Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
California, USA - Travel with Empty Nester Julie
In today’s episode we are visiting with Julie from California, an empty nester, that tells her story about the freedom found from selling her house and how she is venturing to new locations while still working and deciding on where next?
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Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In today's episode, we are visiting with Julie from California, an empty nester that tells her story about the freedom found from selling her house and how she is venturing out to new locations while still working and deciding on where next. We really appreciate you joining us and we would love if you could support us by simply following and rating this podcast in your favorite podcast app. Enjoy so everyone.
Speaker 1:We're talking with Julie, a longtime friend of Kristen's, and we're going to talk about her lifestyle that's very adventurous and how she is able to live in multiple places. So, julie, we're so excited to have you. Thank you. Well, I also want to say a little more about Julie. Not only is she just traveling, but what she does in her profession and in her life. They're kind of synonymous with each other. Just this also huge magnet. But she runs an amazing organization called how Women Lead, and I love how you've kind of used the term in other areas as well, with how women invest, which has been amazing. I remembered when you were raising awareness for women getting on boards by the year 2020, to have 20% of women on boards by 2020, which surpassed even Kristen.
Speaker 2:we're at 29 and a half as of end of September, that's amazing. And isn't it?
Speaker 1:that two women have to be on a board. One woman, one woman of color, have to be on every public board. Is that what I heard? Is that?
Speaker 2:correct. Well, there's a couple of different laws and a couple of different, you know, entities that are asserting sort of influence, but it's really in California. There's a law, one law that's two women if you're of a six or fewer board directors and three if it's over seven. So you know, really, you know 40% is appropriate, right, and then the asset management firms require two women, but we also have a law in California that is requiring diverse, you know other kinds of diversity. Both of those laws are being challenged right now and NASDAQ, who also created a requirement, is being challenged, and so we have a law firm teed up to do an amicus brief with us if it gets passed on to the next court. So we're continuing to put pressure on to make sure that this stays active.
Speaker 1:And you are the person to do that, because not only who you are, what you represent and everyone loves you and the circle of influence that you have is unbelievable and so far reaching, not just here in the and the title of it, how Women Inspire, and the first one being our dear friend Mary Stutz and her incredible story, but I don't want to say so how Women Lead, how Women Invest and how Women Inspire. I feel like there's one more how Women Give, yes, how Women Give. Is there one more? Or is that the fourth? Is that it Not?
Speaker 2:really no, but this is the thing. Think about this, especially when you're over 45, your life sort of evolves. You're less focused on career ladder and babies or whatever things happen in your thirties, right, and you start to think about, like, how do I have an impact in the world? And one of the things we know is women are happier if they're doing things together and if they're actually driving towards impact. And so, and we're all, we all have to invest money if we're trying to be safe in the future. You know, so you invest. We, we all give money somewhere. You know we're all philanthropic. So there's all these parts of who we are and I always feel like you know to create something that is like a one trick pony almost is it's, it's fine, we all seek that out. But to create something where it's like, oh, I can find my people, I can get my, I can build my career, I can be philanthropic, I can do things with other people to change laws, like how yummy is that Like cause.
Speaker 2:We're whole people. None of us are one dimensional.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Not you, Kristen.
Speaker 1:Well, ditto, it tracks the same right, Makes it fun. You got to have fun in life for sure. Julie and I have known each other, actually almost as long as Carol and I have known A long, long time, over 22 years. I'm trying to remember. I want to say Women's Initiative, but that was something it was. Oh, it was Women's.
Speaker 2:Initiative. Okay, yeah, it was the CEO for 11 years.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was on my board. I can't even remember how it all transpired, but in 2018,.
Speaker 2:I guess. Well, what I know is everybody who meets you falls in love with you. You're like electric, like, so that's why that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Well, ditto for sure. It's like you know. Time doesn't pass either between our calls and talks, which I love Fast forward. I got invited to go to Cuba with Julie. We got reconnected before then too, but that kind of really solidified our friendship.
Speaker 2:Oh, we drinking, you know great rum, cocktails and smoking cigars and dancing and talking nonstop, that's. You know nothing to bond you like that right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I have to say, though, that the bus ride from the airport too, and that when you and I were sitting, that was a pretty memorable one, but all of it was memorable, spending time together. So so, julie has, did you sell your house? Is that correct? Wow, that's, that's big.
Speaker 2:That's well, you know. I mean, let's be honest, I didn't sell it to go on this adventure. We were looking around the house after two years of, you know, being in COVID and we're like the kids are gone, we want a different layout, the kitchen isn't the right way, you can't really remodel because the structure wouldn't work. And we were like you know what, if we're going to be stuck in a house, we got to get in a better environment. So I mean, it was fine, we're blessed, right. But so we started looking around and I didn't really see exactly what I wanted and I was like you know what we did?
