u/Informal-Step8787

My parents are in their late 70s/early 80s and live completely independently in a small community in the mountains, on a lake, in a 1300 square foot house that is very manageable. They just told me that they're considering moving to independent living as soon as January 2027, which was a huge shock to my brother and I, as they don't even outsource much at home now (my mom does it all outside of yardwork), and I feel like they should at least try to start outsourcing cleaning, cooking, and home maintenance before they make a drastic move that they can't pull back on.

My mom has a lot of friends in the community, walks around the lake daily, goes to church, volunteers at the local elementary school, and has a very full life, but my dad pretty much gave up as soon as he retired, has no social circle, and is in declining physical and mental health largely due to inactivity and lack of mental stimulation. They moved to this community about 10 years ago, and he has made zero effort to make friends or otherwise engage with the neighborhood or community at large.

My dad seems to be driving the push to independent living, as I think he's bored and craves change of any kind. He may also feel guilty giving 5% when my mom gives 95% across all areas of their life and keeping up the home. I do not foresee him getting anything out of independent living and could actually see the forced socialization and living in close quarters with others as making him depressed and causing him to spend even more time at home, afraid to leave his place because he hates talking to people (he's from the country and has social anxiety).

Thoughts on when it's best to make the transition to independent living and downsides of transitioning too soon? I would like to encourage them to try a year of outsourcing cooking, cleaning, and home upkeep before making the move knowing they can never move back.

I'll be in Austin for a conference in late September and will have the Saturday after the conference completely free to spend with one of my best friends from high school who lives in Austin and another travel partner. We're all mid-40s moms and will be staying at a generic downtown conference hotel, and I'm ISO recs for things to do as moms in the wild who love good food, beer, wine, music, and spending time outdoors. My friend who lives in Austin isn't super clued into what's on trend, so checking here for additional ideas. I know it will be hot, but we're all from the deep South and can handle being outside.

We are visiting Yellowstone in late June 2027 to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and will have a group of two 80 year olds, four mid-40s adults, and three tween boys (9 people total). We are flying into Bozeman and would like to spend our first three nights in Gardiner, heading south to Old Faithful Inn afterward.

Other than Airbnb and VRBO, are there any local vacation rental agencies where we might find 3-4 bedroom rental homes? We would like to stay in the same home together for this portion of the trip, since we will be celebrating my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and this will likely be their last big vacation with our family. My dad has mobility issues, and having us all under one roof will make it easier for us to enjoy time with him.

I'm also interested in recommendations for cabins and similar that might work and give us enough space to eat together in the same home as a family, even if we had to sleep in different cabins.

I’m closing out a late July kid-free couples trip to Porto and Galicia/Rias Baixas and wanted to share here because there was surprisingly little info available on Reddit and elsewhere about this specific itinerary. This was our (mid-40s couple) first trip to Europe in 12 years (since our kids were born), and we planned the trip around good food, good wine, and intentional wandering. Albarino is my favorite wine, and since Porto is only a few hours south of Rias Baixas, we decided to rent a car and do a Porto/Spain combo trip. We had a great time, but if I could do it all over, I’d make several changes (noted at the end of the report), so hopefully this helps someone else plan a better trip.

PORTO: Porto was so amazing that I kind of want to gatekeep it so it doesn't explode and become overly touristed and overpriced like so many other key European destinations, but it seems like as of now it is still several years out from that. We stayed on the Gaia side across the river at the Tivoli Kopke, which I chose because I wanted sweeping river and city views, a great pool area, and a room with a balcony/terrace. The hotel was perfect for what we were looking for, and it was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel across the Dom Luis bridge.

Our first day in Porto was spent wandering and seeing the sights that were an easy walk from our hotel. After crossing the bridge, we walked up through the Ribeira past the Chapel of Souls, explored Mercado de Bolhao, wandered the streets taking pics of all the beautiful tiles, went inside Igreja Santa Clara (so ornate and absolutely gorgeous), and walked back across the upper level of the Dom Luis for a drink at Sky Bar in our hotel and dinner at Vinum on the Gaia side (fantastic views!).

