Empty Nest Life

Never Been Seen Travel Photos of Our Family Trip to Italy

family trip to Italy
Roma! Every trip to Italy should have a plate of spaghetti as delicious as this! Ripe summer tomatoes, fresh basil and garlic = perfection.

Our family trip to Italy

There is never enough space in each post to share every favorite moment and travel photo. I try not to bombard you with too much copy or too many photos, therefore lots of photos are left behind! I wish I could include a photo album every time I publish! However the next best thing is to just tell a story with my never been published photos from my recent BIG summer family trip to Italy.

On social media I have actually noticed several bloggers and non-bloggers have taken extensive trips this past summer. When you travel to Europe, so very far away, it is nice to try to squeeze in as much as you can while you are there. Although the argument can be made that you move pretty quickly and don’t get to dive too deep into each city you visit.

We actually did a little bit of both. We stayed in one villa for a week in Italy in order to enjoy the countryside, slow down, relax and spend quality time with the family and then we usually spent several nights in each city after that. Craig and I left Italy and flew to Mallorca and then I flew to Berlin to take a Viking River Cruise from Berlin to Prague and lastly I stayed in Budapest, Hungary for four more nights. A BIG beautiful summer of travel. For today I am just sharing a little more of Italy.

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A Wedding Adventure: I Will Be Mother of The Bride !

Mother and daughter at the bridal shower
MOB and Bride to Be at the first bridal shower

An Empty Nester Adventure:: I will be Mother of the Bride

Great news! Our princess is getting married! I haven’t written about this yet because I just didn’t know where to begin. It is such a thrilling new adventure. The Empty Nester life is different for everyone and truthfully I think that I am living the ultimate empty nester existence. We travel, we downsized, we can go out on a Tuesday if we feel like it and we got a dog!

When our youngest left the nest I had a really difficult time. I began writing about it and Adventures of Empty Nesters was created. Fast forward 4 ½ years later and this blog has become a fabulous and fulfilling career! I am still writing about our empty nest but have expanded to our life adventures and working with cutting edge travel and tourism brands. Our sojourns around the world hopefully inspire others to get out and find adventure too!

But I do have a real home life too! I still pick up dog poop, take out the trash (only when Craig isn’t home) do yard work, get the plumbing fixed, do the marketing, cook, all the regular things that wives and spouses do.

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A U2 Adventure :: How I Met Bono and Got a Tattoo

how I met Bono

how I met Bono

An Adventure of a lifetime

Adventures come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and packages – What would it feel like to meet one of the biggest rock stars in the world and then getting his signature tattooed on your arm? Who says that life isn’t exciting after the kids move away?

I heard this story from a travel writer friend and it was so fascinating that I asked her to share it with you. Thanks Lori.

How I Met Bono – It’s an amazing story!

Sure, you can look back on events in your life that were pivotal…

Marriage.

The birth of your children.

Perhaps a peak moment in your career.

At this time in our lives, most of us have experienced all the highlights, moments that when we reflect on them we get an instant smile on our face.

Sure I’ve had those moments too, but there is one day that will forever leave a mark on me. That one story that I can tell over and over again and it transforms me into a 7th grade girl with all the emotions of crushing on Donny Osmond.

The first U2 concert I went to was in Madison, Wisconsin in 1992 during the Zoo TV tour. I was transformed that night by the spectacle of this multi media show. I really liked U2’s music before, but seeing Bono work the audience that night was mind-blowing. I have long had a soft spot in my heart for lead singers (hello, my name is Lori, I’m 55 years old and I totally fangirl over Bono!).

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Celebrate the Last of the Season – A List of Our Favorite Summer Activities

favorite summer activities

favorite summer activities

Last year I created a list of our top ten favorite things about Summer and as I looked back at the list, we still enjoy them all, but I have a few more to add.

What are your favorite summer activities?

Summer is coming to a close and it is fun to reflect upon some of our favorite things we like to do this time of year. Did you love it when your kids were young and there was no set schedule? But when that summer freedom was threatened by the upcoming Fall school year, there was almost a layer of sadness it was over. Do you remember that?

But now that our children are grown, this is not something that we even have to think about!  However Craig and I do notice the comings and goings of the young families at our neighborhood elementary school. Watching them brings back great memories.

For me, Labor Day Weekend marks the transition in to Fall. Funny though, in Los Angeles the weather is still the same! No Fall sweater weather here, I have to travel to find it!

favorite summer activitie
There is always time for ice cream.

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Adventures at The Palio in Siena ~ An Exhilarating Experience

Piazza del Campo – The Palio

Hold on to your seat, you are in for a wild ride at The Palio!

Before we even arrived at The Palio in Siena, I knew that it would be a vibrant, colorful spectacle, but it was way bigger than we imagined! The passion and emotion that runs through the crowd feels like a strong electric current. Not a seat or section of pavement was available and the famous Piazza del Campo was transformed into a carefully constructed racetrack with an audience of thousands of excited Italians, mostly from the walled city of Siena.

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Chris Erskine’s Happy Hour Hiking Club Takes a Tour of the LA Times Building

 

tour of the LA Times

Just in time! We were so fortunate to take a tour of the LA Times building only two weeks before they move to their new location.

tour of the LA Times

Our tour of the LA Times ~

Yes, it’s true, the Los Angeles Times is packing up and moving from Downtown Los Angeles. The new owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, announced in April, that he is vacating their historic, architecturally significant home and taking The Times to El Segundo because he could not reach a satisfactory lease agreement. The new building is just about twenty miles (but a long commute) from Downtown. The landowners wanted to increase the rent by $1 million per month. Wow!

This news came as a huge shock to the employees of the newspaper and Los Angeles history will be forever changed. The fearless leader of our Happy Hour Hiking Club, author and columnist Chris Erskine, has worked for the LA Times for twenty-eight years and he was able to arrange a special tour for us just before they all left for good.

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How to Beat the Challenges of the Empty Nest and Have a BLAST!

challenges of the empty nest

You Can Beat the Challenges of the Empty Nest and THRIVE

The truth is that the Empty Nest isn’t really all that empty. It is actually a place full of ideas and possibilities that will blow your mind! It may seem very quiet and empty right after the kids have left for school, but soon it won’t feel that way. It takes time, but the Empty Nester Adventure is an enlightening one and one filled with promise.

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What Are Your Spring Break Travel Plans? Empty Nesters plan it differently now.

Spring Break Travel Plans

 Spring Break Travel Plans

Spring Break Travel Plans ~

What’s up for Spring Break? Baseball tournament? Football or Lacrosse practice? Rehearsal? Term Paper? Nope, none of the above.

Now that the nest is empty…WE are in charge of our holidays. Woo Hoo! What are we going to do? It’s time to start planning. Although I do miss those activities, it is our time to decide what new adventures we are interested in doing!

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The Empty Nest :: The Renovated Kitchen and Dining Room Are My Happy Place

renovated kitchen & dining room

A renovated kitchen and dining room adventure ~

I receive a large number of emails asking about our “fixer upper” and questions regarding the entire adventure. Everyone loves HGTV these days don’t they? Every season there is a new city where couples are fixing up old homes and creating amazing living spaces. I can’t get enough. How about you?

Our “updated Spanish” designed kitchen and dining room are my happy place. They are bright and cheery, quaint and efficient. We don’t have a lot of extra room for “stuff”, therefore, we do not purchase multiple sets of dishes and glasses like we had prior to downsizing. Just the basics. Downsizing feels good. Everything has a place and if we want to buy something new, we need to get rid of something in order to make room.

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