I recently returned from a very nice vacation in New York. Oddly, I arrived just a few days after Mick Jagger and Lady Gaga surprised everyone with a little nightclub concert to celebrate the release of the new Stones album. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start ranting about my long-held fondness for The Stones again – I’m sure you got enough of that in my column a few weeks ago!
What I’m thinking is that the theme of enjoying the moment, but realizing we might be just slightly late to enjoy it fully, sort of thread through our holiday. I went with my oldest sister, whose husband has entered the slow-go stage of retirement. That leaves us still in the go-go stage together, or so we thought! We were excited and ready to go, having poured over maps and guidebooks beforehand to tackle everything we wanted to fit in.
But we soon discovered we had over-planned. We had walking food tours booked right alongside bus tours, which butted up against evening tours. We executed our approach perfectly, except that we left no room for error. Like getting lost, or standing at a spot just 10 feet down from where our tour started and missing it, or not anticipating that the mayhem of NYC may not fit perfectly in our charted itinerary.
We still loved our time there. We spent a glorious day in Central Park once we realized our tour bus had left without us. We hit everything else on our list and enjoyed it immensely, even though we found it surprisingly taxing. Had we left it a bit too late in life to travel to this amazing, vibrant, chaotic city? We thought it was the right place at the right time! We had figured out Paris together not long ago – although that was just before COVID and apparently long enough for us to lose a bit of our travel joie de vivre. We had been talking about another overseas trip together next year, maybe a scurry around Italy. A dash from major city to seaside resort to ancient ruins, plotting it all out beforehand and executing it on our own.
Or… maybe we could choose a leisurely cruise and let someone else take care of everything! Sounds more restful, more handle-able. Also sounds a bit like we may be inching ever so much closer to the slow-go stage. But that’s okay, too. I’m grateful for everything that we shared on this trip and for things we still will encounter together. The quest is simply to keep moving forward, and modify when needed to make that happen!
Sandy Bexon is stepping into retirement after over 35 years as a communications professional, reporter and writer. She lives in Red Deer.