Getting to Know Us

Here we are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on a crisp January day earlier this year. We traveled to New York City twice this year, once by plane and once by train, and we truly enjoy a periodic visit to the city that never sleeps!

Doug is a retired entrepreneur, and spends some of his time working at the various medical schools in Cleveland (our home town) as a Simulated Patient Actor. He’ll probably share more about that at some future time. Denise is a retired healthcare administrator, having spent about half of her career on the provider side, and half in healthcare philanthropy. Both of us grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio, a place we continue to call home. We were educated locally (Doug: John Carroll University; Denise: Ursuline College and John Carroll University). We’ve been married for close to 30 years, and we’re very proud of our family. Between us we have four kids, three kids-in-law, two grand-kids, three grand-puppies, two sisters, one brother-in-law, a niece and a nephew, (both of whom have spouses), two great-nieces and one great-nephew. They will all appear in this blog somewhere along the way, but for now, this is about us.

Doug enjoys downhill skiing, motorcycling, golf, old movies, reading, and of course, travel. Denise broke her leg skiing and uses that as an excuse to stay off the snow in spite of the fact that we live in the snow belt. She’s happiest when she’s cooking, and has recently taken up photography and golf. She also enjoys yoga, reading, and of course, travel. Denise also volunteers on several local boards, and together they support numerous local nonprofit organizations.

Both of us worked hard for a very long time in order to be able to enjoy our golden years, and so far we’ve managed to stay healthy enough. We’re blessed to have access to world class healthcare, and we don’t take that for granted even for a minute.

We’re also lucky to have wonderful friends, many of whom have been with us for decades, and we’re at the stage in life where we’ve had to say a fond farewell to some whom we miss every day.

True to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in all its forms, we live in a politically mixed marriage. Sometimes that works out OK, and other times it results in some stressful moments, but since we’re both contributing to this blog, we thought we’d just put that out there.

So there you have it…a snapshot of us. If you’re so inclined, we’d love to hear a little bit about you, our fellow timeless travelers!