The secrets to a happier retirement
How can you improve your odds of a happy retirement?
Economists who have done work in the emerging field of “happiness research” came up with seven pointers.
3 Responses to “The secrets to a happier retirement”
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July 30th, 2005 at 10:48 am
a very good article. thanks for posting.
August 16th, 2005 at 11:46 am
Travel!
It is diffucult to summarize our Alaska-Canada trip. I really enjoyed the planning and all of that work helped in the convenience and enjoyment of the trip. Some of the highlights:
Glacier National Park. I enjoyed driving on the Driving to the Sun Road thru Glacier. Lots of snow at the end of June and I was surprised to find out the Park Service had just opened the road two weeks earlier! Lake McDonald Lodge was historic and very warm and hospitable. We did not stay there but noted it as a possibility in the future.
B&B’s in Canada. I used a website called BBCanada.com to stay in eleven B&B’s and found it greatly enhanced our enjoyment. Most felt like we were staying in their guest bedroom! Our hosts took to places where we did not even know about and aided in directions and the best place to eat dinner.
My Honda Odyssey performed flawlessly with gas mileage of 27 MPG.
Alaska is the land of contrasts. I was surprised to find it lush with vegatation near Seward and Anchorage and barren around Tok. The mountains are truly beautiful and I understand more about the power of glaciers and the wisdom of Salmon now that I have visited. We hiked in some wonderful mountain valleys and up some scenic mountains. Ryan loves it in Alaska. He works as an Intensive Care Nurse three 12 hour shifts from 7PM to 7AM and is off for four days afterwards. It fits his mountain climbing, ice climbing adventure life style perfectly. Sunset at this home in Anchorage was 11:24PM and sunrise was at 4:24AM. During the night it never got completely dark, it was twilight during that time.
Canadian Rockies were splendid especially when Green Valley friends David and Wendy Colpitts guided us at Banff and Lake Louise. In fact the Little Beehive Hike at Lake Louise where they guided us was the most spectacular hike I have ever been on! Canmore, Alberta where David and Wendy live for sixmonths of the year was wonderful and next year we may hike to a BCL (Back Country Lodge).
Our trans-Canada journey was uneventful. We drove on the Trans-Canada Highway and was amazed that on the Perimeter Road that bypassed Winnepeg there were only 3 traffic lights! Canada is truly sparcely populated especially when you travel more than 150 miles north of the US border.
Alaska Marine Highway is a convenient way to travel to Alaska without driving on the Alaska Highway. We were on the ferry for three days and a Ranger from the US Forest Service gave talks about the mountains, sea, whales, sea otters and glaciers. Our room was small with two bunk beds and a sink and we ate in a reasonable cafeteria. When we arrived in Whittier, Alaska at 9PM we then drove thru a 2.5 mile tunnel which was one lane and included railroad track to find it raining again and at 10:30 PM the sun was so high we needed to put on our sunglasses! Truly unique…
So we are at the cottage until Sept 24 after driving 8,300 miles or 13,280 klicks as they say here in Canada.
Rick & Joan Ernst
August 22nd, 2005 at 9:38 am
This comment is really for Rick and Joan, though anybody is welcome to read it. They are my nextdoor neighborhs so I’ll get to tell them sometime even if they don’t see this.
I understand the beauty of much of what they are describing because I’ve seen it but it took me three separate trips. Still, you can see much of it even if you don’t feel like driving 8300 miles (but as I told them before they left, I’d love to do that too). In my case I saw both Glacier Park and the Canadian Rockies, along with a lot of the rest of the less populated areas of the northern US and central Canada, from the windows of two trains, AMTRAK’s Empire Builder and ViaRail’s (that’s the Candian AMTRAK) Canadian. The former goes from Seattle to Chicago and the latter from Vancouver to Toronto. They are great trips and great scenery and I personally like to do them in winter to see the snow. Finally, I took a “US Navy cruise” to Alaska and, while in port, rented a car and drove up into the interior on some of the same roads Rick and Joan must have used (Alaska doesn’t have that many roads). It really is all very beautiful. If you try seeing it by train, by the way, be sure to get a sleeper so you can actually sleep and enjoy the trip–it makes all the difference.