When the movie The Bucket List came out, I tried to think of things that might be on my own bucket list and I couldn't come up with anything. It's not that I'm particularly dull, but more that most of what I wanted to do in life, I've done. Which is really a very nice thing to say. The guys in the film did lots of adventurous things like jumping out of airplanes. I'm not that adventurous. My goals were always pretty low key.
For some reason I was thinking about bucket lists today. I think it was updating my Flickr map that shows the countries I've visited. I thought I'd just start a bucket list and see what I might put on one. This list assumes that money, and babysitting for the dogs, is no object (which pretty much throws the bucket list out the window before I even get started). But here are 10 things I came up with:
1. Spend a week in the South of France in the springtime. I loved the south of France, but I didn't like being on a tour--and I definitely didn't like the summer heat. If we were to rent a house, or even splurge and spend a week at that wonderful hotel in Arles, I could relax enough to do only the things that appealed to me. We could rent a car and drive to the other little towns in the area and do the exploring on our own terms, in our own time. I might even start speaking French.
2. Take the train across the Canadian Rockies. Walt and I went to Canada on our honeymoon, stayed in a cabin in Jasper National Park and camped in Banff National Park. The Rockies were so gorgeous that I said then that some day I wanted to take a train trip across the Canadian Rockies. We could even stop and visit our Brasilian son, Eduardo, in Toronto.
3. Taste stone crabs in Florida. I saw something on the Food Network about stone crabs, which are bigger than my beloved Dungeness crabs. I also Top Chef this week, where someone talked about how much more meat there is in stone crab than in, say, Maryland blue crabs. I would love to be in Florida and have the chance to taste stone crabs.
4. Have a theater orgy in New York. We've been to New York several times and we always go to theatre, but I've never seen a big Broadway musical on Broadway and I would love to go and see several of them in one trip. We always concentrate on the off-Broadway shows, which are more affordable (and our friends are in them!). Who can afford $300 for good seats to a musical? But this Bucket List assumes that money is no object.
(of course most of these shows are not there any more!)
5. While we're in New York, I'd like to be crassly tourist and ride a carriage through Central Park. It's the sort of thing that I always secretly longed to do, but never even suggest because of the money. It would have been fun to take a carriage ride when we were on Mandrogy, but I never said anything.
6. Cruise the Inland Passage to Alaska. No surprise here. I think this appears on every list I have ever posted to this blog! I have a feeling that if I ever actually took this cruise, I'll be terribly disappointed, because I've thought about it for so long.
7. Visit the Sheldrick Elephant Rehabilitation Center in Africa. Daphne Sheldrick started this center to rescue orphaned elephants and rhinos. I am so inspired by her work and the babies they are able to save, also the dedication of the handlers for their little charges. I've helped to sponsor little Lesanju for a few years now.
8. Buy a good SLR camera and take a basic photography course so that I actually started knowing what I'm doing. And we all know that what I really need is an excuse to take more photos, right? :)
9. Visit Iguacu Falls in Brasil and/or Argentina. Our friend Nelson has been promising to take us to Iguacu if we ever get to Brasil for about 20 years or more now.
10. Reunite with some of the "special ones" from our days of hosting people from other countries. I once saw a real tear-jerker of a movie called The Blue Veil. It was so bad (apparently) that it never even made it to tape or DVD. But it starred Jane Wyman as a woman who had worked as a nanny for various families for years. At the end of the movie, all of her former kids, now adults, came back to see her. I always imagined a moment like that with our "special ones" foreign students, though we have now lost contact with most of them.
3 comments:
To stay in the south of France, I'd suggest Untours. They arrange transportation, an apartment, local transportation (car, rail pass, whatever), and lots of support and information. Then you get to do what you want. We've done this in Switzerland and our 3-city tour to Prague/Budapest/Vienna. We love traveling with them. Look up their web site.
Thanks for that suggestion, Mary! Someone on the Russia cruise mentioned that they had worked with Untours before and I'd lost the name. I will definitely check them out.
I always wanted to take the train across the U.S, Connecticut to California. It may yet be possible.
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