This excursion is one of several we took in and around New York City in late May and early June 2019, taking advantage of a few days with really nice weather! Check out the whole series: Untermyer GardensPeggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at New York Botanical GardenGovernor’s Island (current post)Staten Island FerryOld Croton Aqueduct And Ossining Weir ====== Governor’s Island is a place I visited several times when I was in junior high school, when Governor’s Island was still owned by the Coast Guard. It has since been turned over to New York City and is a public park with lush [...]

This excursion is one of several we took in and around New York City in late May and early June 2019, taking advantage of a few days with really nice weather! Check out the whole series: Untermyer GardensPeggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at New York Botanical Garden (current post)Governor’s IslandStaten Island FerryOld Croton Aqueduct And Ossining Weir ====== We recently visited the New York Botanical Garden to take advantage of the free grounds admission on Wednesday. The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden was barely in bloom – just a handful of the dozens of bushes had flowered. So we returned two weeks [...]

This excursion is one of several we took in and around New York City in late May and early June 2019, taking advantage of a few days with really nice weather! Check out the whole series: Untermyer Gardens (current post)Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at New York Botanical GardenGovernor’s IslandStaten Island FerryOld Croton Aqueduct And Ossining Weir ====== Untermyer Gardens is one of the excursions we took near our home in New York City in late May / early June 2019. We visited Untermyer Gardens for the first time a couple of years ago. It is right next to Lenoir Preserve, [...]

When you live in a place, it’s easy to take the sites and activities for granted. As native New Yorkers, it’s especially easy because the work pace of this city is so fast. However, having untethered from office work, we finally have the time and mental bandwidth to visit the places on our excursion wish list. We keep a running list of places we want to visit, so that when we see or hear of something, we can add it to the list and not forget about it. We also keep a list of free admission days because many museums [...]

Not one week after returning from a six-day, 3111-mile road trip, we spent Saturday thru Monday of Memorial Day Weekend on another thousand-mile journey, essentially to buy a shirt! Our youngest enters college this fall and only made her enrollment decision after we had already visited the school. She wanted some branded shirts to wear for her final weeks of high school to show off her college. We were scheduled to be in Pennsylvania for a family event anyway, and her college is in the neighboring state of Ohio. Why not extend the trip to get the shirts? More comfort [...]

While there are many great places around the world for people to spend their retirement or in an effort to downsize, or become financially independent, Caroline and I have come to love Costa Rica. It is reinforced on a regular basis when I hear about Costa Rica in the news. Here are some of the interesting things I have seen over the last few weeks: While deforestation is a problem is many places around the world, Costa Rica has doubled its forest cover since the 1980. The Africa Report shares how Costa Rica did it. (from The Africa Report) First [...]

New York City is finally seeing some nice weather, and we can resume our Excursion Fridays, where we visit the many magnificent nature sites the city has to offer. It is surprisingly easy to find nature in NYC but difficult to squeeze in the time when you’re tethered to an office job. Now that Scott has joined me in the virtual consulting world, we have the flexibility to take advantage of the thinner weekday crowds and spectacular weather when we can get it. We did both in our recent trip to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. New [...]

We go a little bit crazy with our road trips. We bought a new car in December 2016 and have already put 88,000 miles on it! Even crazier, I don’t drive, so Scott has driven the entire 88,000 miles all by himself. Last week, we spent six days on a road trip from New York City to Fargo, ND for the Fargo marathon (Scott’s 16th state in his quest to run marathons in all 50 states). Total round trip was 3111 miles! Five of the six days were actually on the road. We spent Wednesday to Friday driving by way [...]

I think of achieving FIRE in stages based on the lifestyle we’d like to live. At a minimum, we have achieved FIRE if we decamp to Costa Rica full-time – that’s why I think of Costa Rica as our FIRE escape plan B. However, we are still working on our ideal FIRE escape, which would include part-time living in a variety of places, including Costa Rica, Jacksonville, and New York City, with time and money to spare for substantial international travel. (Since we married and started a family right out of college, we didn’t travel much before, so there is [...]