The Bucket List
One short list, two noisy kids, and four cheap airline tickets.
I never had a bucket list. If I wanted to travel somewhere, I'd do it. If I wanted to try something new, off I'd go. But then I had children... and nearly a decade of staycations and local trips, I realized there were places I still yearned to see. So I made a bucket list. A really short one. Back when I started this adventure, it only had four items.
See the Grand Canyon with the kids
Take my oldest daughter to New York City
Visit Acadia National Park
Swim the Great Barrier Reef
Now, the Grand Canyon is pretty common across bucket lists: there’s something majestic about a tremendous hole in the ground, and it’s one of the few places I’ve heard which proved to be more impressive expected. The same goes for Australia: despite my daughter's warnings that it's the deadliest place on earth (wrong: it's totally Florida), its ocean reefs, wildlife, and landscapes are amazing.
As for New York City, I spent plenty of time there as a little girl growing up just ‘over the line’ in Connecticut. Memories of Rockefeller Plaza, Central Park, and the Public Library are treasures, and I wanted to share it with my daughter before she was too old to be dazzled by the size and energy of the city, or too old to think trips with her Mom were cool.
#Acadia, I realized, might not be such a common bucket list destination. However, it’s only the second place I have heard described as ‘better’ than anticipated. Halfway up the coast of Maine, this national park boasts gorgeous woodlands, beaches, and the highest point on the East Coast. Plus, nearby #BarHarbor offers seafood, inns, and family outings.
“I would really rather feel bad in Maine than feel good anywhere else.” - E.B. White
I don’t believe you should wait until retirement to travel: I’ve seen too many ‘older’ adults standing at the bottom of a steep set of stairs (Paris) or scenic clifftop path (Ireland), looking sadly ahead as they seated themselves to wait for the return of their traveling companies. I've vowed that will not be me someday. . . I've probably also read too many stories of people saving for ‘the big trip’ someday, only to have a heart attack right after their retirement party!
Sometimes I hum along to that Johnny Cash song, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” I’ve trained in San Francisco, interviewed in Paris, and worked in Switzerland. I’ve been scuba diving in Jamaica, snowboarding in the Alps, and hiking volcanoes in Costa Rica.
I attended a wedding in Tuscany, climbed the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, and went swimming with dolphins in the Bahamas. Having married at a more, ahem, "mature age," I had plenty of time to explore far-flung places I’d only dreamt of seeing as a child.
Still, the first week of January 2019 found my husband and I clicking through TripAdvisor and trying to think of a family vacation destination that was:
Kid friendly
Mostly cool (in August)
A short round-trip from home
It would be our first trip via air since our honeymoon, and since our daughter was born (she’s nearly 5). While the sky wasn’t the limit, we decided we’d search for flights on SouthWest airlines that didn’t take too long when leaving from the Baltimore airport… Neither child can sit still, and we couldn’t imagine making it off a flight safely if anyone had to sit near them for much longer than a few hours.
Turns out, there were a number of cheap and fast flights out. Headed to New England. Headed to #Maine. Well, we said, "None of us has ever seen a Moose, and blueberries are pretty yummy!"
It was an easy decision, and we booked our tickets.
The rest, as they say, is history. . .
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