Kurt was not an outdoors guy. I recall seeing a picture of him in the mountains around Virginia Tech and initially thought he was. Also, he said he loved downhill skiing and used to go to Killington, VT, etc to ski. He had skis and a good strong build. I thought even more he was “outdoors guy”. But, we never got that skiing honeymoon to New Zealand and when we went to NY to hike around the gorge areas in Central NY, he was a tenderfoot and complainer. (Sorry, honey) His idea of a good time on a vacation was a huge house to fit everyone, a pool table, an indoor pool with a jacuzzi and good food. He would have been happy never having to go outdoors–just mess around indoors with whatever his current interests were. Of course that makes one rather sedentary. Later, he was put on AFIB medications that proscribed bring out in the sun, so that furthered the deal.
He enjoyed going to Vermont and New Hampshire in the summer where we toured the Yankee Barn Homes (timber framed homes from scavenged old mills, barns, etc) and daydreamed about putting one up on Martin’s Mountain in Allegany County, MD where we had a small acreage with great views. He liked that idea.
Last time we had a vacation, was 2005 at my parent’s 50th anniversary. For whatever reason, he never was able to get a paid vacation again because “financial reasons”. I always envied family who got paid time off and so forth. He did not.