Speaker 2:We should, raul had retired and I was like let's get out, so let's go do stuff for a while before we, you know, decide. And the kids, you know, my daughter's getting married next week, who knows? You know where everyone's going to want to be after this pandemic, even like I. You know, we have two biological children and a Rwandan daughter. They're, all you know, local in the Bay area right now. But we, you know, we don't know and, and you know, so we have to figure all that stuff out.
Speaker 1:So well, okay, so I am so interested. We've interviewed people all over the world that live in different places or have been in the U? S and moved over to Guatemala, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Singapore. I mean the 19 different you're our 19th and I'm so. We had one person that lived between Whitefish, Montana and Maui, so she spends half the year and she has a school age son, so I think he does school in the winter in Maui, of course, and then Whitefish in the summertime. So that was really interesting. She's actually a. She was an anchor woman as well, so kind of interesting life. But I haven't gotten a chance to talk to someone who's sold their house and is just living in the U? S in different places. So I can't wait to hear about that. And you're our first and I think that with COVID, there's going to be a lot of interest about what you're doing, and because I personally have this interest as well, in a couple years, with the kids, you know, getting out of high school.
Speaker 2:Well, my life is not as complex as having a child. You have to figure out where they go to school. It's just, frankly, it's just me. I have a husband, but he retired and so, yes, he's got his list of like we have to be in these types of places. But you know, he's pretty easy peasy, so he just kind of goes along for the ride and I, you know, have sort of figured out how this will work. So I actually often will have work related stuff that I enter, you know, inter, integrate into whatever I'm doing. So visit with people that I um, that I know, but also God, it's just you know especially with COVID, you know.
Speaker 2:You get to a point where you're like, wow, I'm starting to become like OCD, making sure every single thing in my house is in the exact right spot, you know, started getting weird, you know, and I was like, and I'm super positive and hyper and always optimistic, right, but I was feeling a little bit insular-y and I was like you know what? This isn't so great. So it's so fun to have something to look forward to and plan for, instead of like I work all day and then I watch Netflix or read a book or do the same thing or go back to working at night, right? Instead, it's like you know, and time zone changes are actually kind of fun because, like in Hawaii, we're in Hawaii right now. It means that, like, I and I get up early anyway, so I start working at five and I'm done at two and then I, then we go out to Waimea Canyon or we kind of go have an adventure, you know, and it's really energizing and super sexy. And my marriage, which we're celebrating 30 years of being married next week.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so exciting. I love that you called it super sexy, which I know you are, but just to have that time together, to venture together.
Speaker 2:Well, it's something to look forward to. I just think it just mixes it up. I don't know how long I'm going to do this. We thought six months, but now we're doing it for 12. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I like this and how? How did the conversation start and how did you plan where you're going to go? And, uh, you know, do you have it mapped out, Like you know? And then, where are you staying? You're staying at friend's house. Is it Airbnbs, Like? How did you organize all that?
Speaker 2:Well, basically what happened is we were looking around our house during COVID and we were like, oh, I wish I had a bigger kitchen. Our kids are grown up now, and so it was also the kid house. You know, and as a lot of people do, you sort of think, well, I don't, you know, I'd like to have a room where we can work out or whatever I do. We just wanted to change it up. We wanted a different environment. So we started looking around at buying something. We weren't quite finding anything and we're like, well, our daughter's getting married in a couple months in Hawaii and we've always wanted to go to this other city. And I was like, well, why don't we put our stuff in storage? We don't exactly know where we want to be next. And I mean generally, we like the environment of the city we were in, but in terms of houses and I just I wasn't. It wasn't clicking and the energy wasn't there to find and buy a new house.
Speaker 2:And so I thought, well, why don't we just spend a couple months? So the first thing we thought was, well, let's get a really beautiful big place for the holidays. So we were like we could you know, the kids can come when we got a new husband that's, you know, now part of the family and and then I thought, well, I can have my team come and do a retreat if we get a place that's big enough. So we got a place in Monterey, california, that said it sleeps 13. They said it was a five bedroom. It was really a four bedroom, but that was fine. It was beautiful and big and a block from the water, and so that was. I did it through VRBO, which and, and so that was for one month, and literally I had a retreat with my team for four or five days. Four days, I saw it posted.
