Monday, April 9, 2012

My Life's To-Do List

Recently I've come across several sites dedicated to lifelong bucket lists.  I've thought many times throughout the years about the things I would have on my own bucket list.  I finally decided to compile a fairly thorough list of my own life's to-do's (though the list is still very subject to update/revision/addition with more time to contemplate).

These are in no particular order.

Travel
  • Visit all 50 of the United States (42 down, 8 to go!)
  • Visit all 7 continents (5 down, 2 to go!)
  • Fill an entire passport with stamps
  • Visit the South Pacific (Fiji, Tahiti, Bora Bora, etc.) and stay in an overwater bungalow
Bora Bora
  • Take a New Year's Eve cruise that crosses the international dateline and celebrate the new year twice in one "day"
  • Stand on the equator
  • Visit Sicily
  • Swim with sharks in South Africa
  • Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
  • Visit the Serengeti and experience the Great Migration
Serengeti National Park
  • Visit New Zealand
  • Take a road trip from BC to BC (Baja California to British Columbia or vice versa)
  • Visit Yellowstone National Park
  • Visit the Taj Mahal
  • Visit the pyramids
  • Visit Angkor Wat

  • Angkor Wat
  • Visit the UAE
  • Visit Seychelles
  • Visit the Galapagos
  • Stay in a castle
  • Stay in an ice hotel

Ice hotel in JukkasjÀrvi, Sweden
  • Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland
  • Go to Oktoberfest
  • Go to Carnival in Brazil
  • Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
  • Ride the Orient Express
  • Ride the Bernina Express
  • Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
  • Experience a summer solstice in a place where the sun truly doesn't set
  • Study abroad
  • Ski the Alps
  • Run with the bulls in Pamplona
  • Visit Machu Picchu
  • See the Terracotta Warriors in Xian
Terracotta Warriors
  • Visit all inhabited Hawaiian islands (3 down, at least 4 to go)
  • Enjoy a weekend of true debauchery in Las Vegas - buffets, upscale restaurants, casinos, shows, shopping, spas, etc.
  • Visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land monuments
  • Visit the Panama Canal
  • Visit Stonehenge
  • Experience arctic wildlife in its natural habitat
Emperor penguins

Running
  • Complete a marathon (hopefully this October!)
  • Run a sub 4-hour marathon (hey, a woman can dream)
  • Run an international race (preferably a marathon) - I have a whole separate other list of races on my race wish list
  • Run a Disney Race (preferably the Disney Marathon or the Wine and Dine Half Marathon)
  • Earn a Disney Coast to Coast medal

Disney Coast to Coast medals

Sportsfan
  • Go to a Stanley Cup victory game (preferably played by either my beloved Blackhawks or Penguins, but not both at the same time)
  • Get on the kiss cam at a major sporting event
  • Hold the Stanley Cup
  • Drive or ride on a Zamboni
  • Try on NHL goalie attire and stop a few pucks
2010 Chicago Blackhawks Convention
  • Go to the Super Bowl
  • Watch a Steelers game at Heinz Field
  • Watch a Bears game at Soldier Field (NOTE: Even though these items are in no particular order, it is by Adam's request that the Steelers game was listed before the Bears game)
  • Go to the Summer and Winter Olympics

2010 Olympics Opening Ceremony - Vancouver

Activities
  • Be an extra in a movie or music video
  • Learn to drive a stick shift
  • Go skydiving
  • Learn how to sail
  • Travel in a yacht
  • Witness an eclipse
Solar eclipse
  • Learn how to do an overhand serve in volleyball
  • Go hanggliding
  • Learn to scuba dive
  • Do the splits
  • Go storm chasing
  • Get a pilot's license
  • Penguin pilot
  • Be recognized as an expert in something
  • Go on a true shopping spree
  • Know my family tree
  • Ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange
  • Go windsurfing 
Windsurfing

  • Ride in a submarine
  • Visit the Titanic shipwreck
  • Drive a motorcycle
  • Drive a convertible
  • Experience an earthquake
  • Experience zero gravity

Parabolic flight - zero gravity
Food
  • Take a local cooking class in a country that has strong culinary traditions
  • Attend a taping of Iron Chef America
  • Participate in a cooking competition
  • Grow my own fruits/vegetables/herbs
  • Stomp on grapes for wine

I Love Lucy

Thing To Say (I need to give these more thought)
  • "You can't fire me.  I quit!"
  • "Quick!  Follow that car!"

Life-List Activities That I've Been Fortunate To Have Already Accomplished
  • Travel overseas alone
  • Get married on the beach
  • See the curvature of the earth
  • Visit the Vatican
  • Visit the Colosseum
  • Gamble at Monte Carlo, Monaco
  • Visit the Grand Canyon
  • Go white water rafting

  • 
    White water rafting in Mendoza, Argentina with Vanitha
  • Preside over an organization
  • Serve as an advisor for an organization
  • Do improv in front of a live audience
  • Visit China
  • Visit Russia
  • Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef
  • Meet a koala in Australia 

  • A koala at the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney, Australia
  • Learn to surf
  • Eat street food like a native in Thailand
  • Soak in a hot spring
  • Take a mud bath
  • Walk the Great Wall of China
  • Skate on NHL ice
  • Get on the scoreboard at a professional sporting event
  • Go ziplining
  • See a live volcano

Mount Kilauea, Volcanos National Park in Hawaii

  • Enjoy public speaking (ongoing, but 7+ years of Toastmasters and 3 sets of improv classes have helped)
  • Learn to cook (also ongoing, but several cooking classes and years of watching the Food Network have helped)

8 comments:

  1. I'm happy to say I've been a part of several of those items you scrached off your list...including the KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUALA !!!

    (note that is the correct spelling).

    Looking forward to being part of many more !

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    1. I was very close to noting that koalas are not bears, they are marsupials. =) I am looking forward to crossing many more off the list with you, too!!!

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  2. I probably should have noted the wedding on the beach as well...had a pretty significant role in that. :)

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    1. Ah yes, you had a very significant role in the beach wedding as well. Would have been really hard for me to cross that one off the list without your help! =D

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  3. I LOVE your list! It looks like we have a lot of overlap on our list, especially the travel and running ones. I'm actually earning my Disney Coast-to-Coast this year!

    I also really want to stay in an overwater bungalow!

    Good luck with your list!

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    1. Thanks so much, Cary! Ooh, I am so envious that you'll be earning your Disney Coast to Coast this year. Which races are you doing or have done in Florida and in California?!? I wish you the best of luck in racing on both coasts!!!

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  4. Wow! That's a long list! The list of things you've already accomplished is pretty darn long, too! This is the kind of thing that can be long. Why not dream big, right?*

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    1. Totally - it really is all about dreaming as big as possible, even if it gets unrealistic! I will seriously be so lucky if I can cross off even 25% of the items on the to-do list throughout my entire lifetime. And admittedly, some of the things that I put on the list that has already been accomplished were never planned and were literally stumbled into! So one could definitely argue that a number of those things sound a lot more intense than they really were, LOL.

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