What Is She Doing Now?

Sylvia Cornell was a long-time Assistant Management Improvment Officer/Deputy Director for JPL and retired in October 2002.  Some of you were here then and remember her no-nonsense business acumen and her wonderful sense of humor.  Now she seems to be a world traveler, amongst her other hobbies, as you will see in her update below.  Sylvia and her husband are pictured above at the Arctic Circle while on their trip to Alaska in June of last year.

"I was honored when asked to write about my retirement. 2012 was the tenth anniversary of my last working day. As I reflect on the years, it seems like a short period of time. I miss the people that I worked with at JPL, but I enjoy making my own schedule. Someone told me I would wonder when I had time to work, and I agree with that. Even though our activities are not very exciting, my husband and I keep very busy.

"I have also kept up with my hobbies of reading, quilting, knitting and golf. I still use the library, but mostly I get ebooks. I am still into technology and enjoy my ereader, etc. We do not yet have tablets, but they are probably our next technological purchases. We do have smart phones and love their flexibility. I am trying not to become a total dinosaur.

"My husband is a retired ecology teacher and has created a great bird and butterfly habit in our backyard. We have bird feeders in various locations and enjoy the variety of visitors we get at those feeders. We participate in Cornell University's project feeder watch and great backyard bird counts all through the year. I also enjoy amateur photography and take many bird pictures. I was rewarded this year when Cornell University included two of my photos in their 2012 gallery.

"My husband and I volunteered as marshals at the Disney PGA golf tournament for the past eight years. We continue to enjoy visiting Disney World often and make good use of the free golf rounds earned by our efforts.

"Five years ago my husband had triple bypass surgery. He is doing great, but at that point we decided to take some bucket list trips. Our first was a motor home trip to the Pacific Northwest with my sister and brother-in-law. We were gone for a month and visited Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Mt. Rainier National Parks. We also went to Vancouver Island and Victoria, British Columbia. Other sights included Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore and the South Dakota Badlands. Since we enjoyed our last trip so much, the four of us decided to go in the RV to the Northeast the next year. We again visited great places including Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine. We then went to Canada where we included the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Quebec City, and Montreal as stops in our month long journey. Coming home we saw Niagara Falls.

"The major trip, however, was to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. We took guided tours of these countries and were away from home for five weeks. Fiji was a beautiful South Pacific experience. Australia was truly amazing. It is the size of this country and we saw most of the famous locations. Included were the Great Barrier Reef, Darwin, Brisbane, Alice Springs, Ayer's Rock (Uluru), a 1,000 mile train ride through the Outback, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Tasmania and Sydney. We rode camels at Ayer's Rock and, of course, toured the Opera House in Sydney. New Zealand had truly awe inspiring beauty. We toured where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. The sets were gone, but the forests were there and seemed alive. We met Maoris and had great visits to glow worm caves and thermal features similar to Yellowstone in Rotorua. I could go on forever since it was to me a trip of a lifetime. It was well worth adjusting to losing days and incredibly long flights.

"Our last long trip was to Alaska. We flew to Anchorage and rented an RV. We were there for a month and went most of the places the few roads led. They included Seward, Homer, Valdez, Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle. We saw glaciers calve and humpback whales in Prince William Sound. Some of my favorite animals are sea otters. We saw hundreds of them during our glacier boat tours. The highlight of the trip was five days in Denali National Park. The wild life there was amazing including moose, caribou, lynx and brown bears. We were there during the summer and experienced almost 24 hours of daylight. We wondered what they would do for July 4th fireworks. Even though it was light, the fireworks went off around 10 pm. My husband went salmon and halibut fishing. We shipped over 20 pounds of fish home. He enjoyed himself and I enjoyed the great meals we had the next year.

"The next trip we will plan is to the Southwest. I have never seen the Grand Canyon or the Utah National Parks, so they are on the agenda.

"Retirement continues to be a nice experience. I recommend it highly."