travel

Bucket List

So Elora, Lauren, and Prudence have created these lists of things they want to do before they are 30, or 40. I wish I had been that focused when I was their age. Instead I was too busy doing other things a lot less grand or dream powered.

… and it got me thinking. I’m 6 years away from 50. My 11 year old thinks 44 is old. My 44 year old brain doesn’t think 44 is old. It doesn’t even think that 70 is old now. But that space between my ears is thinking that there are a lot of things I want to do, and if I don’t write them down and hold myself accountable, they’ll just float away in to the ether, never accomplished, or left for someone else to do.

So here’s my list of oh I don’t know how many things I want to do before 50.

  1. Spend a month in Paris (France not Texas)
  2. Spend a long weekend visiting Napa & Michael Chiarello’s restaurant Bottega
  3. Write the book that is stirring in my minds eye
  4. Use at least half of the fabric that I have in my stash to complete projects in waiting
  5. Go for a spa day, not just a massage either, but the entire spa package of pampering
  6. Visit dear friends who I haven’t seen in years (I’ll be seeing a few this summer – I can’t wait!)
  7. Meet as many twitter friends in real life
  8. Attend the Kentucky Derby and wear a grand hat for the occasion
  9. Go back to school and finish my bachelors degree
  10. Travel to England and soak up as much history and experiences as I can while I’m there
  11. Travel by train across Europe
  12. Visit Italy and learn to cook like the locals
  13. … to be continued

Travel seems to be a common theme through out the list. Guess that’s just the gypsy in me. But in all seriousness, there is so much out there I want to learn about, and see and experience. I’m thinking I need to cast off the limitation of doing this all by 50, and just set out to do it all in my life time.

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Results

So I post a poll and my traffic spikes. Yet most of the visitors that came by didn’t actually vote in the poll. Really, it wasn’t that hard. 🙂

But the results are in. And as of the writing of this post (Tuesday morning, 11 am Pacific time) 84.62% said yes, while the remaining 15.38% said no. (Sounds more impressive than 22 of you who voted said yes and 4 said no.) Based on the comments I received, it seems that age had a lot to do with the answer given. Most of my more mature readers said no. But they also commented as to why they voted this way too. Most were content with their homes and the life they have. They like to be around family and friends and the creature comforts they have surrounded themselves with. I had a few younger readers comment here and on facebook as well as to why they would go. I think the adventure of it spoke to their souls. Also a desire to learn more about their heritage or history.

So there it is in a nutshell. I’ll leave the poll open in case anyone else wants to vote or comment.

And this was a completely unscientific poll, just done for fun, and to see what you would say. Thanks for participating. We’ll do it again sometime soon.

Would You?

If you had the opportunity to take a year of your life and go travel around Europe, would you?

Yes, you have the money to do this. No, you don’t have a job keeping you here. You may or may not have kids, a spouse or significant other, other family ties, or any other obligations. Regardless of circumstances all the signs are pointing to yes, all your ducks are in a row. Would you pack everything you need, put your life’s belongings in storage, and take off for a year?

Why or why not? And where would you go? Would you spend more time in one country than another or take equal time in all the places?

Take the poll and then share in the comments below.