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Spending 17 nights in Homewood Suites by Hilton: I really like living in hotels! A journey of FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement…

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  In the early years of my wife and myself’s journey of early retirement, we primarily used long term rental platforms like Airbnb or VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) for our lodging needs.  Because we technically don’t own or rent a permanent place of our own, this made sense. Living as nomads doesn’t mean we move from one place to another frequently.  Thanks to these aforementioned long term rental platforms, we’ve been able to stay a month, sometimes few months, in a rental property of our choosing. We’ve lived the life of “ slow travelers ”, meaning we stay at one place for a long time, seeking to explore a particular area in depth, and also so we can live a semblance of a so called “normal” life, where we have a semi-permanent place to rest our heads each night.  We enjoyed our early years of our early retirement, as we got to “live” in a particular area, trying to experience what life is like as a local. We explored local parks (and sometimes parks 100+ miles ...
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2 nights/3 days exploring Fort Lee, New Jersey and Harriman State Park, New York

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  When my wife and I lived in New York City, visiting Fort Lee, New Jersey , was a fairly common occurrence, especially if you’re Korean-American.  With so many Korean owned businesses including many awesome restaurants and cafes in the area, it made sense to get our Korean food fix just over the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee. Although the bridge toll was always on the expensive side, we liked the slower pace of life in Fort Lee compared to the always hectic life on the other side of the bridge in Flushing, Queens , which also has a huge Korean community.  One other draw of Fort Lee, maybe just as important as the slower pace, was the seemingly more upscale look & feel of Korean owned businesses there. It just felt like more money was spent in Fort Lee to spruce up those establishments compared to more homey, had seen better days feel of those in Flushing.  Last, but not least reason for us visiting Fort Lee was that it made sense to stop over on the way ...
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One week in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: Trip to Delaware Seashore State Park and Cape Henlopen State Park

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  While we lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of our favorite places to visit was the state of Delaware , just 45 minutes south of us via the Blue Route (I-476) , followed by I-95 .  We visited so many wonderful places like any number of former DuPont family residences/gardens, Wilmington Riverfront , and Dover . We would also go on walks to several parks in Delaware with our dog Toby and would spend a day out there, eating delicious foods while taking in the beautiful scenery.  It was in one of these walks with our dog that we discovered parks near Delaware beaches. Such park, Cape Henlopen State Park , was fairly far away from the suburbs of Philadelphia at just over 2 hours of driving time.  Back in those days, I was eager to get out of our home, trying to de-stress, unwind by going outdoors.   Of course our dog Toby, gladly obliged, eager to go on new adventures with his mommy and daddy on a weekend.  He really loved going out, eag...
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