DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Your Bucketlist

So, I'm very curious to hear what is on everyone's bucketlist.

Mine is quite short.

To go see the stars in an environment away from city lights, such that you can see it in it's full glory.

Like this:



I would only take this trip with whoever my soulmate turns out to be.

That bucketlist item was inspired by seeing the Hale Bopp comet. I was out in the countryside at the barn, going to ride my horse one evening, and the night sky was spectacular. And so was the comet. I couldn't get past how amazing it was.



I also want to see the Aurora Borealis.

Also, I just want to see the Browns win a friggin game, when I am at the stadium. Because it never happens.

Lastly, I want to have floor seats to a Cavs game. While Lebron is on our team. Maybe next year.

We'll see.

I haven't thought too much about bucketlists.

But what are yours?

My wife and I went to the game where Pettine's team kicked the Steelers' ass. Freaking awesome.

My list:

Visit the pyramids.
Visit Rome.
Visit the Greek islands.
Finish editing my first novel before I retire.
Write a couple more books after I retire.
Break 90 on the golf course.

I've done a lot of travelling and had/have a good life so I don't feel I've missed out on much.

There are over 2000 castles in Germany. My goal is to see the 20 biggest/most legendary ones. So far I’ve got 10 down.

4 more countries left in the EU to visit, then I can say I visited all of the EU.

Drive my ride on the most popular tracks in America.

I like those castles. My first trip to Germany, I took the train along the Rhine River, and there all those hills with the castles on them.

It was pretty awesome.

The only castle I've been in was one in Salzburg Austria. In the middle of winter. It was very cool.

Ludwig’s castle, neuschwanstein, is the most beautiful castle I ever been to. The drive itself to the castle was something I’ll always remember.

Here are a couple cool places to consider.

Yellow mountains

Li River

I've been lucky enough to hit quite a few already (hike to Macchu Pichu, Grand Canyon, Galapagos, Rome, Paris, London, climb mountains, cliff diving (it was only like 30' but htat's enough for me :), hot air balloon, visited India, Mount Rushmore), but have plenty to go:

Hike to Mount Everest basecamp, swim with dolphins, bathe an elephant, hold a monkey, visit places I haven't been (top 15 or so are Hong Kong, Ireland, Iceland, Santorini, Cape Town, New Zealand, Petra, Thailand/Cambodia, Patagonia, Burma, Copenhagen, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Rainbow Mountains, Japan, there are so many ), African Safari (Botswana, Tanzania, or S Africa), hitting all 50 states (10 more to go), watch the Browns in the superbowl retire as early as possible...

I've always thought one of those Viking River cruises through Germany would be cool!

Eve above:



This is a worthy bucket list item.

I got to see/watch the aurora borealis in the late 80s in northern New Hampshire. (completely unexpected)

Huge colorful patterns in the sky. Different colors. Sometimes symmetrical. Definitely looked created. (like by an intelligent being)

Picture half the sky lighting-up up in red or green or blue or yellow and remains lit for several seconds. Before fading and another completely different pattern bursting across the sky.

Definitely one of nature's greatest shows.

I can certainly understand humans walking away from such an occurrence with a belief in a higher power.

I wonder how predictable aurora borealis is.

I only remember it being predicted to happen once in Connecticut in the 37 years I've lived here. I think it was very weak and I didn't see it. And even in northern New Hampshire; I've been there many times in the last 4 decades and only saw it the one time.

If there is a definite predictability of the borealis in higher latitudes, I would make this trip.

I wonder if Rocket gets to see it all the time in Alaska.

The only bucket I have, has holes in it. My list leaked out.

New York City, for at least a week.

Record an album of original songs - the Vanity record - for posterity, and to say I finally did it.

See the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

Britney Spears.

Walk the Brooklyn bridge halfway, turn around go back to Manhattan. Take the Staten Island Ferry. Go to Strawberry fields. Find Washington's War room in Harlem. Go to Roosevelt Island. And do other stuff. These are all free or very cheap things to do.

Attend a Super Bowl when the Browns are one of the teams participating.

I just want to live long enough to see my daughters graduate high school. If I can do that much I will be happy enough.

Browns: Superbowl (of course)

Pay off Mom's mortgage

Visit Hungary (homeland)

Talk for a few minutes with Donald Fagen

Kiss Alicia Silverstone on the cheek

Repair things with Dad

Only thing on my bucket list right now is to get the hell out of France ! I've traveled a lot and the best place I've ever found is my back yard . Literally my back yard which is the only place anymore that I can breath .

