Today we continue our tour of the Bardstown Kentucky Area with a stop at one of the largest Distilleries in the world, the James B. Beam distillery. We had a great time, not just on the tour, but walking the grounds and having lunch at “The Kitchen” their onsite restaurant and bar.
So some have a drink with us as we show you behind the scenes of the making of some of the most popular bourbon brands in the world.
In this video, we continue our visit one of our favorite towns in the United States, Bardstown, Kentucky. While here we stayed at the Bourbon Manor Bed and Breakfast. We had an amazing time at this beautiful and historic B&B. It was one of the best B&Bs we’ve every visited. Come Join us for a tour of this great lodging option in one of our favorite towns, Bardstown, Kentucky. This is one place to stay where you won’t be disappointed.
In this video, we continue our visit one of our favorite towns in the United States, Bardstown, Kentucky. It’s not only incredibly charming, but it also sits right at the heart of the bourbon trail. Today we show our stay at beautiful Dant Crossing. Dant Crossing is an amazing facility that encompasses multiple bed and breakfast, amphitheater, conference center, Log Still Distillery, lake and many acres of beautiful landscaping.
Dant Crossing is located about 15 minutes from Bardstown and about 1 hour from both Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. It makes a great home base for the bourbon trail. You can get to most of the major bourbon distilleries within ½ to 1 hour from here.
We hope this overview of one of the great B & B options in the Bardstown area helps you with your travels and adventures.
Live life to the fullest friends!
Mike and Nancy
In this video, we visit one of our favorite towns in the United States, Bardstown, Kentucky.
It’s not only incredibly charming, but it also sits right at the heart of the bourbon trail. If you have any interest in in bourbon this is the place to be, and frankly, even if bourbon is not your thing, the scenery, beauty, and friendly folk that live here make this worth a stop.
Bardstown is located about ½ hour south of Louisville, Kentucky. Its main draw is being an amazing home base for the bourbon trail. You can get to most of the major bourbon distilleries within ½ to 1 hour from here.
Come along with us on this video overview of Bardstown, Kentucky.
While living in phase 2 we have more time for fun hobbies and activities and one of our favorite activities is judging competitive BBQ. Yes, we are competitive BBQ judges and when people hear that they immediately ask, how did you become BBQ judges???
In today’s Phase 2 video we will talk about what’s it’s like to be a BBQ judge and how you can become one yourself.
Here is the link to the KCBS website where you can sign up to become a judge or a team: https://kcbs.us/
Please leave us a comment. Are you a BBQ judge? Have you ever heard of competitive BBQ judging? Other suggestions we have missed? If you are a judge, do you have a favorite competition? We love to hear from you. Let us know what you think and if you have any questions.
Cheers to having great hobies in the second phase of life. Make it a great day Friends!
In this video we will talk about the many different adventures and activities you can experience onboard. This ship has a TON of things to do. We discuss everything from pools to bumper cars. We show our experience with Zone Zero virtual reality, the shows and many other activities. We also rate and review this with an eye to us living in Phase 2. We hope you enjoy this conclusion of our 3-part series.
In part 1 of our Live Phase 2 Odyssey of the Seas adventure we gave an overview of our planning preparation, travel and boarding for our recent trip on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship. In part 2 we discussed the ship layout, our cabin, the crew, food, and drinks on Odyssey. If you haven’t seen it here’s a link to part 1 and here’s a link to part 2
We strive to give you good, detailed information and options for life and leisure for those of us in phase 2 of life.
Today we have our Part 2 video review of Odyssey of the Seas cruise with Royal Caribbean.
In part 1 of our Live Phase 2 Odyssey of the Seas adventure we gave an overview of our planning preparation, travel and boarding for our recent trip on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship. If you haven’t seen it here’s a link to part 1: https://youtu.be/9xNNFL-m3N0
In this part 2 video we will talk about our experiences with the ship’s layout, cabin, the crew, food, and drinks. We try the unlimited specialty dining package for the first time and discuss our thoughts on the specialty restaurants along with the included dining options and the bars onboard.
