Do you have a bucket list for sights, either in the US or elsewhere? What are the sights you want to see before you die?
I’ve been trying hard to think of something I haven’t already seen that I’d still want to undergo the pain of getting there to see. Much as I’d like to see the Taj and Machu Picchu, I don’t see me getting on a plane for that many hours to go there. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve seen in my life, so will likely just leave it at that.
I’d like to see the Northern Lights in person.
My list:
Picasso’s Guernica
Hiroshima
Various airplane museums in the UK, particularly those associated with the Battle of Britain
Auschwitz
Easter Island
When I went to watch the solar eclipse a few years ago, I was in one of the few places in the US where it rained most of the day. And my wife had to work that day, so we both pretty much missed it and decided we were going to travel somewhere to see the next one in a few years.
I would like to see the Grand Canyon. We stopped there on the way to California when I was about four and really don’t remember much about it. And my wife has never been.
Chefguy, agree about the Taj Mahal. I’d love to see it in person, but I’m afraid between the travel and the build up of expectations, I’d probably just wind up being disappointed.
I long to spend a few weeks wandering through British Museums. ( But hubs isn’t having it. He’s grown too accustom to deserted tropical beaches and Asian food! The bastard!) But I’m intending to one day scare up a companion and just DO IT!
We began our travels in adventurous less developed locations, and over the years have continued to tell ourselves we’ll do the more civilized places, like Europe and Australia, y’know, when we’re ‘older’! When we’ve lost all patience with long haul flights, language barriers, third class trains etc.
The problem is we’ve long since passed ‘older’, but still haven’t hit either of those spots yet. So while I’ve been to several of the sites that are often seen on bucket lists, these are the two at the top of my own list.
The world is wide!
(Also, The Taj does NOT disappoint!)
My wife has been pestering me for years about going to India. I have zero interest in SE Asia, as Vietnam was plenty, thanks. The bugs, humidity, pollution and billions of people have no allure for me. I keep telling her to find a lady friend to go with her. But that’s for India. What mainly keeps me from going to some places (like Asia or New Zealand or even SA) is the excruciating amount of time it takes to get there and back. Now that I’m older, the east coast of the US is about as far as I’m willing to go.
That said, I most certainly have traveled. I lived in Japan for about a year, in Europe for eight years, in sub-Saharan Africa for three years and in Cairo for about six months. I’ve also traveled extensively in the US.
New River Gorge Bridge and vicinity, including the Greenbrier Resort.
Not so much sight-seeing, but I hope I’ll get to go to the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras once. I mean I’m pretty sure I’d love the food, the booze, the general nonchalant joie de vivre any time of the year ; but then again why not go there when college chicks show off their tits and actively look for regrettable one night stands ?
Plus I really wanna see me one of them Indians in their full glory.
Um. Okay.
I’ve been to a “mild” camp once, part of a school trip. Sachsenhausen. I’m not in any way religious or superstitious or what, but to this day I will swear to Aïsha I saw a column of gaunt ghosts there. Place was eerie as fuck. Did not like.
No free cocktails, either. Would not recommend, would not go back without a gun to my head.
Good to know!
By the way, one thing I learned yesterday apropos of this thread (as if I didn’t already know) is that there is absolutely nothing “bucket list worthy” in Kansas. I was dawdling in Target yesterday, waiting for my wife and grandkids to catch up, and picked up a copy of “1000 Places To See Before You Die.” I flipped to the USA section and started thumbing through the states, and it went straight from Iowa to Kentucky. Nothing to see here!
(Actually I would argue that when they are burning the prairie in the Flint Hills in the spring, it’s pretty damned impressive.)
Shoeless, I don’t care what the books say, I love this state and find plenty I like to go see. It may not be on the big guy’s bucket lists, but it’s home!
Oddly enough the places I’d like to see are mostly ruins. Stonehenge, the pyramids, and so on. I like trying to visualize those places when they were new and whole, seeing the people and cultures of the past.
My problem is that my husband has to travel all over the world for work, so his bucket list is to stay home and chill. But there are still a few places I want to see… like the pyramids and the Northern lights and Iceland… coincidentally, a few of the places my husband has not been to.
If you like ruins, I highly recommend the old pueblos of the US Southwest. Places like Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Hovenweep and Mesa Verde are very cool. I’ve been to the pyramids many times, and they’re definitely worth seeing (along with the sphinx), although from what I hear, the harassment by street vendors has gotten way out of hand. The Temple of Karnak further up the Nile is also a great site.
I guess the one place that’s always intrigued me are the ruins of Al Khazneh at Petra, Jordan.
I finally got to Egypt last year, visited the Pyramids and Sphinx, Karnak and Luxor, played Death on the Nile for a week and even got to go inside Abu Simbel. So I can check that all off the things I would have been very sorry never to have done.
Right now, I’m most tempted by the brochures the travel companies have been sending me for tours to Iceland and the Antarctic. I’d like to do those one day when I have the money for another big, expensive trip.
China. But with my ability to take long flights being limited and the complications of trying to do it by ship (compared to Europe) I have extreme doubts I will ever make it.
These events have been known to transpire even when it’s not Mardi Gras.
Definitely the Grand Canyon. Everyone I know who has been has said you have to see it - there’s just no way TV or photos do it justice. Plus while I’ve been all over the East Coast of the US I haven’t made it out west of the Mississippi much.
I’d also like to see New Zealand and Australia, but those will have to wait until I am not working any more since they are so far away I’d want at least 3 weeks to do it in. Hopefully we’ll both still be healthy enough in 3 years to be able to do it. I’d like to see Singapore, too, but my husband has been and he isn’t a fan of the heat and humidity. I just want to see the airport, eat the food and go to the Gardens by the Bay. Might be worth trying to work that into the Australia trip somehow.
The Iditarod…ceremonial start in Anchorage…The real start Wasilla or Fairbanks if moved. A few check points, the Nome for the finish.
I saw those when I was growing up. As you say, very cool.