As I was nearing the #400 milestone on this blog, I happened to notice that I had misnumbered some of my earlier posts, so I had to go back and make adjustments. As it turned out, I had somehow skipped ahead by five, so I’m exactly on my daily posting pace since the first of the year, and not ahead as I originally thought. I number each entry, so I can provide past references to the same or similar subjects, so readers can go back to a specific post and get more information if they desire. I also use these numbers to keep myself honest in the quest to average one post a day.

Today is really the first day this year that I’m not scheduled to be somewhere other than dinner with my wife tonight. I’m totally free all day to catch up on personal matters. My wife admitted she was envious, as she left for the office this morning. I did make our reservations to visit the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and also began to make arrangements to see some of the Johannes Vermeer paintings, such as “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” during our short visit there in March. The Mauritshuis  in The Hague is home to this famous painting and about an hour from Amsterdam, about a 41 minute train ride, so it might be a bit of a stretch of our limited time in the country. From there, we will fly to Venice. It’s exciting to plan for these adventures. I’ve always felt that travel is 50% anticipating, 20% doing, and 30% reflecting, as I continue to research the areas where we hope to visit. This is what retirement is all about!

After our Netherlands layover, we’ll spend a couple of days in Venice, and then board a Viking Cruise ship to ports in Koper, Slovenia; Zadar, Croatia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; and Corfu, Olympia, Satorini, and Athens, Greece. I have a lot of studying to do, but the ancient Olympic village is the top priority for me on this particular trip. We’ll book our on-board dining later this week. Also, we’re working on flight arrangements for a family visit to Indianapolis in late February, that will be much less eventful. By the time the first quarter of 2018 is over, I will have spent 31 nights, or one-third of my time on the road, and will undoubtedly be more than ready for a quiet day like today.

The bottom line is that we ADORE travel, as I refer to the acronym for Anticipating, DOing, and REflecting. We DID a lot of traveling in 2017, so there is much to REFLECT on from our amazing experiences together. As we look forward to future travel, there is so much to ANTICIPATE. I suppose we could use the same acronym for the experience of cooking, but my meal last night was not worthy of the word ADORE. It was the messiest meal I’ve ever prepared and there was too much clean-up involved; I didn’t slice the onions properly and they turned to mush; I let the short ribs stew too long in the slow cooker and they were a bit dry; The red wine gravy reduction that could have added some moisture and flavor to the meat had entirely too much onion flavor. I was very disappointed in my effort, however my wife was just glad to have a meal prepared, and was only modesty critical. Her anticipation was high, she tried to enjoy the very rich meal, but upon reflection decided that this recipe was probably not worth repeating. I’m glad tonight is “Date Night,” so somebody else will do the cooking for both of us to ADORE.