This is very cool.

I'm totally feeling the "zero light pollution" vibe.

This place right here:



is about 12 linear miles from a 2-street town, and more than 60 miles away from the next town of any size (roughly similar to Ft. Collins CO).

Every campsite in this preserve is on the shore of one of over 100 lakes. So you can literally walk out of your tent 20 yds, look up... and find your place in the Milky Way Galaxy. While standing ankle deep at that place where your own personal 2 acre island meets O.S.A. Lake...

Killarney Ridge is in the background. Little Mountain Lake is on the other side, to the North. That's where I saw my first Aurora.

The campsite is down at the lake shore. The lake is in a small bowl, almost like a volcanic crater. It was a full moon that weekend, so we night-scrambled back up to the top of the bowl, to look back at Killarney Ridge. We'd reached the halfway point of a 70-mile ridgetop through-hike, and were feeling a bit reflective.

OMG.

As you can see from the pic, the mountain range is white quartzite. It looks snow-covered even on a 90° summer day.

Imagine what this ridge (and the valley between us) looked like, bathed in the light of an un-polluted full moon. That was looking South.

That's when I turned around, pointed North and up... and stared into our celestial neighborhood.

The terrain falls away to the north/NW/NE, so terrain doesn't compete with the show above.

The sky swam with movement, undulating shapes, and colors that have no name.


Please do this for yourself.


_______________________

My bucket list is very short.

To get a glimpse of Heaven before I go there, and to hear God tell me he has my room all prepared.

Met a fella from Atlanta at Auckland airport back in December. Got chatting over airport terminal food.

He'd been traveling NZ a few weeks.

He asked me how to get to Antarctica.

Turns out after visiting every US State, he'd moved onto visiting all the Continents for the next adventure.
His folks were ill so he split time between caring for them, working and every few months just jumping on a plane and following his nose. He had a pretty cool outlook on life, bet he has some stories to tell when he pulls up stumps later in life.

He'd done the Northern Aurora also. Planned meticulously; ensured he caught the right plane at the right time and booked/paid for the right window seat. Said he had a 40minute light show from 35000 feet. Very interesting guy......didn't care for Donald.

Any road.

I've swum with a Whale Shark which was nice. I bought a pet snake. I had kids, albeit later in life. Would like to raise them and be around until they are in the mid 20's at least. I've done a Kenyan safari, there were more stars than sky on an unpolluted equator.

Big ticket items, Cleveland during a winning season......and of course, cage diving with Great Whites. I can do the latter in Sth Australia. Will keep you guys posted.

That is a strange one. I met him once. I was friends with his step daughter Levon Helms daughter Amy Helm.

US places I'd like to see:

- Glacier National Park (Going to the Sun Road, St. Mary Lake, Wild Goose Island)
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Grand Canyon
- St. Louis Arch
- LA Hills


I'd also like Cleveland to win the Super Bowl

Besides traveling to Belize to swim with manta ray and whale shark here’s the next few I hope to check off. No particular order.

Sydney Harbor, Australia


Uluru, Australia


Luang Prabang, Laos

Kuang Si Waterfall, Luang Prabang


Haolong Bay, Vietnam


Machu Picchu, Peru


Chichen Itza

Being with my wife, and I have to say that is a real statement of my own.

Dinner with Springsteen and Townshend..

Browns winning the Super Bowl

Paying off my house and being able to retire in California

A 100 mile bike ride.

A really cool vintage stereo.

The Pyramids would be incredible to see

The Colosseum as well

One of the best things about my time in the Navy was seeing the skies from the middle of the ocean. There is no light pollution out there. It's kind of amazing.

https://larsenbaylodge.com/kodiak-saltwater-fishing.html

I wanna go here for my 60th with my son and do some fishing offshore Kodiak Island AK

This is a great thread Eve, Nice job!



Grandkids - My son is only 2 and half, but I cant stop myself from thinking what his life is going to be like, and see the great things he is going to accomplish.

The only important thing in MY life, I already accomplished, being that little turds Dad. Now its time to worry about providing him every opportunity into giving him a bucket list of his own.

Chitchen Itzu is pretty sweet, we enjoyed going there a few years ago.

AT&T Park San Francisco - Been a Giants fan all my Life

Boston Garden - Been a Celtics fan all my life

I have been to Cleveland stadium many times old and new - Been a Browns fan all my life

You should have picked 3 teams farther apart.