Speaker 2:It was amazing and I invited a group of the women who've invested in our venture firm that were helping me with strategy. They came for a two and a half day weekend, and then we had a couple other friends come and stay for weekends, and then the kids were there for 10 days with, you know, there were eight of us eight, yeah, eight of us and random other people would show up, and so what was so great is it was big and comfy and retreaty, and so that was perfect for that month. And then in January, and then I was like, okay, well, that was too much money, we can't do that every month. So January we got a small place, just a little two-bedroom apartment in Napa, and that was an Airbnb. We were like a block from downtown Napa. So instead of like during December, I cooked every meal big, big grocery bill, but like cooking, cooking, cooking nonstop, which I love. I was kind of done, though, for that, for a couple of days anyway. So in Napa we just ate an apple at lunch and went out to dinner every night. So basically, I'd work all day and every night we'd have some fabulous restaurant that we would go out to. So you know, we were staying in a less expensive place and then we could, you know.
Speaker 2:So for me I have to budget things and then, and then I was planning to do all of February in the in Hawaii, because our daughter's getting married March 5th. So I thought, okay, we'll do February plus a week. And I was going to be with a friend of mine, um, in Maui, who, uh, not at her place in an Airbnb next door um, sort of next door and and she ended up getting cancer and needing to deal with her health for a minute. So I pushed it, so we flipped it. One of the people who was staying with us in um, I just had invited over for the weekend, uh, he had a, he has a family place in Telluride and, um, we got the news that she wasn't going to be here and I was like, well, I want to be with her, so let's change it to March.
Speaker 2:Raul and I were talking about oh well, what would be fun. Seattle, san Diego, colorado. He's like I've never been to Colorado. And my friend was like, well, we have a place in Telluride, why don't you stay in Telluride? Like, okay, so we went for three weeks to Telluride in their beautiful home in the mountains, and so that was you know. So we didn't. You know, we didn't play for that and his parents, who I knew, I've known for 30 years, came and spent the last two or three days with us, which was super, got in at six o'clock at night. I colored my roots, we went to the storage place, dropped off the winter suitcase, picked up the summer suitcase and got on a plane at eight o'clock the next morning to go to Hawaii, which sounds a little chaotic, but it's totally fine.
Speaker 1:Oh, it sounds right up my alley.
Speaker 2:Well, we thought, like you got to be stable in a place for a month, and which is great, you know, and it's not, and it feels like you get settled and stuff. We stay in a decent, you know, in a in like an embassy suite, so there's a little space, you know, and we know we like this little place and we stay there all the time. And then we arrived in Kauai. We're spending a week in Kauai, our daughter gets married and it's a week long adventure in Oahu and then we'll go to Maui and be with my friend for two weeks. So these are things I mean you do this anyway. You'd go to your daughter's wedding, you'd go visit a friend, especially someone who's been sick, so that works out. And then, and furthermore, like I don't want to be in Hawaii in July yes, you know, february, march is fabulous here, it's kind of tourist time, I guess. But like we don't know what we're doing in June yet. But in July and August we're staying out at a friend's house in Palo Alto, leeson's, while she's on a trip. She needed someone to stay at her house, nice. And then we're going to be in Europe, in Portugal and Greece, in September and October and we don't have a full plan, but I assume we should do another big family place in November and December.
Speaker 2:I run a women's organization and Kristen and I got to go to Cuba. There were 20 of us. That was fabulous. So going on a trip to Cuba is hard right now but I loved doing that retreat that I did for two and a half days with some women. So what I'm thinking about organizationally is like well, why don't I get places that are big enough that I could have some retreats and we can just have groups of women do retreats? You know we all are so hungry to be together. So you know, the only thing is my poor husband has to wander around. You know we have to make sure he has a little space to do his thing. So in December he's like you have people here the entire time and it was all women.
Speaker 1:So I have a question, so logistically, so you started this. It sounds amazing. But like you have this storage space. Like did you purge some stuff or did you like fill a three bedroom house into the storage and how much do you keep? And like, how did you decide, kind of what to?
Speaker 2:do Well, but I decided and what I should have done might not be the same I did purge a lot. We were like that bed's old, we don't need that one. Or you know the kids were like, oh, I'd like that, right. But we put you know three bedrooms worth of stuff in a pod. You know those that looks like a trailer or something. They come, they drop it off in your driveway, you fill it up and then they take it away and I don't know where it is. Hopefully someday I'll see it again. I'm paying the bill.
Speaker 2:So you know the sofas and the big everything's in there. And then it wasn't really the plan but we couldn't fit it all in there and I was like we should just get a little small little storage space that we and ultimately it's been perfect as a public storage place. We just go in and out, right. So it's got all the like, different weather stuff. We're not going to carry suitcases around with us or like I guess I probably shouldn't say there's, you know, documents in there that we want to keep track of. Like, if I ever get audited I'm going to have to fly back to Novato and get the box. So that really has worked out now.
