Saturday, May 17, 2014

Around the World in 80 Places

The other day I posted my travel bucket list. Hey, its good to have goals, right?
Then I stopped at the grocery store and saw one of these Life Magazine travel editions, which I am a total sucker for. This was title- Around the World in 80 Places.
So I picked it up and then decided I was going to do another travel list post. This time, around the world in 80 places I have been.

Hope you're not sick of these lists.
BUT
its also good to meet goals.
SOOOO
My travel bucket list...
the 80 places I have been - cross offs.
Here's those travel goals I've actually accomplished!

1-Viewed the Presidents  and visited Mount Rushmore
2- I've seen wolves in the wild in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
3-Spent a summer afternoon on a deserted beach at Ocracoke, NC
4-Had a delicious dinner in a French cafe to celebrate my 50th birthday
5- Visited Provence, France- even if we only made it into Avignon its still Provence
6-Spent a day in Barcelona doing a Gaudi study
7- Took a group tour by myself (well with the group but not with my family or friends) to Costa Rica
8-Had a nice vacation with my daughter and husband before she graduated from college
9-Saw Death Valley and it wasn't as death-like as I thought it would be (it was actually beautiful)
10-Took the drive out to Monument Valley-amazing
11-Went to the San Diego zoo
12-Climb the ladders down into the ruins of Mesa Verde National Park and climbed up at Bandelier National Monument
13-Watched the sunrise at the Grand Canyon
14-Went to the top level of the Eiffel Tower
15-Saw the crowds applaud the fire and police forces marching in the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade in 2002 (The first after 9/11)
16-Visited the Colliseum in Rome (one of my first wow- I am really here moments)
17-Saw the casts in Pompeii- the left over remains of the people and animals who died in the eruption
18-Stood next to the huge handed model of David in Florence
19-Drove on the wrong side of the road in Ireland- using a stick!
20-Walked the gorgeous beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore
21- Saw New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountains before he broke free
22-Saw the Northern Lights off of Acadia National Park
23-Climbed down to take the boat out on Crater Lake, and even more so, climbed up in 95 degree weather and lots of mosquitoes
24-Heard an awesome lecture about the Battle of the Litttle Big Horn at that National Monument
25-Had the most delicious prime rib meal ever at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
26-Take my dog and family for walks on York Beach, York, Maine
27-Was a tourist in my adopted hometown, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
28-Saw the Red Sox play in Boston, MA
29- Watched the nautilis flash lights at me at the New England Aquarium.
30- Visited the Field Museum and the Aquarium in Chicago, IL. They are both pretty wow for Museums.
31- Got a back room tour of the Peabody Museum at Yale University. get to see what they have in those storage drawers.
32-Saw the Christmas tree at Fannueil Hall in Boston, MA
33-Get to visit the little CDC Museum in Atlanta Georgia. (center for disease control- ok, I am a geek).
34- Also got to sample exotic flavors of Coke products at World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
35- Had the world's BEST mug (ok 2 mugs) of fresh hot coco in Costa Rica.
36-Watched dolphins jump out of the water in Costa Rica.
37-Swam in the warmest ocean water- Costa Rica.
38-Saw almost full 24 hours of daylight-22 light and a couple of hours of dusk- in Sweden.
39-Lost my sandal at Torrey Pines in San Diego and then found it there the next day!!! (Soggy wet but right in the parking lot where it fell out of the car)
40-Got a blue carnation through customs that my hubby bought me in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada at a delicious French restaurant. It looked so fake, and I forgot about it, when the customs man ask me if I had food, fruit or flowers, I said no, and we breezed right through customs.

HALF WAY THERE and STILL CRUZING!

