Travels with an Eighty-Year-Old

Someone at our house is having a big birthday today, my friends. And it’s not me.

That’s me and the birthday boy below. At his mother’s house, a few weeks after we started dating. He’s forty in this photo. It dawned on me this morning that I have now known him for half his life. Forty years. It seems almost inconceivable.

At my future mother-in-law’s house January 1, 1985.

Of course Hubby had a life before he met me. A childhood spent in Ottawa and New Brunswick and France. His dad was in the RCAF, and they moved every four years or so. His love of hockey started early on with a proficiency on the ice. Not to mention a competitive streak a mile wide.

Christmas Chicago Black Hawks sweater.

Hockey continued through school, university, and for all of his teaching career. If we wasn’t playing he was coaching.

Captain of the team. Marville, France, early sixties.

So yeah, there was hockey. And fishing. A love for brook trout fishing honed in the wilds of New Brunswick as a child when his dad was stationed in Chatham, New Brunswick. And furthered when he started wilderness canoeing in the seventies.

Paddling the Dumoine River in the seventies.

Of course Hubby loved all kinds of other things. History, hence his degree in history. Travel. Books. Cooking, especially anything he’d grown himself, or harvested wild. Sports of all kinds. Especially skiing. The wilderness. And eventually, when he was forty… me.

Lucky me.

What follows is a brief tour of our travels together. A few mementoes of our forty year journey that started in 1984, when he was forty and I was twenty-eight.

Honeymoon in the bush. 1989
Someone has been digging clams. P.E.I. in the nineties.
Ned Kelly’s Last Stand, Glenrowan, Australia 2003.
Near Esperance, Western Australia, 2008.
Captain Stan’s Smokehouse in Georgia in 2014.
Maca, Peru, 2017.
Vieste, Italy, 2018.
Rab, Croatia, 2019
Hamming it up picnic, somewhere in Portugal, 2023.

I didn’t intend to make this a long post. I can’t sum up our journey together in a few paragraphs. Let’s just say that for the past forty years he has been my companion, my best friend, and the great love of my life. But also my advisor, my confident, my teacher, my cheerleader, my mentor, my coach, my confidence booster, even my conscience sometimes. The person I want to tell all my good news to, or run to when things get bad. He’s been, quite simply, the biggest positive influence in my life.

That’s not to say he’s perfect. Or that our marriage is perfect. Only mostly perfect.

Cheers from Lisbon, 2023.

So. Happy birthday to my Hubby.

With love, from your cheerleader, your travel companion, wingman, technology advisor, listener, lover of your jokes, best friend, fishing buddy, and all round biggest fan.

xoxo

(Of course that’s not all. But I have a cake to see to, and a birthday supper to get underway.)

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Picture of Sue Burpee
High Heels in the Wilderness is for women like me. Women who love clothes. And books. Who dream of travelling to amazing places. Who want to explore their own lives, and their own potential, now that they aren't twenty (or even forty) anymore.

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45 thoughts on “Travels with an Eighty-Year-Old”

  1. Diane B

    A very happy Birthday to Hubby. It has been a pleasure to follow along with your combined life and travels over the years. Wishing you both many more adventures, and Stu, more hours on the water and many more fish. I love that you happily cook for your lovely wife. Happy Celebrations.

    2. Shirley

      Sue what a perfect love story and in travel pictures. You are having a wonderful journey and of course there must be a cake and a special meal. Many more happy times. We should all be so lucky to have done so many things. Some husbands (mine) prefer sports from a couch perspective. I cannot complain. He is also good in the kitchen and garden. Love your blog and now your album of travels. Many happy wishes for more of the same.

  2. Frances

    Very Happy Big Birthday to your husband! Your post is a sweet tribute to him and a fun voyage through the years for your readers. xo

  3. Sue

    Ice hockey champion, fisher extraordinaire, gourmet cook, traveler, best friend, passionate wilderness camper and above all, SUPER HUSBAND married to SUPER WIFE, it’s heartwarming to read this tribute. And you don’t shy away from the truth that no marriage is perfect all the time.

    1. Kate

      Happy birthday to your hubby! Mine turned 80 this week, too. It is a blessing to have so many years, and many travel adventures, together. Here’s to many more for both our partners.

  4. Joanna

    You meet the love of your life. Even if he was much older, you enjoyed the same things. I hope you have many more years enjoying your travels. Whether camping, fishing or traveling abroad, you two seem on the same line. Happy 80th Stu!