Speaker 2:Right now we're like why did we think that stuff was important? I should have just gotten rid of all of it. Like, by the time we pay for storage for very long we could replace most of the living room. Like you're like it probably not financially, like you know, make sense to store it for more than a year, but so maybe at some point we'll be like, yeah, let's just let every that's just like whatever. I don't know what one does with all our stuff, but we donated a lot. We didn't do a garage sale we're not the garage sale kind of people but uh, we donated a ton and the kids took stuff and we threw some stuff. We took a couple trips to the dump of stuff that was really crappy and nobody would want it anymore anyway.
Speaker 2:So you know you could move in things around. Someday I'll you want that painting in my living room and you're like nah that's me.
Speaker 1:Well, I have, like my, my, my grandma, my Swedish grandma, was an artist, and so I have these paintings that were passed down, and then my mom also had some, and I'm like I'm going to do anything.
Speaker 2:Well, think about Marie Kondo-ing stuff. Like, think about your closet, You've got all those things you wore once or twice you think you're going to. You know it's not ugly, you just you might wear it someday. Just doesn't quite feel great or whatever you know, and not when you have to put it in a suitcase to go to Hawaii or a suitcase to go to Telluride. You really realize what is the stuff you really wear. And in COVID, like I'm on Zoom calls most of the time, I probably need three dresses and that's it.
Speaker 2:Like three tops, you know. I mean it's like you don't really need that much stuff. So, as I every trip, every place we go, I'm like I could bring less. And furthermore, it's like you get there. It's like, well, I can always go to Target, like if I need some more flip-flops, it's not like if I left them in the pot, you know, like in the storage unit. That's not the end of the world. I'm not an expensive person. I don't wear designer stuff, so like I'm pretty good, one pair of earrings can last me for a long time.
Speaker 2:I think I've worn these every day for a while now. They're pretty cute, they're good. Great, you got lots of stuff right. You know you buy all kinds of stuff over time and like you don't really need it all. And I think that's the thing I was. I I've never in my life had a panic attack.
Speaker 2:But right before we moved I kind of had was having like panic. And then one day I say the kids took stuff. But one day the kids the day after Thanksgiving, the kids were like, uh, we were moving out four days later and the kids were like, oh, I'll take this, I'll take this, and the house was turning into a disaster. And I just was like stop it, cause I think I got really OCD ish about my house and my stuff. And now, three months later, you're like why did I care about any of that? It's so not important. And I don't mean that philosophically, I just literally don't even care about it anymore. Who cared about that sofa? You know it was comfortable, but there's comfy sofas everywhere I go, so like why was that such a big deal? Like to keep it clean and like all those things we all get all weird about totally.
Speaker 1:It's funny also, my, my friend, he um, bought a place that was already furnished.
Speaker 2:So then it's like, well, you got that told me that too, and her place is fabulous. Well, and you just think about it's like we need so little. You need one good pair of earrings, some lipstick good, and a couple tops right, a couple dresses maybe, um, and comfy shoes, like. What else do we really need? Like I don't know totally. Yeah, your daughter has a wedding. You buy a dress anyway. It's not like you can get one out of your closet. I'm probably not gonna, you know, get something from five years ago.
Speaker 1:She's got a color scheme, so you know, um so when you, when you made this decision, julie, were your kids already like out of out of the house for a few years, because that's one thing we're like. Oh, we don't want to like start changing anything at the minute they graduate so they can come home and have that transition.
Speaker 2:Well, our kids are 26 and 29. Okay, and we moved out three months ago, so, okay, but they would come home every weekend or every other weekend and and I would cook and they would come, and that was beautiful. And so I thought like I was like, okay, well, because we didn't know we were going to do this very long, right, I was like, okay, well, december they'll come, at least for you know, 10 days, maybe longer if we have a beautiful place. Um, and then we were in Napa, which is close enough and everybody loves Napa. We're like, oh, they'll come up on the weekends and maybe they'll fly out to Telluride with us and, of course, we'll see them for the wedding for a whole week. So so far it was already set up that it. You know, whatever they, we would be with them. Right, you know they would. I thought they would come with us to Telluride and nobody did, and so they don't have the same travel bug we have, it seems. So we'll see, I hope they will.
