audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Biggie for me today - 20 years retired! And since I am 59, I’m still early retired! 
I was originally going to retire at the end of July, but when I looked at my accumulated vacation hours, I found out that there was a limit for how much they would pay me. So I proposed to my boss that I take a week off in July and let my replacement see how things went, and then return for a week in August to help shore up any weak area. This luckily also meant I had one more month of health insurance.
We used that week for “practice retirement”. We did some things in the neighborhood. I remember at the time thinking we sure lived in a boring suburb. I'm sure we also sailed a lot that week which is what we did my last few years working*.
Then I returned to work for a week. I remember going to the office the weekend before my last day (Monday), so that when I came in on Monday I wouldn’t have to clean anything out. They had a nice company-wide party for me the previous Friday.
A few months before I had already arranged a 2 week trip to Oregon in August, and I think it was less than a week between that last work day and taking off on a travel adventure - probably that next weekend. I think it was great to have a fun time already lined up, because I was pretty worn out from work.
We first stayed for several days at the stunning log built Mt. Ashland Inn (B&B) up in the Siskiyou Mountains, close to the Pacific Crest Trail and the CA border. We had spectacular views of Mount Shasta. Funny - guests all ate together at a long breakfast table. One morning a lady asked what we did, and I mentioned that we had just retired. The poor lady’s eyes bugged so far out of her head! I mean, she was in shock and speechless. She might have then yelled “How did you DO that!!!” After experience that I was much more circumspect about mentioning being retired.
Then we drove around Crater Lake, stayed at a lovely lodge on the Umpqua River, explored a few other areas including the Rogue River, and finally joined a Nature Photography small group tour that traveled and photographed most of the Oregon coast. It was a delicious vacation - especially knowing we didn’t have to return to work!
Anyway - it was fun today to relive that first post retirement trip. We both have such fond memories of it.
I had been over 6 years retired when I finally found this group. Here is my “Hi I Am….” post:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/er-since-1999-a-19263.html
I did a 10 years retired post in August 2009:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/10-years-erd-today-45679.html
Since then we still travel a lot but no longer live in a motorhome. We bought a house in deep South Texas in 2010, and do most of our travel overseas now - mostly Europe. I have a brother in Amsterdam who has three young children, who are like grandchildren to us as we have no children of our own. We also plan to travel to Central and South American for nature/birding/butterflies.
Anyway - hope you enjoyed my brief trip down memory lane! I don’t note my retirement anniversary every year, but the decades feel significant.
*Less than a year before retiring with our beloved C&C24:
I was originally going to retire at the end of July, but when I looked at my accumulated vacation hours, I found out that there was a limit for how much they would pay me. So I proposed to my boss that I take a week off in July and let my replacement see how things went, and then return for a week in August to help shore up any weak area. This luckily also meant I had one more month of health insurance.
We used that week for “practice retirement”. We did some things in the neighborhood. I remember at the time thinking we sure lived in a boring suburb. I'm sure we also sailed a lot that week which is what we did my last few years working*.
Then I returned to work for a week. I remember going to the office the weekend before my last day (Monday), so that when I came in on Monday I wouldn’t have to clean anything out. They had a nice company-wide party for me the previous Friday.
A few months before I had already arranged a 2 week trip to Oregon in August, and I think it was less than a week between that last work day and taking off on a travel adventure - probably that next weekend. I think it was great to have a fun time already lined up, because I was pretty worn out from work.
We first stayed for several days at the stunning log built Mt. Ashland Inn (B&B) up in the Siskiyou Mountains, close to the Pacific Crest Trail and the CA border. We had spectacular views of Mount Shasta. Funny - guests all ate together at a long breakfast table. One morning a lady asked what we did, and I mentioned that we had just retired. The poor lady’s eyes bugged so far out of her head! I mean, she was in shock and speechless. She might have then yelled “How did you DO that!!!” After experience that I was much more circumspect about mentioning being retired.
Then we drove around Crater Lake, stayed at a lovely lodge on the Umpqua River, explored a few other areas including the Rogue River, and finally joined a Nature Photography small group tour that traveled and photographed most of the Oregon coast. It was a delicious vacation - especially knowing we didn’t have to return to work!
Anyway - it was fun today to relive that first post retirement trip. We both have such fond memories of it.
I had been over 6 years retired when I finally found this group. Here is my “Hi I Am….” post:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/er-since-1999-a-19263.html
I did a 10 years retired post in August 2009:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/10-years-erd-today-45679.html
Since then we still travel a lot but no longer live in a motorhome. We bought a house in deep South Texas in 2010, and do most of our travel overseas now - mostly Europe. I have a brother in Amsterdam who has three young children, who are like grandchildren to us as we have no children of our own. We also plan to travel to Central and South American for nature/birding/butterflies.
Anyway - hope you enjoyed my brief trip down memory lane! I don’t note my retirement anniversary every year, but the decades feel significant.
*Less than a year before retiring with our beloved C&C24:
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What a great life you and your DH have created for yourselves. 
