So Many Dishes

Interesting prompt. I was going to pass on this, but as I started to think about it, I was struck by parallels to my current experience.

Of course, this pretty much requires me to include my age, which is 73. By that age, my parents were retired, had moved to Florida, and were living a relatively active life. They both played golf a few times a week. My dad did the master gardener training when they first moved to Florida, and every Thursday he volunteered at the county agricultural extension office. As a retired chemist, he ran soil sample analysis. They enjoyed traveling, and regularly went on European tours, including river cruises, and even went to China. They were both involved with their church. My mother sang in the choir, and my dad served as an elder in their Presbyterian congregation for a number of years, sitting on various committees.

When I look at it, the life that Ken and I live now is pretty similar. We don’t golf, but we take long walks—and there’s that famous saying that golf is nothing but “a good walk spoiled.” Ken volunteers with the county extension service, offering his expertise to help master gardeners identify plant diseases. I completed the master gardener training to gain more knowledge about plants as I continue to volunteer as a guide at the botanical garden. We love to travel and are looking forward to our scheduled cruise on the Danube this summer. Plus, we just booked a week at a mountain cabin in north Georgia for later this summer. Finally, as you can tell from some of my posts, we’re both active in the music ministry at our church.

I guess my parents set a good example of how to retire! So I’ll close this out with a couple of pictures from our Rhine River cruise.