Speaker 2:I miss them. I miss seeing them every other weekend, but maybe the absence makes the heart grow fonder too. They might've been taking advantage of that. So I mean, we still see them. I would be the whole week with them next week, but I love cooking for them and being with them. That's the thing, that's the trade-off. I just thought, oh well, we all, we all like to travel together anyway. So I kind of thought, oh well, we'll do these like everybody will meet in Portugal or whatever. So we'll see, we'll see. I may end up not being able to do this too terribly long, cause I need to be with my babies, but you know they only come on the weekends for a couple hours. Is that really worth not going to Maui? I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's so true, it's so funny, because when there's someone else I was texting with and you know you love and you pour everything into your kids and especially, and this is the right thing, but they're kind of like, yeah, whatever, okay, great Bye, and you want that, because then they feel loved secure but I think it's great and and you know for them to see what you're doing and living life and leading by example, well, and I mean they see where they think of us as sort of somewhat adventurous, I guess at this point, which is kind of hysterical, because especially my husband, he's sort of like a homebody, so it's kind of an interest.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that this was going to be okay for him, but he's enjoying it or faking it. But they see, honestly, our marriage is beautiful and they see how much fun we have and how sexy and cool our relationship is. I think that's goals for them. I mean, we've been together for 32 years and and they're like, oh my God, you guys look like you're having so much fun. It's not just like we're like those, you know, grandparents waiting waiting for the grandkids or something I mean I'll have them, but like, um, I hope, uh, supposedly in two years.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think you want your kids to also see that what's possible in life. And you know a long-term marriage. You know everything in life. You need to keep it your job, your marriage, everything you got to keep it fun and moving and stuff. So ours marriage is safe and sweet and kind and and now, a little adventurous, I guess so, and I'm so grateful to have a life partner who will just go with the flow. For the most part, he has rules. We have to. We can't stay in a place that's less than two bedrooms because he knows I work and I take up a lot of airspace and he needs to be able to go somewhere. You know, so we have, we have to be, you know, close enough to nature but close enough to a city, like I got. I've got the rules I got to follow Right.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fantastic. So what has been in each place? Has there been something that you've really enjoyed or things that stand out, that if someone were to want to do what you're doing? It's like if you go to Napa, you need to go here. If you're in Telluride, look at this place or go here, do this hike in Maui.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it also. It depends on what your life is like. I'm working, I run two companies at the same time, so I need an environment with great Wi-Fi, I need an environment that's comfortable and that he has enough space, right? So I think, first and foremost, you have to make sure you and I don't know, we're still evolving, but there's only been a couple of months but you have to figure out what is going to make you feel safe and not like, oh my God, I can't do this anymore, right? So our place in Monterey well, pacific Grove, right right outside of Monterey, california was big and comfortable and wonderful, and so great Cause it was like going from our house to a little bit bigger even, which was that's not a bad transition, right, and we were a block away from the ocean, and so every morning we would wake up and we'd go for a walk along the ocean and that was just. It's such centering when you're out in nature and you, you know, and that kind of thing is just glorious. And then I could work at great wifi, great space, you know, I could cook the big kitchen, beautiful chef's kitchen. So those were the things that were important to me, and I love having a bathtub. I take a couple baths a day. I'm sorry for all the climate people who don't think I should take a bath, but it's my relaxation, that's how I, it's how I unwind, you know. So those were the things that were important to me there, and I mean Pacific Grove. So those were the things that were important to me there, and I mean Pacific Grove, like you know, I don't.
Speaker 2:One tip is you think they say on some sites that you should go whale watching in December? Don't Not. In Monterey the waves were so bad, everybody vomited on this boat. It was terrible. I will never do that again. It ruined our day, all right. So that's, that's one thing. Another thing is when you travel with your adult children, everybody should have a day. They plan, they plan the meals and, furthermore, if you don't want to feel taken advantage of, they should. Everybody pays for that day. So if you plan a day and you're broke, you plan to cook pasta or whatever, you plan it right. If you are planning 10 days for adult children, they'll complain and they'll have things that they say, and then. So it's so much better when everybody has their own responsibility for a day or two, because then you know how hard it is to plan and you, whatever we have, share the responsibility, share the money, share the everything right. Great idea. I like it.
Speaker 2:In Napa we were a block away from the main street, so we ended up going to Morimoto's for lunch many times because it was literally half a block away, but the apartment was really small and we went there right after the big place in Pacific Grove. I mean, I'm talking about like they had one sofa and one chair and that's all that could fit in the living room. Now it was two bedrooms so I could do my podcast in one bedroom and we slept in the other one, but I really, and the kitchen was tiny and I love a big kitchen. So for us that would have been. I was so happy to leave. It was a great place. I love Napa and I loved being.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, it just mixed things up. It forced us to go out to eat all the time. I thought it was going to keep cooking all month. I didn't. I cooked twice in that place and the fire alarm went off both times. So you have to just kind of know what you're, what you need. So we learned right. Then it's like, oh, that was too small for us because we're tripping over each other and feeling claustrophobic. Now, tally Ride, unbelievably beautiful, like, yeah, I mean just chrome and glass everywhere and they had a steam room on one floor. I mean, it was just magnificent.