Our hope is these videos give you good, detailed information on this great leisure opportunity for those of us in phase 2 of life. In part 3 of this video series, we will talk about all the amazing activities on the ship and give our final thoughts on this ship. Please leave us a comment. Have you cruised Odyssey? What places to you recommend? What’s your favorite cruise ship for a phase 2 get away?
Thank you for watching and we will be back soon with part 3.
Mike and I enjoy cruising. We’ve been cruising since our honeymoon in 1988.
In part 1 of our Living Phase 2 Odyssey of the Seas adventure we will give an overview of our planning preparation, travel and boarding for our recent trip on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas cruise ship. In this video we will discuss how we planned this trip, our arrival, our overnight in our port city of Ft. Lauderdale, getting to the ship and the first things to do on the ship such as booking your restaurant reservations and entertainment. We hope these videos give you good, detailed information on this great leisure opportunity for those of us in phase 2 of life.
Doctor’s Inn Bed and Breakfast, in West College Corner, IN is located at the Indiana/Ohio border.
We had a beautiful weekend stay at the historic Doctor’s Inn near Oxford, Ohio. It happened we were scheduled to judge a steak competition as well as a barbeque competition in Liberty Indiana at the Smoke on the Water Festival and needed a place to stay.
Sometimes when you are in smaller communities, finding good lodging can be challenging. The Doctor’s Inn met our needs with a delightful stay.
Jay and Charlotte, the owners, were kind and welcoming with tips on what to do and where to eat. The inn was an absolutely charming old Victorian home.
The Doctor’s Inn was built in 1871 for a local physician. You can see the original sign here. Take a look at those office hours! It is because the doctor made house calls in between his times at the office.
The Inn was remodeled in 2017. Jay and Charlotte have owned it since 2021. There are 5 guest rooms with private baths. Having a private bath is a must for us. Do note that four of the guest rooms are up a steep set of stairs. There is one guest room on the main floor, so if stairs are a challenge, be sure to discuss this with Jay and Charlotte.
We stayed upstairs in the Nautical room and it was a spacious room with queen sized bed and large bathroom with a shower. Let us say, we’re not kidding when we tell you the sheets were the softest sheets we’d ever slept on. The towels were nice and fluffy and the shower water was “hot”. A must for us. Nothing can be more disappointing than a lukewarm shower but this didn’t disappoint.
Breakfast was delicious with several homemade goodies such as breakfast casserole, muffins and great coffee. Fresh fruit and yogurt were also available.
Our favorite place to spend time was the enclosed front porch. We would have our morning coffee here as well as play games of cribbage in the evening.
The living room was stocked with reading material although we didn’t have the time to enjoy this room of the house.
We give this bed and breakfast a 10/10 and have plans to return here for next year’s barbeque competition.
If you are in the area and needing a place to stay, this is definitely it.
This is part three of a three-part series of videos where we give an overview and review of the Excellence El Carmen all-inclusive resort in the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic.
In this video we will give our final overall ratings of all areas of the resort. We also discuss a BIG issue we encountered that almost ruined our vacation, and how you can avoid this near tragedy. We hope these videos give you good, detailed information on this great leisure opportunity for those of us in phase 2 of life.
In the video we discussed airport transfers. We have used DAT, Dominican Airport Transfers. Per the video, here’s their website: https://dominicanairporttransfers.com/
Please leave us a comment. Did you like the resort? Are you going? What have been your experiences? By the way, we just noticed the spelling error in the video. Did you find it? If so laugh with us. 🙂
This is part two of a three-part series of videos where we give an overview and review of the Excellence El Carmen all-inclusive resort. The resort is in the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic. In this video we will give an overview of our room, the amenities, shows, and the food at the resort.
You may find part 1 here where we discussed the grounds, the beach and the main building.
Coming up in part 3 we will give our overall impressions, our review rankings, as well as highlight a MAJOR issue that almost ruined our vacation! We hope these give a good Phase 2 of life overview as we discuss if this is a good leisure opportunity for those if us in phase 2 of life.
We enjoy our travel time and have discovered how much we like all inclusive resorts. This is part one of a three-part series of videos where we give an overview and review of the Excellence El Carmen all-inclusive resort.
