Picture Gallery – Gulf Coast
Month: February 2017
Spending Time in a Warmer Clime…
It all began with a girl’s weekend…
Every Tuesday afternoon Helen (adorable wife) attends a pottery class at our church with a group of delightful ladies. I envision it as more of a social gathering with artistic overtones, but I have seen some really great works created by the students. The class is led by Janet, an extremely gifted potter and artist, who is generous with both her time and talent. Recently she extended her generosity a bit further when she invited class members to come to her beach home in the Destin, Florida area for a bit of down time in a warmer clime. I don’t think anyone turned her down…certainly not Helen.
Easin’ Along was also eager for a road trip, so we began looking for a place nearby in order to add few more days at the end of Helen’s pottery party and I could have some time to thaw out as well. As we do in planning most of our retirement road trips, we scanned the Temporary Military Lodging catalogue published by Military Living Publications and located a waterfront cabin at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Panama City. Within a few minutes of placing a call to the reservation desk, a room was booked for four nights and plans were made.
Helen and crew left town on a Wednesday morning. A few hours later I departed for Charleston to help out my son with a construction project before driving on to Florida. There will be more on that portion of the trip in a later post. I arrived in Panama City on Sunday in time to watch the Super Bowl in our cute and cozy cabin and went on to Destin the next morning to rescue my lovely wife from all the laughter and chatter amongst her pottery pals.
Destin weather was glorious so we borrowed two of the bicycles from Janet’s house and rode to the beach for a walk. The picture below above gives an idea of the morning it was and, considering that temperatures at home were in the mid – 30° range, we reveled in our good fortune. The beach was only sparsely populated with a few walkers–surprising since there was just a light breeze and mid 70° temps. Oh well, I’m glad I was there.
Walking spurred on an appetite so we rode over to the Great Southern Café for a light seafood lunch followed by another walk through the shops in the area where the beach communities of Watercolor and Seaside come together. All of the shops were inviting, but we spent way too much time in one of them. I learned enough about essential oils to last me a lifetime. It was time for more bike riding.
The homes in the area are all charming and the landscaping is well done throughout the neighborhood. The scenery made for pleasant riding which is exactly what I needed after eight hours of driving the previous day. Our bike trails led to an area around a small lake and when we arrived the view was perfect for picture taking. I was able to get this shot from a small bridge at the end of a cove.
By now it was time to load up all of Helen’s gear and make the 45 minute drive to Panama City. I wanted Helen to see the cabin and the waterfront before dark and she had a lot of stuff to organize before we could leave. Nevertheless, we got it all in our car and made it to NSA Panama City in the late afternoon and in time for her to rearrange everything in our cabin–just like I knew she would. “What would you do without me?” she always asks.
I have to cut this post short for now. We just arrived home last night and I still have pictures to organize before delving into the details of our stay in Panama City. In the next post I will tell readers about our visit to St. Andrews State Park and our side trip to Appalachicola, Florida. I also want to share some information about NSA Panama City with our Military Living readers. We had some great oysters and wonderful seafood on this outstanding retirement road trip. Please come back and let us tell you about it.
We’re rested, thawed out and happy so we’ll continue…Easin’ Along. 
If it is to Be, It’s Up to me…
By now, Easin’ Along readers are aware that we have used the beginning of a new year to focus on a commitment to improving our overall health and well being. I’m well into the fourth week of the Nutrisystem diet and delighted to report a loss of seventeen pounds. After a challenging start, I feel great. The exercise routine is ongoing as well and is made easier now that I’m not lugging around the extra weight I was carrying at the end of last year.
The effort to add a few hours of sleep per night is still a work in progress although I’ve had some wonderful suggestions and words of encouragement from our readers. The comments both here and by email, to last week’s article on sleep suggest that this issue is one that affects many. I plan to adopt a few of the suggestions and hope readers will continue to comment on this subject so that I may share your thoughts with others. One reader sent me an article on sleep segmentation that was especially informative and I have placed a link to it here (link).