We spent our last day in Porto exploring the area around Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, had a drink in the garden at Bosco and tapas and wine in the courtyard at Yard, did a port tasting at Garrafeira Oli, walked by Clerigos Tower, visited some tile shops to get gifts for family, tried locally-made pastel de nata, and finished with dinner in the garden at Borboleta.

Highlights of Porto were our amazing hotel, wandering the streets and popping in and out of shops, winding through the Mercado, and the tasting menu and views at Vinum. I’ll note that Porto was hilly, but for anyone adept at walking in Birkenstocks, sneakers aren‘t needed. Plenty of people of all ages were in Birks and similar more secure sandals, easily navigating the hills and cobblestones. Porto weather was warm (high 80s) but with gorgeous blue skies and not a drop of rain.

GALICIA/RIAS BAIXAS:

After Porto, we drove up to Vigo to take the ferry to Islas Cies. We chose Islas Cies for the hiking and views and walked the beach but had no plans to swim. We took the 3:30 pm ferry out and returned on the 8 pm ferry back, and that was plenty of time for a nice hike up to the lighthouse and back and a stop by some of the more remote beaches for photos. We spent one night in Vigo at NH Collection, which was very comfortable and a short walk from the port, and we had an upscale seafood lunch at Restaurante Casa Vella and tapas and wine at Malauva (fantastic!). Old town Vigo is compact and lively, and all of the tapas bars were packed with people even on a Tuesday.

After Vigo, we drove up to Santiago de Compostela and stopped for lunch at O Regato Pequeno in Pontevedra. The food was amazing and I had the best tomato salad I’ve ever had with fresh tomatoes grown by the restaurant and tomato ice cream. Pontevedra was a cute town but can definitely be fully explored in a morning or afternoon.

We arrived in SDC by 4 and were able to check into the Parador there - the oldest hotel in Spain. It is huge and not very luxurious due to its age, but is in a great location and has a nice terrace where you can have wine and snacks with great views of the cathedral.

SDC is full of history, but it’s also super touristy and full of tourist traps. I was hoping to get my parents something Santiago themed, but I couldn’t find any stores or vendors selling authentic or artisan items. Every store, even the official Cathedral store and museum shops, were full of the same cheap Chinese trinkets, which was very disappointing. While there are some hidden gem restaurants, most were incredibly touristy and one note.

The highlights of our SDC visit were one of the best meals of my life at Indomito (a Michelin-recognized restaurant where the chef prepares a tasting menu for each table based on their preferences), coffee in the courtyard at Costa Vella Garden Cafe, and sitting at the window at Nomade for wine and tapas while watching the camino walkers finish their journeys. We also enjoyed trying razor clams and goose barnacles at Mercado de Abastos, though the market itself was a little underwhelming compared to how fantastic the Bolhoa market was in Porto.

After SDC, we drove down to Combados (the Albarino capital) for the Festa do Albarino which coincidentally fell during the end of our trip. We stayed at the Parador in Cambados also - it seemed to be one of the nicer hotels in the area and was super convenient - the wine festival was literally right outside the gates of the hotel, and the hotel's free parking during such a crazy weekend was a major bonus. The festival itself was manageable during the day but insanely crowded and difficult to walk through after dark. It was really cool to try so many different types of Albarino, and overall a really good experience.

After Cambados, we drove back down to Porto to fly out. Overall, it was a great trip with amazing wine and lots of great seafood, but I was so exhausted that I would definitely take a different approach if I could have a redo.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENLTY:

Our trip started out on a very negative note due to an air traffic control (not weather-related) ground delay in Newark (our connection to Porto), leading us to receive bad advice from United to reroute to Munich rather than roll the dice on missing our connection. We ended up flying to Munich, spending 12 hours there, and arriving in Porto at 11:30 pm instead of 9:45 am, when we likely would have made our connection and been able to spend our first full day in Porto as originally planned. We arrived in Porto exhausted after 30 hours with no sleep, feeling extremely defeated, and I had a really hard time shaking my anger and disappointment after this huge set back. If I am ever forced to fly through Newark again, I'll fly out on an earlier flight to give myself options and suffer through a much longer layover there rather than potentially miss a connecting flight again.