The resort is in the Punta Cana area of the Dominican Republic. In the video we will show an overview of the main building, the grounds, and the beach. In part 2 we will discuss the food, amenities, and activities. And in part 3 we will give our overall impressions, our review rankings, as well as highlight a MAJOR issue that almost ruined our vacation!
Travel time is a blessing we can enjoy more of during phase 2 of life. As we discuss our travel locations and experiences, we hope this gives you a good overview so you may make a decision if this type of travel or destination is for you.
Since we have been able to much more traveling in Phase 2 of life, one of our favorite activities is cruising. We have been cruising since our Honeymoon in 1988. Suffice it to say that cursing and cruse ships have changed A LOT since then. However, that has not changed our love of cursing and the whole cruise experience. As we always try to do here at Living Phase 2, we want to highlight ways to make the most of your life and in that vein we want to present some items when you take a cruise you may not have considered. These are a bit unusual but we have found them very useful to enhance our cruise experience.
Please note, in this blog we will recommend some products we have used and found to work well. We will embed links to these products on Amazon and if you use these links, we will make a small commission. However, this in no way influences what we recommend, as we will only suggest products, we believe will truly enhance your travel experience.
Friends, we also have a general Packing for a Cruise video which you may find HERE.
Device Charging Essentials
The first is a very simple solution to what can be a big mess when traveling. We all have more and more charging cords and cables along with more electronic devices. Your Kindle, iPhone, Android Phone, Laptop, smart watch and tablet can all take different cable types, and these can become a big mess. Keeping your cables organized not only make travel much easier and pleasurable, it also protects your cables and makes sure you never leave home without the cables you need.
Here are VERY simple and inexpensive solutions.
First, the easiest and least expensive solution, you can use something you already have around the house. That’s what we use. I have some travel kit bags from business class travel that work perfect.
Next, you can also use a simple pencil bag either left over from your kids’ school days or from the dollar store. Here’s an example:
Here are a couple of purpose designed cable organizers that not only work very well but also come with cable ties and keep all your cords separated and protected.
Whichever solution you select, we recommend you use some type of cable tie to keep them rolled and can organized. You can use a simple bread tie or purpose made hook and loop ties, which is what we use.
One last item for your charger bag is a USB charger. We use this one and keep it in our travel cable bags to make sure we always have a good, multiport USB charger. A bonus with this charger is it works well for fast charging of iPhones and Android devices.
Finally, now that you have your cable bag and USB charger, make sure to purchase enough extra cables to keep it stocked and ready to go. Charging cables are now inexpensive enough to allow for buying duplicate cables and keeping them packed in your travel bag so you are never without this important necessity.
Electrical Plug Items
On most cruse ships there is a distinct lack of electrical outlets. With all our electronics that need charging and other electronic devices we use these days. we often need more outlets than what are available. You will find many cruise ships have two types of outlets, a US standard and a European standard outlet. With the right equipment you can make the most of both of these. We carry a European plug to US adaptor to give us use of all the outlets in our cruise cabin.
PLEASE NOTE: This adaptor does not convert the voltage, only the outlet. If you are not familiar or comfortable with the difference in voltage between these outlets, PLEASE DO NOT use use this product. In the future we will do another blog especially on voltage converters and adaptors and the different voltage and frequency standards.
Extension Cord
We always carry an extension cord when traveling. It comes in handy for many reasons, but especially in cruise ships. Like we’ve mentioned, there is a distinct lack of outlets in cruise cabins. Also, as seen on our channel my wife uses a CPAP, and we always need power by her side of the bed. A good, heavy duty extension cord is always a good travel companion.
Another item we keep packed and stocked at all times and it is always ready to go, is our medicine bag or esentials bag. For the bag itself you can use anything you have around the house, we use an old travel toiletry kit. That size is prefect. Because our list of what’s in our “go bag” is rather extensive, we have dedicated a separate blog for just that topic. You can find that here: Travel Essentials when Living in Phase 2.
