The holiday season often brings joy, togetherness, and an increase in spending, Americans planned to spend an average of $2,100 in 2024, a 7% increase from the previous year. This included gifts, travel, decorations, and celebratory meals, making it a financially challenging time for many. Especially retirees living on fixed incomes. 

2024. In many ways, the days of 2024 passed in the blink of an eye. But, the year also seemed to be one relentlessly long election year. Although we had a good year, we are happy to put 2024, and the election, on the shelf and get on with the business of living.

2024- I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Eve and all that it entails.  I’d much rather snuggle up for the evening with the one I love most, with a big bowl of popcorn and watch a classic movie, such as the one I share every year at this time, “When Harry Met Sally.”  Post a comment and tell us how many times you’ve seen Harry and Sally find their way to each other.  As we move forward in to a new year filled with hope for new beginnings and world-wide healing, we once again share this post.  Cheers!

We relocated to the east coast, near Washington, DC, approximately 10 years ago. In all of that time, we haven’t had the joy of a white Christmas, nor have we seen the National Christmas Tree, in person. It was long past time to make at least one of those two things happen.

Grateful -vs- Thankful

I originally wrote this little ditty nearly 10 years ago.  Where do the years go?!  It turns out that over the years this little grateful – vs – thankful tale attracts a great deal of traffic to our site, about this time, every year.  Which tells me I’m not alone in my thought process of trying to distinguish between the two.

Given the state of world, and at a time when it can be difficult to remember what it means to be grateful for what we have, I thought it might be the perfect time to write a new introduction and republish it.

Flight 93. I suspect for most people in the United States who are old enough to remember Tuesday, September 11, 2001, they can say exactly where they were on that fateful morning. At 8:46 a.m. the twin towers were struck. The Pentagon was struck at 9:37 a.m. United Flight 93 crashed landed at 10:03 a.m. in an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A trip to Gettysburg is a day filled with history, nature, and local culture.

Located approximately 85 miles from Washington, DC, a day trip to Gettysburg makes for a terrific outing through beautiful landscapes filled with history. It’s an easy drive along scenic Maryland Hwy 270 to the Pennsylvania border and to PA Route 85.

eSim: Stay connected without overspending. Retirement offers the perfect opportunity to travel, explore new destinations, and enjoy life at a more relaxed pace. But with all the excitement of new adventures, it’s easy to overlook practicalities like managing phone bills while traveling.

Updated: October 2024

Georgetown, a trendy neighborhood in Washington, DC, holds a special place in our hearts. For four years it was a focal point in our family, as our son attended Georgetown University. His four years at the university gave us the perfect opportunity to get to know Washington, DC. Little did we know that eight years later we would relocate to the east coast where Washington, DC and Georgetown would become our nearby playgrounds.

With that being said, let’s spend a day exploring Georgetown, shall we?

Covered Bridges. What is it about covered bridges that capture the imagination? For a couple of history lovers like us, driving or walking across a covered bridge is a step back in time. Fun fact: since early bridges were built of wood, they were covered to protect the wood from the elements. Short and simple, but here we are in modern society fascinated with covered bridges. Well, at least we are.