Being a lifelong learner is a state of mind — an attitude of openness to new experiences or new interpretations of the familiar. Not all learning is centered in an academic setting, although academic settings are natural places for discourse. Sometimes you need to get out of the same old same old to appreciate your everyday life. Traveling is a great way to broaden oneself. Themed travel, or finding the kind of trips that have an educational goal in mind, may be a great way to stay fresh and not fall into a rut. There certainly are a number of resources for group travel tailored to seniors; many of these are listed in Chapter 18.

An interesting combination of travel with a targeted educational goal is embraced within the mission of the nonprofit organization Elderhostel ( www.elderhostel.org). Through this organization you can travel to Africa or Alaska and take mini courses from regional cooking to archeology. The trips are organized so that all of the logistical details are taken care of, allowing you to focus on soaking up the experience of the program. Generally, meals, travel, accommodations, lecture or excursion fees, and gratuities are rolled into the package price to avoid any unpleasant surprises later. A sampling of the types of experiences you can pursue include:

• Active Outdoor— hiking, biking, barging while learning

• Discovery— exploring the many strains of culture in both rural and cosmopolitan settings

• Individual Skills— painting, yoga, cooking, ceramics. Start something new or build on experience.

• Intergenerational— programs designed to be taken with grandchildren

• Liberal Arts— broad range of classroom studies at universities

• Service Learning— hands-on work with children, the environment, museum curatorial work, and more

• Adventures Afloat— shipboard programs for travel and classroom experience

As with Lifelong Learning Institutes, there are no grades or tests in Elder-hostel programs. This organization was an early pioneer in building ongoing learning opportunities for people during the decades that a previous generation would have written off as over and done.