  7. MJ

    Happy birthday, hubby! How fortunate you were to have found each other. May you have a happy and healthy year to come.

  8. Wendy in York

    What a lovely little tribute to Stu . I can imagine him rolling his eyes , looking slightly embarrassed then giving you a hug . Not everyone has a happy marriage. Not everyone finds their soulmate . It’s even said that now we are living longer you can’t expect to be happy with the same partner all your life . I don’t know the recipe for a happy marriage though I guess it’s happening across the right person , knowing it , then hanging on in there through the rocky bits . We met at 17 , so young & next year we will both be 77 . We spend very little time apart & can still make each other laugh – very important to me . He used to spend the odd night or two away with his work , I’ve holidayed with my sisters & he has had a few trips with a group of family & friends to the battlefields of France . Plus we have our own groups of friends we meet up with . So we can function separately & I know many couples prefer their ‘own’ time but as long as we can enjoy each other’s company that’s what we prefer . It’s so nice to read of a marriage working out . I hope Stu has a great birthday , give him a hug from me .

    1. Fiona

      Happy birthday to him… 😉
      What a lovely tribute. I’ve only been with mine for 18 (married for 17) and that could be me writing all that! 🥂

  10. Annie Green

    Amazing how forty years can seem to go by in such a flash. May the birthday cake and supper be a celebration and a triumph x

  11. Anne

    What a lovely post about your hubby! Happy birthday to him and wishes for many happy returns!

  13. ceci

    Happy Birthday to Stu! I would have guessed more like 70 than 80, better check his ID.

    Ceci

  15. Robin

    Wishing you all the best on your special day. Happiest of Birthday’s Stu! 🎈🎂🎈

  17. Jan

    I look forward to your weekly posts. It’s refreshing to read words that inspire and leave me with lasting, positive thoughts. Today did not disappoint. Sweet, loving memories about a dear life partner. We need to celebrate life!

  18. Glenda

    Happy Birthday Stu! Enjoy your special day with supper and cake lovingly prepared by Sue. Best wishes for an awesome year ahead, doing all the things you enjoy doing.

  19. Denise L.

    Happy birthday to your husband! Lovely to read a tribute to him, and everything you said confirms my impression of him — and of the two of you together — from many years of reading your blog. Very best wishes to both of you!

  21. Lorelie

    Happiest of birthdays to Stu! My husband and I just celebrated our 47th anniversary and it sounds like we’ve had similar journeys – we are both lucky women. And our husbands are doubly blessed. 🤭

  23. Charlene H

    🎂 Happy, Happy Birthday to your husband!!🎂
    Such a loving tribute to a full and accomplished life!
    Thank you for sharing this special celebration with us!

  25. Christine

    I’m thinking your post just might surpass the cake as being the best thing Stu received on his birthday. And achieving 80 deserves to be celebrated for much longer than 1 day so don’t stop paddling.

  29. Heather

    Happy 80th Birthday to your hubby. May you both be blessed with health and happiness for many more years.

  31. Kat

    Happy Birthday Stu! This is a milestone year an I hope a great one for you. You have the greatest gift of all….health and a loving spouse! Everything else is icing! You are both so fortunate to have had such great travel adventures…creating some wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing some of them. My husband an I have known each other for 45 years a been married 41. I believe it takes love, patience,, a strong sense of humor and selective hearing to reach this far. Best wishes to the to of you! The cake looks delicious!!!!

  32. Ms. Liz

    What a wonderful post! Happy Birthday Stu! Thank you for sharing with your readers snippets of your life and travels together. Coincidentally my husband shares the same birthday day as Stu. Your post had me refelecting on my own memories of our happy years together. It is a journey!

  33. Christy

    Lovely post and Happy Birthday Stu. Such happy times together with your wonderful companion. Lots more to come.

  34. Sue Burpee

    From Stu:
    Thanks for the best wishes from everyone particularly from family, close friends and, especially, Suz. With my life-style and personality I’ve needed somebody to pull back on the reins when I was headed for an uncontrolled gallop. For 40 plus years!
    With Appreciation,
    Stu

  36. Paula

    Happy Birthday to your hubby and May there be many more happy travel adventures together

  37. Kenzie

    Happy birthday Stu! Here’s to many more years of fun and travel. A very loving tribute Sue.

  38. Suz from Vancouver

    Happy birthday to your wonderful Stu! What a great post about your years of fun and travel. It’s a loving tribute and like another said, probably his best gift of the day.
    Thanks for sharing!
    Suz from Vancouver

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