Baggage Scale
Bag weight limits are very tightly controlled so with packing and unpacking, and adding souvenir purchases, you can never be sure if the weight of the bags you packed at home are the same when you are returning. There’s little worse than getting to the check-in counter and being told you are over 5 pounds and having to pull out items and repack your underwear in front of the whole airport. Fortunately, there is an easy solution for this, a portable baggage scale. I’ve been using one of these for travel for years and it’s a life saver. It is cheap, lightweight, and easy to pack. Just throw it in your bag and bring it with you. When it’s time to come home pull it out and weigh your luggage to make sure you are under the 50 lb limit.
This one is especially necessary for cruse ships. What a lot of people don’t realize is the all walls and ceilings on cruise ships are metal, so magnetic items are very useful in cruise cabins. We travel with 2 types of hooks and magnetic clip. The hooks are great for hanging up hats, clothes, lanyards, etc. The clips are perfect for any paperwork that you collect during your cruise. Note that the pound rating is based on pulling the hook straight out, not how much it can hold when attached sideways on a wall. If you want to hold something heavier on a wall, we recommend you get the larger 100 lb. hooks. We have found the 22 lb. hooks are perfect for hats, lanyards, and other smaller items.
One of the most versatile items you can take with you when traveling is gaffer tape. No, not duct tape or masking tape, but gaffer tape. This stuff is great and is what holds together most movie sets. You never know when you you’ll need to tape down an extension cord, or just keep the hangers from banging around your cruise ship cabin when the ship is rocking. Gaffer tape can help with many situations.
When we are at the pool or beach there’s always some concern leaving our stuff (phones, Kindles, etc.) when we go for a swim, head up to the bar or just hitting the restroom. After looking for some time we found a great solution, a locking waterproof bag. Please note this is NOT ultrahigh security. However, after all our research, we feel this locking bag is a good compromise of large size, waterproof, and locking ability. We say this bag keeps the honest people honest. If someone was very motivated to cut it open and steal your items, this won’t stop that, but it does offer peace of mind.
Quite often when traveling bars and restaurants are not offering straws with their drinks. Even when they do, they are sometimes paper and fall apart. Therefore, we always travel with our own silicon straws. There are many options for these, but most come with 8 to 12 straws, a cleaning brush, and some holders. Here’s one we’ve picked that works well. In addition to the straws think about bringing some antibacterial dish soap to clean the straws. Silicon has a tendency to pick up tastes and orders from items and a little wash can take that away.
When getting a drink at the pool bar it’s often very warm outside and your delicious, cool, frozen drink can melt very quickly. Having a stainless steel, insulated, tumbler can come if very handy to keep your drinks ice cold. We select 20oz. size. We’ve found that’s the perfect size for most drinks. You can get high-end Yeti™ style, but we’ve found the Ozark Tails tumblers from Walmart or inexpensive ones from Amazon work great. We always get them without a handle, as that can be added later.
Hotel and cruise ship rooms can be very dark. After quite a bit of research we found a battery powered, motion sensing, light activated night light, with an amber light that won’t wake you up the way a blue light will. Its small, lightweight, and easy to pack and works great for very dark rooms when you need to make those middle of the night trips. The Mr. Beams nightlight we recommend comes in a 3-pack so you can have them in a couple of places such as in the room and the bathroom.
Friends, we hope you have enjoyed our list of unusual items that we take when we travel. They have made our travel and cruising trips even more enjoyable as well as give us some peace of mind.
We wish you all the best on your travels, and if you have a travel item you think is important that we haven’t listed here, please leave us a comment below. We would love to hear what you take on your trips. We can all learn from each other!
Travel essentials when living in phase 2 can be a bit different from our earlier years.
Ah, to be in our 20’s with no thought of all the little health issues we now experience in life’s second phase. It used to be when we would go on a travel adventure, we’d stay out late, eat and imbibe a bit too much, and then jump out of bed the next day to do it all again with few aches and pains or other ailments. However, although we may have a few more issues in Phase 2, those little things don’t have to stop us enjoying our leisure and adventure activities. It just takes a bit more planning and preparation than before.
In that vein we always keep a kit packed and ready to throw in our luggage regardless of the type of travel, be it a cruise, weekend BBQ tournament judging, or visiting family. Today we are going to review our travel kit recommendations to help make sure you are always ready for your Phase 2 adventures.
Please note you will see some products from Amazon. By purchasing through these links we earn a small commission at no cost to you. We only recommend products we use and enjoy. Thank you for your support.