I have more list than bucket. That is sad.

I want to do something important charity-wise. I would like to see Scotland and Australia.

My goal is to actually finish the Chinese Buffet.

On my last work trip, we visited the FedEx Family House in Memphis - we cooked the families there dinner for the evening. Wasn't a huge gesture, we simply made spaghetti. But man, you can tell it made a difference. Was astounding impact on me.

Reading this thread has made me realize how fortunate I've been so far. I've done quite a few of the things listed and all were great experiences. I've also been able to check off quite a number of things I always wanted to do recently.

Wanted to comment on the OP though:



I saw this in North Idaho, completely unexpected, one night when camping. One of the coolest things I've ever seen. Rocky's description of it is accurate, yet it still doesn't do it justice. I'd actually love to take an Alaskan Cruise or something one time and see if I can't get an even better view of it.



At this point, I'm just hoping for a Browns win whenever I turn the game on TV. I can't even remember the last time I watched a win.

As for my list:

- Take an Italy Tour, for like a month.
- Tour the Vatican while on the Italy trip.
- See Ireland.
- Watch a mountain stage of the Tour De France.
- See a (preferably manned) rocket launch in person.
- Visit the Redwood Forest.
- Go to Mt St Helens National Monument up close.
- Take a trip to Kauai and see the Napali Coast
- Revisit Washington DC and actually take some time to visit the sites.
- While in DC, see the Changing of the Guard ceremony.
- See the Indy 500 in person.
- See the Kentucky Derby in person.
- See some of the Egyptian ruins like the Pyramids and Ramses' tombs.

That's not a bucket list...That's a miracle... and if you don't behave..God is going to show you a bucket full of terrible towels..

If you do the Vatican thing, let me know, I can give you a few tips. If you're doing it as part of a tour, there might not be much I can provide other than on Rome itself.

Regarding Mt. St. Helens, there are multiple visitors centers, though Johnston Ridge is the best and closest. If you're in decent shape, you can hike up to about 4500' on the south side (via Cougar, Wa) without a permit...you'll need a permit (and other things) to go higher. And the Redwoods are about an 8 or 9 hour drive. I'd either take the long route via the coast (stunning, but slow driving) and make multiple stops...or hit Crater Lake on the way down (a few hours off course).

I’ve lived in Portland for 17 years. Sadly I’ve never been to Crater Lake. I’ve even driven within just a couple miles of it a few times on my way to Burning Man. Just never had the time to stop. I keep saying it but one of these days I just need to go.
The Redwoods are amazing. I drove the California coast from San Francisco to Eureka a couple summers before moving west. Some of the groves you drive through on that route alone are breathtaking. And those aren’t even the big boys.

I hiked the Napali Coast trail a number of years ago. Lived on Kalalau Beach for five days and four nights. My friends and I had it pretty much to ourselves. It was an amazing experience. I will say do it young. It’s an incredibly difficult trail. 11 miles in, 11 miles out. Very hot and humid in the jungle parts. Very hot and exposed on the cliff (pali) parts. Some of it extremely narrow, steep, and dangerous. At mile 7 is an area called Crawlers Ledge. It literally kills people regularly. My (ex)wife got that far and didn’t want to do it. I convinced her (there was no way I was turning around) to do it by me agreeing to carry my backpack, drop it, then come back for hers and carry hers through that section. I won’t lie, it’s crazy narrow, the trail is slopes towards the water, and it’s a long way down to crashing surf. It makes your butthole pucker. Lol
Absolutely worth the effort. Just not an old man’s game. Watch this video. Especially around 2:55 on. The camera can’t do justice to just how sloped and narrow that feels when you have a backpack on. It’s...yeah. It’s real.

Dude, Portland...that is pretty gnarly. Props to you for completing that trail. Even more props for not falling to your death!

Yeah, we'll probably take a self-guided tour of the Vatican. I'd much rather have the freedom of checking things out at our own pace, than being herded around like cattle from place to place. If you have any tips for Rome too, let me know. This is probably our #1 vacation goal at the moment, and as soon as we can do it we probably will.

I've read all about Mt. St. Helens as well, and will definitely check out Johnston Ridge. I've been up to the Portland/Seattle area many times, but never took the time to had over there. We did fly directly over it once on a flight to Seattle, which was pretty cool in and of itself.

And Portland. I'm not sure my wife would ever let me hike that trail! If the trail doesn't kill me, she probably would.