41-Had a Hurricane drink in New Orleans!
42-Changed elevations more time in in one day-from  about 7,000 feet abvoe sea level to below sea level in Death Valley, California.
43- Came to love the saying "Mind the Gap" after riding the Tube in London
44-Ordered food in a MacDonalds in Figueres, Spain where no one spoke English and I didn't speak Spanish.
45-Got to listen to Dave talking about Dollyworld-not Dollywood in Tennessee but at the Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain. (Cool museum too).
46-Discovered by accident a giant archelogical dig in Spain.
47-Returned to the same place to visit, 2 years in a row, by myself- to visit friends, in Taos, New Mexico
48-Worst experience- when dave got the stomach flu in Tucson, Arizona
49-Used perfect basic French to get a hotel room in Nimes, France
50-Saw the artic ice from the window of a plane, flying home from Ireland in February
51-Drove to Daytona Beach, Florida, in college from Orono, Maine. My longest road trip.
52- Most visited national park- and a favorite too- Acadia National Park, Maine
53- Saw the most wild bears- Glacier National Park and into Banff and then Jasper National Parks in Canada (along with other wildlife)
54- Saw Bill Clinton jog into the white house and throw a ball for his dog, Washington, DC
55-Got to ride in the front seat of a Jaguar at 11:45 pm down the curviest road in the world, Lombard St. , San Francisco.
56-Only (so far) ER room while traveling- San Francisco (hope it is the first and only too)
57- Only fainting on a plane- hope this is also the last time too- British Airways coming home from London to Boston
58-Visited the original Hard Rock in London
59-Favorite old church ever visited- Westminster Abbey, London (all dark, damp and regal)
60-Most visited city-other than local- I think Washington, DC- like 5 times. Maybe 6-can't keep track. NYC is a close, very close, second.
61-Least favorite city I ever visited- Dallas, Texas. (But I will admit, I didn't have a car and that kind of left me stuck in town. Sorry if you are from Dallas. Book Depository was cool though.)
62-Thought I wasn't going to make a flight- Denver Airport.
63-Had the airline drive us through the back way so we could catch a flight- London Heathrow
64-Longest train trip-Worcester to Matoon, Illinois and then back a week later. Thought would be interesting and was very boring train trip- the Chunnel between England and France. Pretty train trip- The Durango and Silverton railway in Colorado.
65-Tackiest but fun stop- Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.
66-Shortest trip to a foreign country-walking into Tijuana, Mexico when Katie was 10.  Dave said squeeze my hand when you are ready to leave (this was after being there for about 3 minutes) and she squeezed. So we left.
67-Coolest hike, the Narrows in Zion National Park
68-Loved those Redwoods in California and the Sequoia in Yosemite. So tall and wide.
69- Snorkeling in St. John, US virgin Island is one amazing view.
70-Most iconic thing to see, watching Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone.

10 to GO-Wow- this isn't even hard.

71-Gorgeous but hair raising ride-Highway 15 from Ourey to Durango, Colorado
72-Although it didn't impress me, the whole viewing of the Mona Lisa is impressive.  She is so small but so many people are there to see her.
73-Boating on summer weekends-cruising down the Piscataqua River between New Hampshire and Maine- is a trip I have done many times and always discover something new
74-Favorite local-ish art museum, the Peabody Essex in Salem, Massachusetts.
75-I wet my feet in a receding Lake Mead.
76- I tried to salsa dance in the night in Costa Rica and tried to folk dance in Sweden.
77-I went into a hot river mixed with a cold river in Yellowstone National Park.
78-I river rafted in northwest Maine. It was scary!!! Class 5 rapids!
79-I rode on a train which went onto a ferry (the whole train) on a trip between Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden.
80-I lived with local families in Stockholm and Ornskaldvik, Sweden and also Porto Jimenez, Costa Rica.

Wow- that wasn't difficult.
Expected it to be a bit more tricky.

I must say- one good thing for me about this list, is I appreciate all I have done. Wow.  When it sometimes feel like you're always looking at the same old scenery, a list like this reminds you it is a pretty amazing journey.
Thanks for stopping by.






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