Time to reflect on the year that just passed. This was the year I retired again. I semi-retired at the end of 2020 after the University of Minnesota offered a retirement incentive. I went back to the U in January to help my old department with their budget as the person who replaced me in 2019 moved on in November 2021. It worked out great and I was able to retire fully in March. I also went back to help them out in June after the gal that worked for me in that job for 4.5 years also moved on. My old boss contacted me to see if I would help out until they filled the open position. It was easy money for an average of 10 hours a month. And then I was done, again, at the end of October. Whew!
In March we were able to attend the Van Gogh exhibit that’s been traveling around the country so I’ve included some of those photos. Some friends had extra tickets and they invited us. Yay!
We visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art for their annual (or not so annual due to the pandemic) Art in Bloom in April. We saw many of our usual favorites but also many other pieces we wouldn’t normally see due to the flower displays throughout the museum. Such a fun thing to do in the spring!!
We went back to Nerstrand Big Woods in May to see the wildflowers and especially the endangered trout lily. Looks like I didn’t create a blog post for this so I’ll include some of my favorite photos from that excursion.
To celebrate my birthday and retirement, we took a trip to Washington, D.C. in May. We’re not quite ready to travel back to Spain. We both love D.C. and it worked out great! We had a fun-filled week, saw lots of stuff and friends and family too. I made a separate post for each day so do please check them out if you’re so inclined. Here is the first day’s link.
We took some trips to the cabin in northern Minnesota. We saw our state flower, the showy Lady’s Slipper, at the end of June at Lake Itasca State Park. And we had a reunion of old friends in the middle of September at the cabin too. I didn’t create a post of our trip to Itasca in June so I’ll include some photos here.
I met my sister in Chicago at the end of July and we had a great time visiting the Art Institute and many family members while we were there.
And of course we went to the Minnesota State Fair! We took another trip to the North Shore in September. It was another beautiful 4 days of hiking, eating fish and chips and searching for waterfalls. It is so beautiful there. I can’t wait to go back!
I’m going to create a couple more galleries to make it easier to compile. Here’s the next one from our trip to D.C.:
One more gallery from my trip to Chicago, the Minnesota State fair and the North Shore:
A few photos of the Showy Lady’s Slipper, Lucette (Paul Bunyan’s girlfriend) in Hackensack, an egret and a great blue heron. When I take my walks, I’m always looking for wildlife and managed to capture some. These are some photos that didn’t make it into a post for 2022:
To round out the year, here’s a gallery of the Akeley reunion of old friends, some autumn photos, the holidays and ending with a few photos from our end of the year visit to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in St. Paul.
It was a pretty good year filled with travel, fun experiences and photographs. And lots of happy memories. Happy new year everyone!!