Writing this series of articles has allowed me to focus on the fact that Helen (adorable wife) and I are truly blessed to have good health. We also know that at our age, things could change in an instant. While helping to organize my 50th high school class reunion I made the sobering discovery that 37 of my classmates out of a class of 215 are no longer with us. Several more are not well. Therefore, being blessed as we are, we consider it almost an obligation to ourselves and to each other to maintain that good health regardless of the lifestyle we choose – active or otherwise.
Obviously, there are steps in this process other than the few that we have touched on here. It is rare that I have to see a doctor for any reason, but that is not an excuse to take my good health for granted. Without fail, I schedule a physical exam every year and eagerly await the results of any tests performed. I am astounded by the number of people that I know personally who do not do the same
Procedures to screen for diabetes, prostate and colon cancer among other illnesses are also part of monitoring my health. I see my dermatologist regularly and it’s rare when she fails to find something to remove from my body and send off to biopsy. My fair skin and my refusal to wear hats in my younger days can be blamed for that. Those visits will continue as will my semi-annual appointments with our dentist.
Medications, in relatively small doses, are necessary to augment our health program. Helen requires an assortment of pharmaceuticals for a thyroid condition, but I only take one prescription drug, Nexium, for acid reflux. I do, however, take a few daily supplements and have for many years. I’m not certain why or when I began the practice of adding supplements to my diet but it was probably at some point in my twenties. At that time I was not eating breakfast; I was eating fast food for lunch and I probably felt that I had to do something before bad things began to happen. The fact that most of the statements or claims made by supplement manufacturers are not evaluated by the FDA does not overly concern me since I tend to buy them from reputable companies like GNC.
Presently, I take a supplement for eye health; saw palmetto for men’s health and, until a few months ago, a multivitamin from GNC for men over 50. I have persisted in taking them because I assume that a history of relatively good health indicates that perhaps something is working and, since I don’t notice any side effects, there is no reason to stop. Frankly, side effects notwithstanding, I don’t notice much of anything with one exception, and it is the exception to which I want to dedicate a few words.
A few months ago I was contacted by an Easin’ Along reader who wanted to place an ad on our website. I was somewhat reluctant at first. I have never taken ads, preferring instead to share our experiences in retirement with others who might have similar interests and leave it at that. Furthermore, just as I do not write about things that do not interest me, I would not advertise a product I would not use. At any rate, I wanted to be polite, so I accepted some information and samples of the product–a vitamin and mineral supplement–while giving the assurance that I would try it.
Within a few days of receiving the samples and, having emptied the bottle of my GNC multivitamins, I opened the bottle of RestoreV (click here for link) and swallowed two capsules. Another dose followed the next morning. On the third day I went to my regular Tuesday morning exercise class at the YMCA and felt a noticeable elevation in both my mood and my energy which continued through most of the afternoon. My immediate suspicion was that the supplement contained caffeine, so I reached out to the reader who initially contacted me for some information. I was told that this supplement had no caffeine and that the energy and lift I was noticing was due to the nutritional ingredients being absorbed more efficiently than other vitamin I was using. All I know is that the product worked and, as a result, I use it in the place of the multivitamin that I have taken for years. Helen also takes it and has experienced the same result…in fact; she insisted that I order another bottle before we exhaust the sample. 
Going forward, our intention is to stay the course. By the time this article is published we will be in the second month of 2017. All too often in the past my New Year’s resolutions would have been cast aside long before now and old habits had resumed their familiar place in the daily routine. However, age does bring wisdom and, hopefully, a smattering of discipline which is essential in the quest for improved health. One of my favorite quotes related to the pursuit of a personal accomplishment is “If it is to be, it is up to me”. That quotation seems apropos as we continue our pursuit of an active lifestyle…and continue Easin’ Along.
Next week another retirement road trip – Florida!