2024: The Year in review

At the end of a year, you take time to reflect. The radio stations do a count down of songs for the year, magazines do a list of people we lost during the year, so I thought I’d do my own year end review. 

It was our first year of retirement and we weren’t sure how that would go. So here it’s is.

January: My first week of retirement, I was sick so not a great start but boy, did it get better from there. While we were working, both of us from home, we could never find time to have lunch together. So once I was feeling better, that was the first thing we did. We went to the Farmer's Market for lunch... together!

For our first big adventure, went to Orlando, Florida to see my stepmother. We went for 8 days…because we could! We went to Deltona, Winter Park, and my favorite, St. Augustine. Our First Adventure.

February found us back in our favorite place, Galveston. It was the first time we went as tourists. We went to museums and restaurants and had a fabulous time. Our Second Adventure. Retirement was also a chance for us to do things we never had time to do, like go to Jimmy’s Italian Market and get a sandwich. I loved this little note from Jimmy's. It makes you wonder...

We did that on a Tuesday and then had a picnic at White Rock Lake, our second favorite place to be. We got to take John’s mom to lunch on Valentine’s Day, what a treat!

March was another busy month. We love a good road trip but we’re always on our way to somewhere else and never had time to stop in some of the cool little towns that we’d pass through. So this month we planned a trip to specifically stop in some of these little towns. We went to Mount Vernon, Clarksville, Mount Pleasant, Texarkana and Sulphur Springs. Texarkana and all places in between.  We also got to watch our nephew, Brendan, graduate from Ranger school in Columbus, Ga. Rangers lead the way. On the way there, we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, MS: The city with soul. 

In April, we experienced a full solar eclipse right from our backyard. 

That was the month we started on yet another bucket list item, the baseball stadium tour. After our Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023, we wanted to see them beat the dreaded Houston Astros in Houston…and they did! Tour of Ballparks: Minute maid Park. We discovered the Hagerman Nature Preserve. I saw my first live hummingbird.

May brought us a Mother’s Day celebration. We only have one mom left so we want to celebrate with her often. John and his mom.

We also hit the road for Kansas City to see our Rangers take on the Kansas City Royals. The game didn’t go our way but we had a great time in KC. Tour of Ballparks: Kauffman Stadium. Earlier in the year we planted some vegetables and this month we got our first harvest. We had yellow squash and cucumbers.

And, of course we had birthdays to celebrate. John turned 56 and we celebrated at one of our favorite places on his birthday!

In June we made our annual visit to Annapolis where we not only hung out with some of our favorite people but we caught a Nationals game and we went to the African American Museum in DC. Annapolis. 

In July we got out of the heat by going to the Dallas African American Museum in Fair Park and the Dallas Museum of Art, both of which are free. Brendan came home or a visit so we all met up for dinner. All of us outside of Del Frisco's Grille in Ft. Worth.

Then when hurricane Beryl disrupted our plans for Galveston, we improvised and went to San Antonio instead. San Antonio.

In August, it was still pretty hot so we did a few different things to get out of the heat. First we went to the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth. Neither of us had ever been there. It's excellent and it's free! We went to a comedy show at the AAC. We saw Sebastian Maniscalco. If you've never seen him, google him. He's hilarious! We were not disappointed.

One of the other things we have on our bucket list is Presidential Libraries. We have one here in our own backyard so this year we made it a point to visit. While not my favorite president, he did some good stuff. George W. Bush Presidential Center. The best way to beat the heat in August? Get out of Texas. So we did. We went to Colorado and drove up the Million Dollar Highway & Moab, UT. Incredible scenery. And because we can't get enough baseball, we took in a Rangers game and watched them beat the Angels.

In September, we celebrated Juju's birthday at the Pacific Table in Ft. Worth. That place is really good. 

We also celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary...in Canada. We spent two weeks there and saw a Blue Jays game, checked out Toronto, took a train to Ottawa and spent time there. Canada is an amazing country and I hope to explore it further.

October is State Fair of Texas month and we couldn't miss it. It was also James' final year playing football at West Point so we made our annual trek to New York. While we were there, I caught up with some family that I hadn't seen in a while. That was so fun. Back at home I read that Old City Park might be going away so we had to visit. I hope they figure out how to save our past.

Before we knew it, it was November! My cousin's daughter was getting married so we attended her shower. That's the bride to be with her cousin, Charlie. He was a lot of fun.

Did you know that those old arcade games from the 80's are back? Our friend, Lou works at an arcade called Time Rift in Bedford (he does this for fun), and it is a blast. For one set price, you play as long as you want on as many games as you want. They also have adult beverages and food if you need a break.

John and Lou playing air hockey. It's cool because it encourages you to try games you haven't played before. We had a great time. When taking off from the gym, we also explored our fair city. We went to Downtown Dallas and to historic McKinney.  I also found a cool museum in Plano called the Interurban Railroad Museum. It's free!  We finally made it back to Phoenix. We hadn't been in over a year and I was missing my family. We had such a great time.

We got to see my sister's new house. Atticus was able to take some time off to hang out with us.

We cooked and played games, it was so wonderful! I love spending time with these people.

Thanksgiving was a beautiful day. For the first time in twenty years, it was just the two of us. 

We went all out and made all the sides.

December found us back at our happy place, Galveston. We were just in time to see Dickens on the Strand and a play at the Grand 1894 Opera House. We joined the Dallas Arboretum. What an amazing place to take your book and picnic lunch! The views are spectacular. Christmas was upon us once again, and so fast! It's always a blast to get together.

All Michele's kids, except Paul were home. Paul came later but by then Brendan had to go back. 

It was our first year of retirement and we weren’t sure how that would go. Turns out that it went great!