A re-creation of a retirement photo - 4

I love retirement photos, but most of them just show the retirees and not their pets. Since Joey's a big part of our family, I decided to see if I could find a photo with a dog in it. This website about ACTS Retirement Communities did the trick! It says, "Residents are welcome to bring their cat, dog, bird, or any other non-exotic, well-behaved pet. We wouldn't think of splitting up families!" Now, isn't that nice? It certainly made Joey happy!

Here's Robert and Joey re-creating the photo. Good boy, Joey!

And here's the photo from the website. Aw...I don't know why there isn't a pooch in every retirement photo!

A re-creation of a retirement photo - 3

This photo is from a CNNMoney.com article from 2009 called Best Places for a Healthy Retirement. Guess what? Hollywood, Florida is number 12! Naturally I had to re-create it, so I went to Hollywood Beach and walked along the Broadwalk till I found the exact spot where the picture was taken. It turned out to be from the second-floor balcony of a beachfront hotel called the Riptide. The Riptide has since added a tiki bar, and even on a hot July afternoon there was a nice crowd and live music - which is what everyone going by is looking at.

Here's my re-creation of the article's photo of Hollywood Beach.



And here's the original photo. Robert and I agree - it's a great place to retire!

A re-creation of a retirement photo - 2

That first re-creation of a retirement photo was so much fun that we just had to do another. This photo comes from a Loudoun County, Virginia real estate blog post called "Ashburn's Adult Communities." I absolutely love this photo! To me, it epitomizes everything you imagine retirement will be before you retire. The happiness! The glee! The unadulterated joy of living - it's all right there. Whoever took this picture did a fantastic job! It almost makes me want to move to Ashland and I don't even know where it is. (Okay, I just checked. It's outside Washington, D.C.) To re-create it, Robert and I snuck onto Jacaranda Golf Course with a golf club, our camera, and a tripod. Then we just thought, "Woo hoo! We're retired!" and the whole thing fell into place.

Here we are re-creating the Loudoun County photo.

And this is the photo we re-created. How did we do?

A re-creation of a retirement photo

Before we retired, Robert worked the 3-11PM shift at Northwest Web in Eugene, Oregon as the nightshift supervisor. I always made a late dinner for us when he came home, and while we ate, we watched the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. That was a great show! One of the bits they did was "a re-creation of a press photo." They'd pick a photo in the news and have actors re-create it. I don't know why it was always so funny, but it was. As our retirement got closer, we'd often get brochures from retirement communities in Florida as well as researching them online. The couples in the pictures always looked so happy, jumping on the golf course and frolicking on the beach. I'd say to Robert, "Look! That's us! When we retire, that's exactly how we'll look." And sure enough, it is!

Here we are doing our best to do "a re-creation of a retirement photo."

And here's the photo we re-created. You can also see it here, in an ad for a New Jersey retirement community. Who knew retirement would be this much fun? Well, to tell you the truth, I did.