Mini Bucket List – updated

October 8, 2012
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“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
—St. Augustine

Am I not just a tad young to be thinking of bucket lists? Perhaps, perhaps not. I have a lot to do! And they don’t tell you this when you start, but one of the major side-effects of working in the travel business is an increased need to travel. I know too much about what there is to see in this world, and I know there is much I still need to learn.

It is said that you should write down the things you that you want. And since I am becoming increasingly forgetful I thought it best to write them down. And I do so enjoy checking things off a list.  So here is my die happy bucket list in no particular order…for now.

  • Photograph the Aurora Borealis – I don’t have the location in mind, be it Iceland, Alaska or Norway, that is largely irrelevant to me. I want to be able to experience how magical and completely surreal it must be to feel like you are inside a painting.
  • Eat pizza in Italy – Or to be fair, explore Italy in general. I would love to go to Tuscany and paint and eat and learn how to cook. I want to see the amazing art I have learned about in school, in person. I want to sit quietly in cathedrals so old they defy explanation. I want to smooch someone very special under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. This also ties in nicely to:
  • Order a meal in a foreign language – italian.
  • Drive cross country – I want to drive across the US to see how amazingly diverse this country is…more specifically I want to see Graceland. So this trip is basically a Graceland beard.
  • See Griffith Observatory – Ever since I was a young and I first saw Rebel Without a Cause I have wanted to go there. Not only is it a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture, but was conceived by a man named Griffith Griffith and has a ginormous pendulum. I mean the nerd factor here is through the roof. Plus James Dean stood there.  (Visited Los Angeles Aug 2013; photo)
  • Hot air balloon ride-just cause I think it would be nice, and reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.
  • Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany (Visited Munich Sept 2012, was more fun that I could have imagined)
  • New Years Eve in Times Square – this one I am a bit bipolar about. No part of me enjoys huge crowds in the cold, but I still think as a NYer it is my duty to try it once. There are a few NY things I have yet to do, as most NYers will tell you…we avoid the tourist stuff. But I would like to go to the top of the Empire State Building.
  • Learn to play an entire Indigo Girls song on guitar. This will require me to develop patience. A good life goal.
  • Spend some time — my vacation time — in some sort of volun-tourism capacity. I am not exactly sure how this one shakes out yet, but I want to visit somewhere, even here in the US, outside my comfort zone and do good.
  • Stay in an over the water hut in Bora Bora/Maldives/Fiji/Cook Islands. Not sure which one will win out yet, although I do love the allure of Bora Bora.
  • Petra at night. I have yet to see a more mystical place…via photograph anyway. It looks like a movie set, but is actually 3000 years old. I have a hard time comprehending something that old. People so long ago carving this structure out of a mountain. And to think “we” didn’t even know about it until the 1800s!
  • Leaf peep in New England (Vermont) in the fall.
  • Swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
  • Visit Bio Bay – Laguna Grande – in Puerto Rico. It is this lagoon in a mangrove forest that you kayak to. Apparently the mangroves emit a tannin into the water. The rare result is this microplankton that react to movement by glowing. GLOWING. The water glows as you move through it. Do I really need to explain this one? Feb 1, 2012 Update: A visit to the Luminous Lagoon in Jamaica, one of the other 3 places this exists checks this one off the list.
  • Explore Prague – One of my favorite bridges is there.
  • Climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney Australia. This seems scary to me, so wondering if I could do it makes me want to try.
  • Visit Banff. I am not sure why I am drawn to Banff, but it is just so majestic and different from everything I know. I might even try the Polar Bear Plunge into Lake Louise. Meep!
  • See penguins. Can be in South Africa, Patagonia or even the funny little ones in Australia.
  • Safari in Africa. I am hoping that will shake my Disney-view of the world where everything seems staged.
  • Would love to do a costal California drive that ends up at Cakebread Winery in Napa.

…more to come