My wife and I are at a point in our careers where we are mostly working because we want to and not out of absolute necessity. We have not reached the age to be eligible for full social security and Medicare, but we’re close. Yes, continuing to work makes sense given how the average life span of Americans has increased for our generation. We all must consider how long we will depend on social security, pensions, retirement savings, investments, and other assets. However, we want to spend fewer hours in the office and more time with each other involved in activities that are rewarding, fulfilling, and fun! So, we have pulled back to part time status and consulting gigs as a way to make this happen. A term we heard a few years back that adequately describes this stage in our lives is “work optional.” We like it.

I have written in previous posts about several of our trips to Arizona, specifically the Phoenix area, which is where my wife lived for nineteen years of her adult life. She built relationships there that she has maintained over the years, and now, I consider her friends in Arizona my friends as well. They certainly make me feel welcome and embrace me as a life partner to someone they obviously adore. As we made our way through the last quarter of our professional lives, we often dreamed about spending several weeks a year in Arizona, a place that still feels like home to my wife and one that has enchanted me since the first time I felt that soft desert air and radiant sunshine. Starting this year, we took the plunge. We loaded up the car and drove 1,253 miles from our home in Springfield, Missouri to Phoenix, stopping for overnight stays in Amarillo, Texas and Gallup, New Mexico. It was a comfortable pace, and driving allowed us to see the countryside as we made our way through Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, and into Arizona. We also made good use of the hours together in the car planning future trips and dreaming about how our days might look once we fully retire.

We intentionally designed this first extended stay in Arizona to be a time of relaxation and restoration, but we ended up fitting in some great side trips and fun excursions around the greater Phoenix area. The location of the house we rented was convenient and close to shopping, restaurants, grocery stores, and hiking trails in the city (and there are plenty). The house was within a few blocks of the base of Camelback Mountain, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Phoenix valley. We found some fine restaurants, not so much high-end but such good food. We scoped out several different venues that support live music and host open mic nights, and I played at three of those locations. It was a blast. Of course, we entertained ourselves with reading, going to movies, walking, and just being together. Most importantly, we were able to spend quality time with close friends and their families, some of whom we saw several times while we were there. We even went to a youth community theater production with close friends whose daughter was working backstage – it was wonderful.

The following photos illustrate some of the highlights of our time in Arizona this year. We have trips planned to several different locations, domestic and foreign, over the next eighteen months, and we look forward to many more extended vacations in Arizona in the years ahead.