TravelAft​er55.com​​
Above: ​Tom and Greta at Four Corners National Monument where four states come together - Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah Oct. 2012
​We are Tom Blake and Greta Cohn, life partners since 1998. We live in Dana Point, California, in southern Orange County, half way between Los Angeles and San Diego. One of the characteristics that brought us together was our love for travel. Since we first started traveling in 1998, we have taken many trips.
Tom is 78 and Greta will be 77 this May, 2018. Tom founded Tutor and Spunky's Deli in Dana Point in 1998 and sold the business in January, 2015, after 26 years. Greta is a retired special education school teacher, having worked 31 years in teaching, most of them at R.H. Dana School in Dana Point. We met when Greta ordered a fresh carrot juice at Tutor and Spunky's and Tom made the carrot juice and then asked her for a date when handing it to her.
Tom has been a newspaper columnist for 24 years. He has written more than 3,800 columns and eNewsletters. He writes a column titled, “On Life and Love After 50,” for a syndicate of papers in south Orange County called Picket Fence Media: Dana Point Times, San Clemente Times and The San Juan Capistrano Dispatch. His website is www.FindingLoveAfter50.com.
He also writes a column for newspapers in Pennsylvania called 50plus Life.
The bi monthly columns appear in 50plus Life papers in York, Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, Chester and Cumberland.
The purpose of this travel website is to encourage middle aged and senior people to travel after 55. Regarding travel, our thinking is: we want to travel as much as we can, while we are healthy enough to do so. We are seeing too many of our friends develop health issues that makes travel for them difficult or impossible. So, we are nudging people to get out there and enjoy the benefits of learning new cultures, seeing new countries and meeting new people while it is still possible. We are convinced that travel helps stimulate the mind and keeps people young.
For those who can no longer travel due to health, or, for people who don’t have the funds, we are sharing the stories so that they can enjoy traveling vicariously.
Now that we’re older, taking trips to other continents presents new challenges and requires more conservative planning than in years past. But it still can be done; this website will provide ideas and suggestions how. Included here are stories and pictures of many of our trips.
In April and May of 2015, we shared with you a seven-week trip that included going to Graz, Austria, where we stayed for a month. We traveled extensively through Austria by train and take some side trips into nearby countries.
At the end of our trip, we boarded a Viking long boat in Budapest and traveled the Danube, Rhine and Main rivers to Amsterdam, where we stayed three nights.
In April and May of 2010, we took our first cruise, a 10-day junket from Rome through the Greek Isles and back to Rome. Before we left, our friends told us that we’d be hooked on cruising. They were right; we loved it. In October, 2017, we cruised from San Diego around South America and up to Rio; we became four-star Mariner’s on Holland America, having logged more than 100 days on Holland America ships.
 
Other romantic travels over the last ten years, when we were in our 60s, are also included on this site. The website will be updated often as new travel experiences arise.
Stay healthy; travel well. Email Tom: tompblake@gmail.com