Speaker 2:How do I say this? You know you have to. I don't really like borrowing stuff from other people, cause I, you know, you don't, we don't. I got the text, the text message. Oh, did you guys leave two cell phones in the electric? I'm like what are you talking about? No, so I don't like that. That felt uncomfortable to me. This sort of like, oh, did you leave this or did you do this? It's like no, and so like, and like if something would have broken when we were there and it felt really terrible. You know, I would have rather spent the $3,000 or whatever somewhere else. So I think that's a thing you have to be careful of. I'm not the kind of person that I would feel. I feel uncomfortable with that. Now, I invite people into my space all the time, but for some reason that maybe that's a learning for me, okay, and are you driving to these Well, within California?
Speaker 1:I assume you drive it when you went to Colorado. Do you drive or you fly and rent a?
Speaker 2:car we flew and they actually had a car there that we could use, so that was so great. We left our car with one of our children and she's going to keep it for four months and she needs a car. She was renting before, so you know it works out for her. We put her on the insurance, so, and then out East, so you'll fly out East and you go to New York, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nobody has a car in New York anyway. It's different in Chicago. But even in Chicago, like we're downtown, so like we can take an Uber wherever we need to go, we'll rent a car if we need one. But but I think you know, we're renting a car in Hawaii because you have to, because otherwise there's not. You're really kind of stuck. So. So we kind of like I mean overspent in December, less money in the, you know, napa, probably more snow, we didn't, we just paid for the flights and hardly went out in Telluride because the food's terrible, you know. So we just did outdoor adventure-y stuff. And then in Kauai we're spending. You know, in Hawaii we're spending more money. But I think to us, you know, it's sort of like if we can keep that bouncy ball, you know, like that's fine for us.
Speaker 1:What were the COVID restrictions in Hawaii? Did you still have to take a test before you went there?
Speaker 2:No, but you have to prove that you are vaccinated and boosted. So right now it's not too bad. We were worried about what that was going to be like, but it wasn't hard. There's just a little website that they ask you to upload stuff on and then they still check it at the airport. So it's like why did I even do that? I don't know if it was necessary. Oh okay, I even do that. I don't know if it was necessary, but yeah, so far I don't find you just have a mask on and you're vaccinated.
Speaker 2:It is kind of interesting to see in some places where it's like nobody's wearing a mask in the grocery store, like in Telluride, like it was weird. Other places in Telluride they were super rigid about it, but some places know. So I think different parts of the country have different beliefs around that and I'm married to a Mexican immigrant. It's been interesting to hear his perspective. He's like oh, I loved being in Napa because I felt safe, because I saw a lot of people like me.
Speaker 2:He doesn't feel safe when he's around a bunch of white people because he feels like they look at him askance, like we were out walking this morning and Kauai and this property is place that we're at and people were kind of like oh well, what you know, this is for people who live here and we're like we've got a place here, like we're good, we're okay, but you know it's.
Speaker 2:I think you have to be also cognizant of like I have so much privilege as a white middle-aged woman who doesn't look scary or whatever. You know probably look okay, you know. So people are nice to me but they're not nice to him and I don't want him to be in an environment where people are not nice to him. That's not good. So I thought Hawaii would feel better to him, because native Hawaiians look kind of like him. But I think white people in Hawaii that are tourists, especially, or who own properties here, think that they own the Island and that somebody who's Brown doesn't belong and that's not acceptable. So you see different parts of the way people are, you know right, yeah, locations.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's very surprising too.
Speaker 2:You don't think about that, you know, and and uh, yeah, not unless you live with somebody who you know you love, someone who's experiencing it, and I didn't really realize you know how much, even where we lived before I, he would say stuff to me like oh, can you like go up and buy the thing, or whatever, because people look at me weird. But why are we like that? Like, yeah, but you know, culturally I don't feel comfortable in trump land. Personally, you know, I don't feel comfortable where. You know I feel like people aren't wearing a mask. So you know I discriminate against people for certain things, I guess, and as well. So we all have our, our stuff we're comfortable with, and I think you have to know where your comfort is and everybody's got to decide for themselves, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. So this podcast that you have, is that for your business or your for your? Your volunteer nonprofit workers? Is your nonprofit work, your business? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I run a nonprofit that is a network of top executive women, okay, and my whole goal is to address issues of inequity for women. So we use senior executive women, top level women, as leaders, as a lever to make change. So there's a lot of ways to make change in the world and to be, you know, to do activism. I've done things. You know I spent most of my life working with very low income people.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm sort of saying, all right, well, if we all get together we can change laws that have a trickle down impact. You know, if you only have 2% of all venture dollars funding women founders, that's unacceptable, it's not good for anyone, it's not good for the economy, it's not good for job creation, it's not good for women's wealth and power and influence. And so you know we can all come together, create a venture firm and move the needle. Similarly, you know, when I, when Kristen and I first started playing in the sandbox, only 10 percent of public company board members in California were women, and now it's 29.5%, I think, as of the end of September. So it changes everything. When you have a critical mass of women in leadership or you just have diversity of experience, life, perspective In any group. It disrupts group think and it makes us all better. So that's part of what I'm doing right now, and so the podcast is to promote women who have something really interesting, inspiring and ceiling breaky to share.
