hours it takes to get to the airport, sit and wait, fly, rent a car and drive the two hours from airport to hotel (no nearby airport).  Road trips can be fun, especially when you have beautiful scenery and fun stops along the way.  If choosing the road trip option, plan some attractions to see on the way to your destination.  Stops on the road trip can be a fun part of the agenda.  

This was our balcony view in Sedona!

Accommodations.  Make your accommodations part of the experience, not just a place to lay your head at night.  Our girls getaways almost always include a spa experience so we try and stay at spa resorts when we can.  Don’t forget scenery - our Sedona trip would not have been the same without a balcony view of “Snoopy Rock”.  While in San Francisco, our stay at a boutique hotel with it’s old style elevator and cozy rooms was part of the adventure.  If you are an AARP member, always mention that - you might get a discount.  When traveling with a group of friends, splurge on the fancier accommodations and share the cost.   

Once you’ve tackled destination, travel plans, and accommodations, the rest is easy and fun.  What are you going to do?  What do you want to see?  Where do you want to eat?  Use Trip Advisor and travel blogs - they can be your best friends.  Create a list of desired activities, build an agenda and make dining and activity reservations if you can.  With a 4 day getaway, you almost have to have an agenda to help your vacay run smoothly and reservations save you from wasted time and disappointment. 

On our bike ride down the Pacific coast.

Dining.  Dinner reservations will cut down on time wasted waiting for a table, so make them if you can!  Trip Advisor is extremely helpful when choosing your restaurants.  Take advantage of the reviews, pay attention to price, and try cuisine that is native to the region (again, part of the adventure).  On our girls getaway to Asheville, NC, we had fun trying each restaurant’s version of fried green tomatoes.  In Monterey, it was the clam chowder!    

Activities.  In addition to regional cuisine, try regional activities!  Challenge yourself to attempting something on every trip that’s out of your comfort zone (within reason).  In Sedona, we climbed a mountain.  In Monterey, we kayaked at night with the seals, otters, and bioluminescent plankton and biked down the coast.  Don't forget to make reservations for activities as well!  Our Alcatraz Night Tour in SF had to be booked 90 days in advance.  A nice mixture of physical activity, sight-seeing, and shopping makes for a great getaway.  Relax in the evening with a  yummy meal, a crisp wine, and stimulating conversation!                     

Kayaking with sea life. 

Next Week:  Part II of the The 4 (or 5) Day Getaway - Destination Ideas

Is Your Retirement Fulfilling or Just Busy?

If you ask many retirees how they like retirement, you nearly always get the response, “I don’t know when I had time to work!”  Their days are filled with shopping, errands, and appointments; get-togethers with friends are regularly calendared.  They have time to do everything they wanted to do when they were working but never had time for and can be  completely selfish with their time.  But does that really bring happiness?   

    

After a couple of years of retirement and going through the honeymoon period of taking full control of how you spend your day, you may ask yourself if you are happy just being busy.  You may have settled into a routine that you consider fun - lunch dates with friends, morning workouts, matinees; you may have taken on some fun projects like redecorating the house or taking trips here or there several times a year (just because you can) - all fun, or at least pleasant, but you may feel dissatisfied.  Can’t imagine feeling dissatisfied in retirement?  If you were lucky enough to find fulfillment in your career, you most likely strive to find fulfillment in retirement as well, and simple pleasures may not be cutting it.    

After the daily jubilee of “Yay!  I’m retired!  I don't have to go to work today!” wears off, it’s common to feel some type of loss - could be loss of social interaction, lack of purpose, or a feeling of disconnection - so we fill up our time with being busy.  We fill up our new free time with pleasures.  Although important, pleasures don’t always fulfill our need for a purpose.  Thinking back on your life when you worked, you were respected, valued, needed.  Your feedback and advice meant something.  You were part of something larger than yourself.  If you found your career fulfilling, you were probably pretty important.  So why do you need to have a fulfilling and purposeful retirement after years of working in a fulfilling and purposeful career?  What's wrong with just doing nothing in retirement?

Part of what kept you going in your career was your purpose - whether it be the love of your work or a need for the money.  Without purpose, you'll end up drifting along, losing motivation.  Instead of running the day, the day will run you.  The difference between pleasure and fulfillment is that pleasure comes from external sources - sitting by the lake with a warm cappuccino, walking on a sunny beach in the middle of January. Fulfillment comes from within.  Fulfillment comes from things like sharing your legacy, benefiting the social good, or continually improving your physical and mental fitness.  It might come from exploring your passion or learning a new skill. 

Retirement seems like the perfect time in your life to find that purposeful life.  What skills and traits do you possess that can be used to leave people, places and things better than how you found them?  What events and relationships are worthy of your time?  I used to shape the minds of children and help other teachers hone their craft in my previous career as a teacher.  Now, when I spend time with my grandsons, I help them discover the world by taking them on "field trips" or reading to them.  The adventure trips that I plan each year for our girls getaway inspires all of us to step outside our comfort zones and push ourselves mentally and physically.  Enrolling in a photography class to sharpen my skills has helped me preserve important events in the lives of my family and friends.  My routine of a daily dose of vitamin D through hiking, biking, and gardening sets a positive tone for my day.  After two years of the "no plan plan," I'm finding my purpose in retirement.   

Don’t be afraid to leave your profession, explore your passion, and take a risk at trying something new.  A healthy mixture of pleasure and fulfillment seems perfect.