Share your bucket list ideas
- Thread starter BamaHoHo
- Start date
There are very few that are important that I have not experienced. I would like to live by the ocean and swim with the dolphins. A road trip across America would be fun but the security risks must now be considered. It is such a different world than just a few decades ago.
I think the most important one left which I haven't done is Alaska. I haven't decided if that means overland or via cruise ship. I notice that the Grand Canyon is on the suggested list. I'd suggest that, if it's at all possible, to take a raft trip through the canyon. It's the only way to really experience the geological reach of the total formation. Viewing it from above on the South Rim doesn't really convey it. I was lucky enough to be young enough (39) and skilled enough to kayak it. In fact, I took the first low volume kayak down the canyon. It was a priceless experience...
I'll suggest overland. There are many great things to see and do along the way. For example, Mt. Rushmore, Banff and Jasper National Parks, etc. Some of my best memories from the trip I went on with my family when I was about 14 were my many interactions with the locals along the way. For instance, I remember sitting in a bar/restaurant in Whitehorse, Yukon with my brother, and there was an old, long-haired native american sitting in there drinking. He saw my brother and I and asked, "Where are you two from?" We responded, "Alabama." He thought for a second, and said "I thought only [african americans] lived in Alabama." What a strange thing to hear a Sitting-Bull-looking-guy in Whitehorse, Yukon say.
Anyway, my suggestion: take the overland route. You can take the 300mi inside passage ferry cruise back from Haines, AK to Prince Rupert, BC. to get your cruise fix.
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Lucky enough to hit 3 of those (athens, Pompeii, Jerusalem) thanks to the USMC. :wink:
Gotta do it overland. The Alaska Highway is probably at the very top of my bucket list.
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Alaska, Hawaii, San Francisco, New York
I've been almost everywhere in the US and usually traveled by car which is why we haven't made New York or San Fran. I don't want to drive in New York. While I've driven to Seattle, San Diego, and Los Angeles, I've just never made it to San Francisco. We did make it as far as Carmel but I haven't been to Yosemite.
I've been to the Grand Canyon several times but not to the north rim or the raft. I can't imagine it being bigger than what I've seen from the south rim but after reading Earl's post I'm going to add the white water raft trip to the bucket list. I don't have the nerve to do it in a kayak.
I've been almost everywhere in the US and usually traveled by car which is why we haven't made New York or San Fran. I don't want to drive in New York. While I've driven to Seattle, San Diego, and Los Angeles, I've just never made it to San Francisco. We did make it as far as Carmel but I haven't been to Yosemite.
I've been to the Grand Canyon several times but not to the north rim or the raft. I can't imagine it being bigger than what I've seen from the south rim but after reading Earl's post I'm going to add the white water raft trip to the bucket list. I don't have the nerve to do it in a kayak.
Well, I've already been to Banff/Jasper. I've heard from friends who've done it that there are long boring stretches of the Alcan highway, once you get past the mountains. Also, unless you could get someone to drive your car back, I don't see how you could return via cruise ship. If you took a rental car, I wouldn't even want to think about the dead-head fee...
Alaska would be on mine. Probably a driving trip despite the boring stretches that I've been warned about, too. We had some friends that spent three weeks driving, hiking and boating through the Amazon. I've seen their photos and videos and heard their stories. That is at the very top of my list.
The trip through the canyon is awe-inspiring. We had 25 boaters, about 20 wives, GFs, etc., and two 33' support rafts, with a 10 HP Mercury motor as power. We carried 33 cases of beer. The rafts were military surplus and made by taking two rafts and turning them end to end, stern to bow. The beer raft had a hole cut in the middle, through both rafts and netting sewn in to make a cooler hole. Not only the beer was there, but it also held any food needing to be refrigerated. The water is about 50F where it comes out of Glen Canyon Dam. We were lucky in that they were releasing 25K CFS, about double the normal release. Also, they were drawing off the bottom, so we had beautiful blue-green water, instead of the cafe' au lait you normally see. Downside was that all of the rapids were greatly changed for the fiercer, and the raft guides couldn't give us any guidance on how to run them. For example, Crystal Rapid developed two holes, instead of the normal one. There were other boaters probably with more skill, but I had a bomb-proof roll. Of the original 25 kayakers, only five of us didn't swim somewhere along the way. Several boaters just gave up and they lashed their boats to the rafts. In the case of Crystal, the safe run is along river right, close to the shore. The problem is that it's very hard to see that line from a kayak, because you're sitting right down on the water. As I went into the rapid, I saw that I was too far out in the middle. When the first wave came up, I was almost vertical as I climbed. I realized I couldn't hope to stay upright, so I accepted the inevitable and rolled over to my right. I executed my roll - under water - and came out the other side. It seemed like it only took seconds. When I paddled over to the right bank, all the assembled party were cheering me. When I asked them what it was all about, they said "You cleaned the hole in Crystal!" ("Cleaned" is kayaker vernacular for running a rapid upright.) I told that I hadn't, that I had rolled under water. I don't think they believed me. I was the old man among the boaters at 39.
Years later, about 20 years ago, I financed a trip down the canyon for my daughter, about 25 at the time. As luck, or the lack thereof, would have it, the Colorado had historic floods. They estimated 80K CFS. I had one of the most miserable weeks of my life, trying to get in touch. Cell phones were just starting as "bag phones," and there wouldn't have been reception, anyway. She finally called from Phantom Ranch, where the Bright Angel trail crosses the river, coming down from the South Rim observation deck. One commercial rafting company tried to run Crystal and all ended up in the river. It's a long swim down the runout from Crystal and they had one elderly passenger drown. One of my best friends was having a rough run down the river on my trip and he swam at Crystal. I managed to catch up with him, but the rapids were too rough for me even to pull him up onto my tail. I just had to paddle alongside for a quarter mile or so, until it calmed down enough. He decided to lash his kayak and spend the rest of the trip as a passenger. I can't imagine how long the runout would be with three times the amount of water...
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I don't have a bucket list. To me, those things are for people who live lives of ordinary day to day drudgery and only dreaming of those things they wish they had seen or done.
I've been to a lot of places in my lifetime and done a lot of things. Some of those things I'm not so proud of, some I am, but I wouldn't trade the experiences of any of them for anything in the world.
I'm 65 years old and if I die before this day ends I know that I have lived a full and happy life. I've lived the past 26 of those with a wonderful woman who has made them even better by sharing her own life with me. And to me, there's not another thing in this whole world that I wish I had seen or done. Jmho
I've been to a lot of places in my lifetime and done a lot of things. Some of those things I'm not so proud of, some I am, but I wouldn't trade the experiences of any of them for anything in the world.
I'm 65 years old and if I die before this day ends I know that I have lived a full and happy life. I've lived the past 26 of those with a wonderful woman who has made them even better by sharing her own life with me. And to me, there's not another thing in this whole world that I wish I had seen or done. Jmho
I could write many more pages about that trip, like almost all of us becoming "clothing optional."
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