Speaker 1:Have you been able to meet with people in the different places that you're going or have meetings? Sounds like you have a.
Speaker 2:You're talking in Florida, but in terms of, of course, all my friends wanted to come, you know, have dinner in Napa. You know, I mean, that wasn't hard.
Speaker 1:That's an easy one. That's California too, but I wonder also in the different states that you're going to, the people we stayed with in Telluride.
Speaker 2:I just saw them. We stayed in their home and then they came for the last couple of days, but I hadn't seen them for a long time. We've been family friends for 30 years, so that was really nice, but I didn't have meetings or really see people in Telluride for work not in Kauai but in Oahu I have someone who used to work for me, I have one of our investors. I have quite a few people I know in Oahu that I'll see, but mostly it's my daughter's wedding week and then the next couple of weeks I'll be in Maui and I do have friends in Maui who I will see. One of my board members is actually there, so hopefully she will be healthy and I'll get to spend some time with her.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think this is an important time also just personally for you and Raul, and just like being able to spend that time with him and experience life. I think it's. I am so intrigued and just in awe of what you're doing because I feel like it's. There was someone else I met at a Girl Scout camp and her. She had two young kids and her and her husband. Actually they sail and they got a sailboat and went from California to Baja and I think they even like did school on the boat, like the you know, just remote for a year, and I just thought it was so great to just take a pause and actually really like spend time. I mean, yes, you can work a little bit, but really just spending that time, because life is too short.
Speaker 2:Really, like I was talking about all our stuff in our last house we create sort of a sense like you need to or must do certain things. It's like to take kids and travel with them, especially when they can't be with their friends anyway. Like what a magical thing to do, like I would have loved to be able to do that with my children, but it always felt like, well, we can't not go to violin lessons and swim practice and blah, blah, blah, like all those things that you'd get trapped into. Now those are all important things to do. One of our kids was a division one athlete Like. Another one went to college for violin performance. So you know, but the sacrifice of doing that means that they didn't really get to travel. They didn't have like it's a trade-off that exploring the world and giving people that sense of adventure as opposed to making them feel like, you know, that sort of insular homebody thing. It's maybe not always perfect for all of us.
Speaker 1:Maybe we need to pick it up at some point. Yeah, it's funny you say this because I so I'm Swedish first generation and everyone takes July off. I mean, I don't know if it's always the case still today, but it's still a lot Like they take the month of July off. And that always stuck in my head and I remember when I graduated college and my grandparents sent me to family there and and they even said, yeah, you and the U? S should do that too, and then maybe we can catch up with you guys. I remember the comment.
Speaker 1:But when I was with Robert Half and I had all this extra vacation time and I ended up taking 12 out of 16 weeks of vacation that I had to take in 2002. And it made me change the way I thought and I remembered when Reese was born in 04 and then Ian in 07, I started playing around and so since Ian's born, since 2007, I've taken the month of August off, kind of reflecting and doing exactly that taking the kids outdoors, backpacking out, you know, nature and trips and things. But yeah, it's just so. It's very hard to do, but I sort of just told the sports like we're off.
Speaker 2:We're not doing anything in August and in hindsight it's like one month like yes, you know, I don't know, um, yeah, and I, just I. I think we all have to step back and think like what is really important? And when you travel together and experience things together for the first time, you actually put brain pathways down that are unique and new and those are memories. You literally I don't know if you guys know that the first time you go to a place you set down new memories and those are really important glue. And to do that with your children like I'll never forget going to Italy for the first time with my daughter I'd never been before, obviously she'd children like I'll never forget the, you know, going to Italy for the first time with my daughter. I'd never been before, she'd never, obviously, she'd never been. We'll never forget that trip. It was magic. So you know, I did that with my kids. You know each one of them got a mom trip at one point when they were around nine and it was. We remember it still. We talk about that.
Speaker 2:So you don't really remember all the stuff where you did the same thing day in and day out. Now, there's value in that too. But you wish everybody. You know I don't know we got to shake up our thinking and the American way um of being. You know you produce so much and you can accomplish so much, but there comes a point in life where you're like, do I need more stuff? Why is that important? Like you know what is important in your life and I think, always giving, forcing yourself to experience new ways of living so that you can see, like you know, everybody's laid back and cool. You can't get a phone call back to save your life, like I don't know if I want to live like that, but maybe something between my immediate response and that would be healthy Totally.