The Travel Bag
Really you can use anything you have around the house. We use an old travel toiletry kit. That size is prefect. But any zip up bag that’s about 5” X 4” X 8” size will work well. You can even use a heavy duty gallon zip top bag.
Now that you have your bag let’s get it filled. Almost all these supplies be purchased at Walmart, Target, or even Dollar Tree. We will break down it down by possible ailment.
Foot and Skin:
Medicated Body Powder such as Gold Bond™ or Anti-Monkey Butt™
When traveling, especially when on a cruise or at the beach it very easy to get a skin rash. Medicated powder is great for those swimsuit rashes after spending all day in a damp swimsuit. After many years of Boy Scout hikes and trips, our favorite is Anti-Monkey Butt™.
Moleskin
It’s very easy to get a “hot spot” or blister while on travel adventures. We always keep a set of pre-cut patches of various sizes in our kit. We use the pre-cut vs. the large patches, since mole skin can be very tough to cut. He’s a link to the pre-cut kit we use.
Sunburns
We hope everyone already knows to always pack sun screen, sun glasses and head protection. We take sunburn and skin cancer very seriously, but occasionally we can still get sunburned on our adventures. In that case we have some post-sunburn relief products we always keep on hand.
Aloe Sunburn Gel – There are various brands we use. Be sure to pick a brand that has both aloe and Lidocaine.
Solarcaine™ Sun Burn Relief Spray – Can help with sunburn pain, make sure it also has aloe and lidocaine as well.
General Medication
You may end up over doing it a bit, be it long hikes, over exertion, a few too many at the pool bar. After that you may end up with sore muscles or even with a bit of a headache, so we always keep generic versions the following on hand: • Headache medication that is a combination acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine such as Excedrin™. • Ibuprofen such as Advil™ • Acetaminophen – such as Tylenol™ • Acetaminophen PM – A Nighttime aid to help with sleep, should you need it, such as Tylenol PM™
You never know when you may catch a cold or have an allergy attack. For those, we keep generic tablet versions of Dayquil™ and NyQuil™ in our kit.
Stomach Needs
We may not want to admit it, but we can’t always eat what, and how, we did in our 20’s. In Phase 2 we can be more susceptible to acid reflux, upset stomach, diarrhea, etc. This can all be exacerbated when traveling with unusual foods, more drink, and new activities.
For gastro-intestinal issues we always travel with some bismuth subsalicylate tablets. The brand name would be Pepto-Bismol™, we have used both the name brand as well as generics. These are a must have when traveling. They are, just like their ad says good for upset stomach, diarrhea, and indigestion. We use the tablets, so there’s not a chance of the liquid spilling.
Many of us have heard the expression “Montezuma’s Revenge”. Without going into the full story, it is the name for severe diarrhea contracted by travelers. Diarrhea when traveling is very common. It can come from changes in diet or bacterial infections. We always make sure we have some Loperamide HCL based anti-diarrhea medication. Yes, the Pepto™ will work for mild cases, this medication is more targeted and stronger and faster acting. Just don’t over do taking it.
For acid stomach we keep a simple calcium carbonate antiacid, such as Tums™ or Maalox™ as well as a preventive antiacid is important to have on hand.
If overindulging is causing a bit more recurring heart burn our go-to preventative antiacid is Pepcid® AC or Generic equivalent. We get the generic Sam’s Club Member’s Mark product called Acid-Pep Famotidine Tablets.
Motion Sickness Medication
Fortunately, we don’t find we are susceptible to much in the way of motion sickness. However, we have family members and friends that struggle with motion sickness. Our preferred medication is Meclizine HCL 25 mg, the name brand is Bonine™.
Miscellaneous
Stain Wipes
You will spill something on yourself and if you pack minimally you will need to re-wear some outfits. Therefore, we always keep Shout™ wipes on hand for the small spills and stains.
Lint Roller
Hair, lint, can get all over us when traveling, there’s were a mini-lint brush comes in. You can get the reusable or the tape kind. Here’s a link to the small reusable one we keep in our kit:
Ear Plugs
Nancy has always had trouble sleeping when there is excessive noise. Hotels, especially, can be very noisy. To help get a good night’s sleep, we always travel with some ear plugs, just in case.
