Author: jeff noel

Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.

Smiling Jesus, home

smiling Jesus painting

What makes Jesus smile?

Gotta say, this is beyond my understanding.

But if pressed to share some ideas…

Self-awareness…

Patience…

Fidelity…

Joy…

Children…

Caring…

And so on and so forth…

Probably all the things that make humans smile.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Glacier checklists day 2, home

Glacier Park Lodge lobby
Glacier Park Lodge lobby.
Glacier Park Lodge
Glacier Park Lodge, Great Northern building. Our favorite room is here. We request it every year. Ps. That’s Cheryl on the top floor balcony. Our room has a private door to it.
Glacier Park Lodge
Glacier Park Lodge’s pool. Handful of years ago, this iconic water feature made way for a horseshoe ‘court’.

Glacier checklists, day two.

  1. Plan on two rest days for our week together. Weather often drives when to not hike (rest).
  2. Rest days are open, and can include a scenic drive or chill at Lodge, or both.
  3. East Glacier, and Glacier Park Lodge, is more remote from the signature 50-mile Going-to-the-Sun Road. And even further from Logan Pass and Many Glacier/Swiftcurrent Valley (like easily a 90-minute one-way drive without stops.
  4. There is a small lobby cafe-coffee-ice cream-sundries shop.
  5. The tiny (for real tiny) town of East Glacier has a small country store.
  6. The nearby town of Browning (the epicenter for the Blackfeet Nation) has two grocery stores and a small hospital, is a 30-minute drive one way.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Glacier checklists, home

St Mary entrance to Glacier
St Mary entrance to Glacier National Park – the eastern start of Going-To-The-Sun Road.
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park westside entrance sign.
Glacier National Park
GNP. Glacier Park Lodge lobby. We’re staying here. We will have an insanely epic experience.

We’re staying at Glacier Park Lodge. We will have an insanely epic experience.

i simply have to mesh two entirely different things:

  1. Deconstruct what we would normally do on our third consecutive week of high-mountain hiking (above 6,000′), on our final extended Glacier visit.
  2. Reconstruct what Glacier acclimated hikers (us) need to modify to enable what first-time, sea-level, Glacier visitors need so they do not overdo it. While simultaneously not leaving me feeling held back from what i would normally do if it was just Cheryl and me – on our farewell experience.

We could drive around, like a tour guide, and see all the sights.

A BFO, i do not want to end our deeply personal Glacier relationship like we started with Chapin in 2013 – driving around and stopping at the assorted scenic pullover lookouts.

Bottomline, i want to move (hike) like i (we) mean it. We are still physically capable.

If this is our last chance, i want to suck the marrow out of it.

So you can see the challenge, the opportunity.

Looking forward to being enlightened to a wonderful win-win solution.

Ps. i am open to, and hopeful for stumbling on a remarkable idea that takes this current situation to a glorious experience for all of us.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

July 1, 2026, home

smiling Jesus painting in a gift shop
My recent first ever discovery of a smiling Jesus. Beyond surprised. Overwhelmed. Delighted. Ecstatic.

What’s one thing that’s surprised you about summer 2026?

While not technically ‘surprised’, being a couple months into a fixed-income lifestyle is not negatively denting our normal lifestyle so far.

Delightfully surprised.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Wildcard day, home

Garden state parkway sign
A segue to tomorrow’s posts? Maybe.

What’s a blogging challenge few, if any, know about?

Finding photos and videos to support the written content, five times a day.

Bonus unknown challenge: Knowing when to stop prolific blogging?

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.