Speaker 1:What city are you guys in? We're in Princeville, okay, yes, that's at the top right, I believe. Yeah, beautiful, very good, beautiful Sounds, absolutely amazing, and I think it's just so important and so wonderful of what you're doing. Just I love. I was so excited to talk with you about just your experiences and, of course, see you it's great to spend time with you in this way.
Speaker 2:I hope this gives you know some perspective to folks you know there a a right and a wrong. It's just choices. Yes, and you know you learn new things every time you you do new stuff like this Exactly.
Speaker 1:And I don't know, carol, you usually have rapid fire questions at the end. I don't know if there's anything specific that could. Uh, it's a little different format. We know where the surfing is in hawaii for sure. Yeah, so no, but one question I have. So in kawaii, I've been there a couple times, but I remember there was these big boats that were kind of like, had the like, the big, I don't know, like they're like a raft, and it brings it to the nepali coast. Do you know what that is? Have you heard about that? I do, I know what you're talking about. And what are thoseali coast? Do you know what that is? Have you heard about that? I do, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:And what are those boats called, again, do you know? Well, they're the ones with, like, the two hulls. And then the thing in the middle I can't remember what it's called.
Speaker 1:Oh, the cat, not the catamaran, no, but something more like it. It's like a raft that you have to like hike all the way in. I'm just yeah, you've heard of that. Well, I know you guys aren't doing that long helicopter ride.
Speaker 2:So we're not, um, we may or may not be the most really adventurous people, but um, so yeah, we were not on the the the life raft of going.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, it looks like a life what we did do is we, uh, drove up to what the waimea canyon and, okay, keep going. So you're seeing the canyon on one side, right, yeah, going, and you hit the place where you literally are at the nepali coast and so that, so that is just to die for. And so we were literally on the cliffs of the coast. We weren't repelling down them, though, that's for you youngins. So that's what we did, but we drove and we walked and that was great.
Speaker 2:I love to snorkel. So tunnels as a area up where we are now in Princeville and Kauai, where it's literally an underwater volcanic rock cavey system that creates like these tunnels. So you're snorkeling it and you almost touch your stomach. If I gained any more weight I would have in Napa, I would have hit the rocks while I was going and then all of a sudden, there's like a break in the, in the formation, and you see down 50, 60 feet, um, and you see the gigantic turtles, right. So there's tons of fish and there's multiple layers to be seen, but you it's kind of it's really quite a wonderland because you it's it's every. You know it's constantly changing, but you feel safe snorkeling, you know, relatively it feels like it's pretty okay.
Speaker 1:So it's called tunnels this is struggling area near Princeville. Okay, very nice, sounds incredible.
Speaker 2:I definitely want to do that yeah, yeah, I mean, you know what's better than snorkeling? I to me, I'm a, I was, I'm an athletemer, right. So you know, just look at it. Creatures underwater is like an art museum to me, that sounds incredible oh wonderful, you know you have.
Speaker 2:You see you're along the rocky coast in Pacific Grove. Then you go to Napa and you, you know, see the vineyards and you eat magnificent food. Every meal we had was perfect. And then we went to Telluride and the food was terrible, but the mountains were beautiful. We drove to Utah to literally in two hours from Telluride. You see these huge structures in Utah, the arches, the entire drive, the two hour drive is like a museum. It is so gorgeous. It is very undeveloped, all mountains and beautiful different rock formations.
Speaker 2:And then you, the next weekend, in telluride, we drove, drove south to mesa verde, which is um other kinds of beautiful rock formations and it's still part of colorado, but it's near um, uh, new mexico and um the native people built these structures in the mountainside 2,000 years ago that are still there. They were literally cities for 20 families, you know. And now we're in Hawaii and experiencing, you know, the ocean and the mountains, and my husband's worried that on the mountainside that the Jurassic Park dinosaurs are going to come out of that any minute, and on the other side he's worried about the tsunami from the ocean or the whales and sharks are going to come on land and bite us. So who knows, there could be a disaster waiting to happen with dinosaurs and flying sharks, your sharknado. So I mean, think about, like in a couple months, all those memories, all those unbelievable gorgeous parts of our country that we got to see in just a really short amount of time. So much to see in America.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you so much for all this time Nice to meet you, Carol.
Speaker 2:So great to see you, honey. All right, Bye guys.
Speaker 1:Bye. If you enjoy our podcast, be sure to subscribe to our show, rate us in your podcast app and follow us on Instagram at where next podcast. If you are interested in being a guest on our show or would like to nominate someone, please contact us on our website at wwwwhere next podcastcom. Thanks for listening.