I also planned this trip like pre-kids, early 30s me would have and moved around too much for my mid-40s comfort level. We stayed in four cities in seven days, and with the unplanned detour to Munich and 12 hour layover there, it felt like way too much. If I did this same trip again, I would spend four nights in Porto (love and highly recommend the Tivoli Kopke) and three nights in Galicia using a high end luxury resort as a base and making day trips from there. There were a number of high end resort options available, but they were all kind of remote, and my husband wanted to stay somewhere walkable. In hindsight, we could have easily done Vigo/Islas Cies, SDC, and Cambados as day trips and returned to our resort in the evening - it stays light until 10 pm, and driving between towns was extremely easy. The only downside of this would have been we couldn't drink as much wine, but I was honestly a little burned out on wine by the middle of the trip anyway.

FINAL TIPS:

Some things that worked well were purchasing an Airalo eSIM card rather than using our Verizon international calling plan (saved about $80/each and had great service), renting a car (driving was very easy but for a number of tolls on the route, although we picked up the car as we were leaving Porto and I would not recommend driving there), and packing a carry on only due to our Munich snafu. Late July was also the perfect time of year to travel - it did not rain at all our entire visit, and temps were extremely comfortable (for someone living in the Southern US), with highs in the high 70s to high 80s and lows in the mid 60s.

We found English abundant in Porto and Santiago de Compostela, but in the rest of Galicia we went days without encountering a native English speaker with most speaking Spanish only, so it was helpful to have some basic Spanish skills. Both Porto and Galicia were very affordable (at or below midsized city US pricing, with wine extremely inexpensive), and neither were overcrowded (other than late night at the wine festival). We didn't feel over-tourism tension from the locals and didn't have a problem getting into any restaurants or seeing any sights. We made about 25% of our reservations in advance and walked in 75% of the time (or had a very reasonable wait).

I don't plan to return to Galicia unless I'm doing the Camino much later in life (it's a little slow for me and I feel like I got a great taste in the time I was there), but I do plan to return to Porto within the next five years and spend a full week at the same hotel (or a similar five star option on the Gaia side), doing day trips from there and visiting the Douro Valley. It's such a vibrant city with the perfect mix of history and both contemporary and traditional restaurants, amazing views, and is incredibly walkable for anyone who can handle major hills and cobblestones.

If our flight back to the US from Porto has a layover in Munich (OPO>MUC>CLT), will we go through passport control in Porto or Munich? Do we still need to get to the airport 3 hours early if the connection is in Munich? Our flight is at 6:20 am, so I would strongly prefer not to have to arrive at 3 am at the airport if we don’t need the full 3 hours given the Munich layover.

We (2 adults) have an unexpected 12 hour layover in Munich on Sunday, July 26. What should we see and do near the city centre, including restaurants and sites? Because we have such little time, we do not want to visit any museums or take any guided tours and instead want to explore on foot and eat a nice meal before heading back to the airport for our evening flight.

We’re visiting Jackson with our two tween sons next July and just found what seemed to be a really great (refundable) rate for a balcony room at the Trailborn. The great majority of reviews since the rebranding are truly god-awful, but it mostly seems like the property was opened prematurely with a grossly unprepared staff without working out many kinks.

What are locals thoughts? Does it seem like it has the potential to turn around before this time next year? Am I reading into it correctly that the issues seem to be premature opening/unprepared staff? Assuming they get things back on track, is it in a decent location and somewhere you would send guests based on all that it promises to be when fully functional?

I've been pretty slow at work lately and have spent an insane amount of timing researching every detail and location of an upcoming trip to Portugal and Spain. I haven't overplanned or overscheduled us and typically only have one big outing on the calendar each day, but I feel like I've read so many blogs, hotel and restaurant reviews, and looked at so many influencer photos and posts that my brain is saturated in what to expect to the point that I may not enjoy myself when I'm actually in each destination.

I'm now worried that I won't be able to live in the moment and will feel underwhelmed. Has this ever happened to you, and were you still able to enjoy and appreciate the trip?

