{"id":5393,"date":"2017-01-26T14:56:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T14:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/uncategorized\/copy-of-editors-letter\/"},"modified":"2017-01-26T18:18:57","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T18:18:57","slug":"editors-letter-winter-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/winter-2017\/editors-letter-winter-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Editor’s Letter Winter 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does Healthy Aging®<\/span> have to do with travel?<\/p>\n

A lot.<\/p>\n

But first some history.<\/p>\n

Back in the 90s, I had a television production company and produced short features for national broadcast and documentaries that appeared on public television stations.<\/p>\n

Along the way, I was given the opportunity to produce a show about older Americans. Oh, you know, those people that were about to turn 50 and old, old Americans that were truly the pioneers of aging.<\/p>\n

What I saw at that time were myths of aging that were being broken.<\/p>\n

Myths like: \u201cYou\u2019re too old to do that\u2026Too old to sing, too old to run, too old to be glamorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I saw were people breaking those myths and a society that needed to hear about those people and to \u201cget with the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, we\u2019re not too old \u2013 just watch us!\u201d was the battle cry.<\/p>\n

The baby boomers, some of those who chanted \u201cHell no, we won\u2019t go<\/em>\u201d in the 60s were starting to hit 50 and by God, they were shouting \u2026 hell no, we won\u2019t be old<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Yet, mention aging to someone back in the 90s and you were greeted with a hex sign. And now, we are not just talking about baby boomers, the last of whom turned 50 in 2014. We\u2019re talking about GenXers too\u2026 those born in the early to mid-60s through the early 80s.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today. The secret is out!<\/p>\n

Older people can<\/em> keep going. They can<\/em> run in marathons \u2013 just ask 84 year old Richard Gonzalez from Louisiana who finished the NY City Marathon in 7 hours 18 seconds. It was his second year as the oldest male finisher!<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, Bertha McCruder, 88, from New York, finished the same marathon in 7 and a half hours.<\/p>\n

Today, older adults can ride bikes in races or across foreign counties further than anyone imagined.<\/p>\n

Did you hear about the 105-year-old Frenchman who just broke the world record for fastest time on a bike (in his category) at a velodrome in France?<\/p>\n

They can sing\u2026 just ask Paul McCartney and the Stones!<\/p>\n

So what about going places? What about travel?<\/p>\n

According to a report by Immersion Active, a marketing company specializing on this category, baby boomers on up account for 4 out of 5 dollars spent on luxury travel today.<\/p>\n

This group lists travel as the top choice for how they want to spend their money.<\/p>\n

Almost a third of baby boomers have taken an international trip over the past year.<\/p>\n

They know how to use apps, flash their cell phones at the ticket kiosks, and grab the overhead bins as fast as millennials.<\/p>\n

What types of trips are the active travelers going for?<\/p>\n

Voluntourism \u2013 giving back while seeing the world, like trail building with the American Hiking Society or feeding wild animals at a Kenyan sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Food tours \u2013 getting the inside scoop on recipes and local foods from chefs and restauranteurs.<\/p>\n

Adventure trips like mountain biking the Tahoe Lake Rim Trail hiking, helicopter skiing out west, skin diving in the Caribbean or in the fresh water caves of northwestern Florida and fly-fishing for salmon in Alaska or bonefish in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

Spiritual retreats from Santa Fe to India.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s active traveler has figured out that traveling is more fun when you DO SOMETHING.<\/p>\n

These active travelers are discovering that travel can be much more than just lying on a beach and sipping Pina coladas. Although that sounds pretty good to me from time to time!<\/p>\n

In this special travel issue, we hope to inspire you with ideas and travelers. Look for unique destinations such as the Aegialis Hotel & Spa, Amorgos Island, Greece. The photos will take you vicariously to the stunning island in the Aegean Sea that you can only reach by ferry boat. It is here where you can hike, enjoy the sundrenched beaches in the summer, and find a place to hibernate or retire to in the winter.<\/p>\n

Gary Sikorski, author of 101 Things to Do in Rhode Island (Schiffer Publishing), shares insider Rhode Island travel tips from spending a night in a lighthouse and dancing to live blues on the beach, to enjoying live international jazz over fabulous Chinese food and picking-ur-own live lobster right out of the tub on the boat.<\/p>\n

Be inspired by one of the oldest Thru-Hikers of the 2,190 mile Appalachian Trail, 75-year-old Soren \u201cSojo\u201d West. Hear his amazing story of how he hiked the trail in eight months and six days with only his dog and his backpack.<\/p>\n

We hope after reading this issue, you will be inspired and, maybe like Animal House<\/em>, run out shouting, \u201cHell yes, we will go!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"carolyn\nCarolyn E. Worthington\nEditor-in-Chief<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Healthy Aging\u00ae Winter 2017 Letter From Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2017"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5393"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5407,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions\/5407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}