Retirement

Retirement

After working for all these years, retirement is a strange experience. It takes getting used to. It took about six months before I stopped thinking that I should jump out of bed and get ready for work each morning. Of course it’s a nice change being able to sleep later and wake up naturally without an alarm clock clanging in my ear at 6.15 am. However, retirement takes a lot of planning otherwise you end up with too much time on your hands. The days go by slowly, but the weeks and months fly by at what seems to be an accelerated speed.

I joined a gym (gave that up), brushed up on my cooking skills (gained weight), fixed my house inside and out (spent a lot of money), then decided to explore the Orlando area. Instead of walking three miles on a treadmill I prefer to walk two or three miles along my favorite nature trail. This place is nice and I feel peaceful when I walk. I’m amazed that I can still walk three miles without feeling any strain at all, probably because there are a lot of trees and wildlife to look at.

 Favorite walking trail at Celebration

I’m delighted by the family of sand cranes that live near my house. I don’t mind at all when they block the driveway because they really are magnificent to look at.

The family of sand cranes that visit me from time to time

In fact I like the cranes so much that I painted a purple crane that I never get tired of looking at, on one of my walls.

Next to the walking trail at Celebration I like to visit the town of Winter Park. There is an awesome museum in Winter Park and I go there quite a lot. It’s called the Charles Hosner Morse Museum and the display of Tiffany glass there is beautiful. The tour of the museum is good but I like to wander around solo so that I can soak in the beauty of the place.

This is 'The Tiffany Chapel' made out of marble and glass and it's beautiful. Religious or not anyone can appreciate the artwork here.

There is a great scenic, boat tour on the lakes and canals at Winter Park, and it is especially good if the pilot picks up speed on the lake. I became a fan of photographic art after visiting the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, and there are still some more places of interest that I intend to visit in Winter Park.

The Museum of Art in Orlando is not so great but strangely the Mennello Museum of American Art right cross the road is more interesting, especially if they have art on loan. The last time I visited they had a display of art by Cuban born expressionist artist Jose Bedia, and his art is awesome. On display were some of his pieces depicting the pirate situation in Somalia and I was glad to be the only visitor in the museum so that I could spend time viewing his art.

I visited Leu Gardens in Orlando and that was nice and I plan to go back this week.  They do have a butterfly garden, semi tropical and tropical gardens and the Leu House Museum is worth a visit. It’s a turn of the 20^th century house that has been beautifully preserved. The walking trails are nice and the place is well maintained.

The Holocaust museum in Maitland was a ‘must visit’ for me. It‘s small and there is no entrance fee. I had already heard most of the testimonials that they have for visitors to listen to, but there was one exhibit that blew my mind. They have one of the original blue and white striped pajama (pyjama) tops from Auschwitz in the museum. I stared at it for a long time, noting that it was well made, sturdy and scratchy looking. I’m amazed that anyone held on to such a reminder of their time in Auschwitz but am glad that they donated it to the museum. I might go back there again just to look at that odious article of clothing as a reminder of what the human race did so recently. Does it ever stop?

Disney World is an okay place to visit until the time comes when you’ve seen everything and done everything that Disney has to offer. I feel the same about Sea World.

I visited my family in New York and enjoyed a walk around the New York State Museum in Albany. There is a ‘World Trade Center’ exhibit which I was glad I had the chance to see and there was a full size Carousel that my grandchildren and I took full advantage of.  This is another place of interest that I would like to visit again.

After the visit to Albany, I visited my family in Virginia. They live on a farm at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains that is picturesque and mostly quiet. The best things in life are free and I believe that my four grandsons fit that description. It is an awesome experience being a grandmother and a visit to the new Legoland is must in February when they come to visit me here in Kissimmee. It’s only a few miles south of where I live.

It's nice to visit with friends and family. These are my friends from Cambridge, England. They own a vacation villa here in Central Florida and It's great to see them whenever they come. Even though it's November, the weather here is beautiful.

Sayonara AGAIN