People talk about their bucket list. A lot of people seem to
have cool stuff on theirs like ‘skydiving’ or ‘blow something up’. I have given a lot of deep thought to my
bucket list. And it is this:
1.
Gettysburg
2.
Travel to more countries than my dad. Bonus
points if it’s somewhere he hasn’t already
been to.
2b. Travel to all 50 States
3.
Never pass up an opportunity to have an
adventure.
Now for some explanations.
Gettysburg is the most
haunted place in the United States. No further explanation needed. Plans
are in the works for this to be achieved. Part of this plan is getting my
internship on the East Coast.
It’s tradition that my dad goes somewhere, and then comes
home and tells us about all the wonderful food he’s eaten along the way. Or the
cool things he’s seen. Or some story about a person he met. Sometimes he’ll
call us and start with “Guess what I’m doing right now.” My dad’s a bamf. We’ll talk more about this
later. As of now, he’s been to 17 countries in the world. (Last time we counted
he was at 16.) I figured that instead of specifying things for a bucket list,
like ‘go to Cancun’, I would do a more general goal, that was still a
challenge.
So far on this one, I’ve got 6 countries down. 2 of which my
dad has never been to. I also have tried to do things while traveling that
either my dad hasn’t done, are part of the ‘1,000 things before you die’
school, or a lot of people seem to talk about, or should be talking about. A few highlights: The two countries I’ve been
to that dad hasn’t: Poland and New Zealand. Top pick: Seeing the original
Christus Statue by Thorvaldsen in
Copenhagen, Denmark and attending Mass at Sacre Couer in Paris.
A subset of this goal is to visit all 50 states. (Dad has
only been to the lower 48) Top of that list is to see the Aurora in Alaska. Also, subset of this is
to visit as many LDS Temples as possible. So far I have 8 of those. (Currently
there is 137 operating temples worldwide, with several being constructed or
planned.)
Now, never pass up an opportunity to have an adventure. Who
can come home from work, have their mum say “Let’s get Studebakers for dinner”
and totally jump in the truck for an hour and half long drive just to get the
best pizza ever for dinner, and happen to see a real life bald eagle in the
wild on the way there? Or visit a long time friend of your dad’s only to get
back to your hostel at nearly 1 am and ride up the lift with a guy in purple
tightie whitie style underwear while a hot Brazilian asks you if you would like
a beer? Or wake up at who knows when in the morning in a teepee to listen to a
confused bull elk try to find a mate? Ever sheared a sheep? Or fished the Cisco
run? Or attended a Testicle Festival? Gone to the park in the middle of the
night to swing? Wild and Crazy Adventure
anyone? (That last one was a code, those who know what it means have done it
with me or a member of my family.)
Yeah. Almost anything goes for this girl. And I have a
pretty cool list that is growing in size in the back of my journal.