Travel First Aid Kit
You will get a few cuts and scrapes as you travel. After being a Boy Scout leading for years, Mike never leaves home without a basic first aid kit. You don’t need a big one. You only need one that contains various size adhesive and gauze bandages, tape, small medical scissor, tweezer, antiseptic towelettes, safety pins, and Q-tips™. That will do you well for small incidents.
We hope this list of health travel aids and a peak into our Phase 2 leisure life helps you make the most of your own Phase 2 journey.
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As we thought about our life, some major changes had taken place over a relatively short period of time. Our children had grown and moved out which had brought along that accompanies being an empty nester. We had moved away from our first careers and raising our kids to becoming owners of our new business. Our parents needed more care as they were aging. We started calling this time of our lives “Phase 2”. Looking back, we saw all the changes we were experiencing and how much we had to learn. That was the genesis of Living Phase 2.
But what is Phase 2? We’ve defined it as that time in life after an early career and raising families, but before the late retirement years. We measured each of life’s phases using 3 key characteristics, time, money, and health.
Thinking about each of these measures, let’s look at each of the phases of life to see why and how Phase 2 can be possibly the best time of our lives.
Phase 0
Phase 0 is the start of life. It’s our childhood. It is days of playing, going to school, growing up, while living with a family support system. Phase 0 continues up until we start “adulting”. It’s that time of life where we have the freedom and minimal responsibility. Looking at the chart in Phase 0, there’s plenty of time and great health, however, there is little “money” available in this phase. While our family may have “money” it’s not generally our choice how that money is spent, and it is not an important component for a person in phase 0.
Phase 1
In Phase 1 it’s time to transition from childhood into adulthood. It’s the time in life where many of us start our careers, marry, have children, and raise our families. During this phase, our time is often limited. We are early in our careers, not making much in the way of income yet. We may have only 1 or 2 weeks of vacation and time off is spent around family activities. Money earned goes towards necessities along with buying cars, houses, raising families, and hopefully investing in the future. Although we have excellent health and vitality, our time is often not our own.
Phase 2
Now here we are, phase 2 of life. Our children are grown and most likely out of the house. At this point we may start to feel some of the early effects of our age. We wake up a little stiffer. After a night out, it takes a bit more to get going in the morning. We start grow hair in places where we didn’t want it and lose it where we do. It is at this time of life when we are well into our career, making more money, and most likely have more in the way of vacation and free time. We may even be wondering what to do with ourselves now that we aren’t spending all our time catering to our children and their activities that have been such a significant part of our life. We also may be looking at a refreshed career, more travel, spending time with grandchildren, and caring for aging parents. Our thoughts become more concerned about our health. We also look outside ourselves and consider how we can spend our time, talent and treasure to help others. Finally, our retirement is on the horizon, and we are thinking about options and hopefully seeing the fruits of our retirement investments and wealth planning.
It’s around these pillars of Health, Wealth, Career, Leisure, Family, and Faith & Charity that we will have discussions in our Living Phase 2 community, including website and social media. It is our hope to build a community of others in Phase 2 where we can share ideas and help each other have the best Phase 2 life possible.
Phase 3
And last, lets identify phase 3. During the transition from phase 2 to 3 we find that we have even more time with being retired and having less career responsibilities. Often our home, cars, and other debts are paid off. We also have fewer family expenses and if our retirement plans are well executed this can lead to more disposable income. However, it’s during this transition that our health and vitality decline. That is the major transition indicator from phase 2 to phase 3. We have plenty of time and money, but not the energy or health we once had.
Wrap up
We would like to note, we certainly understand that this is a very broad and generic view. You will note that we don’t put ages on these phases. They are keyed by the balance between health, wealth, and time. Everyone’s experiences will differ and how we experience each of life’s phases will be unique. How we see phase 2 is the time in life where you have the freedom while having a good balance of time, money and health. For some people that may be in their 30’s and for others it may extend well into their senior years. We hope you will enjoy our journey through phase 2 and look forward having you join us. Together, we can help each other get the most out of life.
Cable Ties