I'm not talking about packing your suitcase or triple-checking your itinerary. I'm talking about less obvious things to ease pre-travel anxiety, self-care so you're healthy and relaxed on the trip, and similar things that the average traveler might not think of.

We leave for Europe on Saturday, and I *think* I have everything ready, but I still feel anxious and wish I could dispel some of my nervous energy so I can enjoy my week and feel more at peace on departure day.

Can anyone confirm whether the terrace at the Parador de Santiago in SDC that overlooks Plaza Obradoiro is currently closed for renovations? I know that the Parador has been under construction but was hoping to stop there for a drink on the terrace when we finish next week.

My AuDHD tween son is experiencing severe chronic constipation. We are already seeing a pediatric GI and have done multiple MiraLAX cleanses with little progress. We will continue to follow the advice of our GI regarding supplements and/or medical interventions, but I’d love some examples of high fiber foods and recipes that a very picky tween might actually like.

He is very particular to textures - he doesn’t like mushy foods, casseroles, or anything with cheese, and he has no vegetables that he actually likes as of now. He’s too old and savvy for us to hide anything in his food or try to trick him into eating anything, so I want to be up front and honest about what he’s eating. Because of all of the issues, I think he’s finally starting to understand why he needs to incorporate vegetables and whole grains and tone down the processed food and sugar, but the food he eats still needs to taste good and not cause him to vomit because it has an unappealing texture.

What high fiber/whole grains foods do your picky tweens and teens eat? Things my son likes: tacos, spicy foods, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, chips and salsa, frozen mangos, smoothies, yogurt, pasta with sauce and meatballs, peanut butter, and lots of processed carbs and sugary foods.

We are driving from Vigo to Santiago de Compostela in a few weeks and definitely plan to stop in Pontevedra to walk around for a few hours. We would like to make one more stop between Pontevedra and SDC for lunch and to explore a bit. We’re food, wine, and nature lovers and are considering stopping in Illa de Arousa, O Grove, or at Restaurante Casa Solla or Taberna de Pepe Solla (understanding that Illa de Arousa and O Grove are a little off-course). We’ll be spending a night in Cambados later in our trip.

What would you suggest as an additional pit stop for lunch and to walk around a bit?

My parents own 40 acres of undeveloped land, including the mineral rights, in North Louisiana (Union Parish near Farmerville) that they've been using to harvest and sell timber (we use a forester for this). We would like to list this land as FSBO to see what type of offers come in, as we've had a few random buyers approach us over the years. They would like to sell by 2028 to help fund retirement, but they are in no rush. What is the best way to list rural land as FSBO? Since we have plenty of time and certain land in Louisiana is in high demand, we are not interested in a commercial broker, and I will not be responding to an IMs about this.

We’re doing a Yellowstone/GTNP family trip with our two tween sons next June and plan to spend the last leg of our trip in Jackson. We would ideally like to find something walkable to downtown Jackson that is family-friendly and somewhat upscale for around $500/night. We don’t need five-star, but also don’t want anything run down either. Any suggestion for options that might fit our budget?

What’s the current front runner for NYE? I live in Charlotte and would love to have Panic back here again but haven’t seen much talk about it lately.

I would like to bring back some locally-made jewelry, tiles, and scarves from Porto. What are the best areas for shops or open air markets with locally made goods (not big chains or cheap Chinese trinkets)?

I just purchased a Z Supply top and shorts set in a linen/rayon blend (the perfect linen top and matching shorts) and am surprised at how itchy and thin the fabric is. I have other Z Supply items that feel higher quality, and the set I purchased is new with tags but doesn't seem to be the same quality as what I expect from the brand. I don't think I'll try to reposh, as the set looks cute and I'll likely wear, but I'm just curious if others have experienced counterfeit higher end brands being sold as the real thing. All of the reviews of the item purchased on the Z Supply site are extremely positive and mention how soft the fabric is, which gives me pause since my set isn't as soft as other linen items I've purchased in the past.

First off, the band has some serious travel between all of these Alabama/Carolina destinations - 6 to 7 hours driving distance between each show!

Does anyone think they will repeat any songs between B'ham and Beech? We can only make it to Beech so genuinely curious. Hope they're not too worn out by then!