We Tried a Sliver of Retirement and Loved It

Part of the calculus of buying a condo in DC was that the numbers worked as investment property.  But another part was having a place to stay a month a year during retirement, since Amy and I enjoy puttering around our nation's capital and figured it would be worth something to us to have a DC address from which to do so.  This past holiday weekend, we did our first kids-free trip since the pandemic, and stayed at a hotel not far from our condo and did pretty much everything we want to do when we're much older.  And let me tell you, it was a lot of fun!

We did a lot of walking around and some biking around, and the location was perfect for that, for it gave us easy access to:

* National Mall
* Zoo, Rock Creek Park
* Shopping in Georgetown
* Munchies in Adams Morgan

To complete the effect, as it turns out the hotel I picked had really small rooms but a nice outdoor seating area.  So just like our condo unit being so tiny means we'll end up hanging out a lot on our rooftop deck, so did we spend most of our time at the hotel in the outdoor area rather than our room.  It wasn't hard to close our eyes while feasting on food we picked up at the local falafel shop, grocery store, or even 7-Eleven, and imagine that we were older and enjoying the retired life at the condo.

Of course, best of all was uninterrupted time with Amy.  It's crazy how busy many modern couples are, that you co-exist with the love of your life and yet have so little quality time with that person.  So it was a decadent treat to just be with the love of my life, without jobs or kids to get in the way of enjoying the sights and each other's company.  Driving home, I spent a lot of time strategizing about when we can do this again and where we will want to go.

Folks who are happily married know: with Amy, it doesn't matter where we go as long as we go together.  Still, it was extra special to go to a city, and a neighborhood in a city, where in the maybe not so distant future we will be able to enjoy a sliver of our retirement years.  Given how much fun we had, we can hardly wait!