Travel Bucket List

People keep talking about my trip to Europe as a once in a lifetime opportunity. That may very well be what it is... But oh man, I don't want it to be!! I have the travel bug so bad. I want to go everywhere and see everything. I'm already saving up for my next trip. :)

Now every time someone mentions somewhere, I'm adding it to my mental bucket list of places to go. So my tentative plan is to make my wishlist and just keep on adding to it for forever. Here is the wishlist in no particular order:

1. Ireland--I had ancestors from there long ago. :) While I'm there I'd love to stop at the Trinity College Library to see the Book of Kells.
2. Scotland--The McAllisters came from here! :)
3. Capetown, South Africa--One of my airport shuttle drivers told me this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, surrounded on 3 sides by the ocean. I looked up the pics and he wasn't kidding!
4. Finland--Kristie served her mission there, so I want to take her back someday. In the summer when the sun is out ALL day! :D
5. Tokyo, Japan--Jason and I want to check this place out.
6. Norway--Kristie's friend Antti was telling us about this place to the north with mountains and the ocean visible and how pretty it is in the summer.
7. Caribbean (ALL of it! :)
8. Tahiti--the beaches here are supposed to be legendary
9. Hawaii--Polynesian Cultural Center, Honolulu Temple, Pearl Harbor
10. Germany--including Neuschwanstein Castle
11. China--especially the Great Wall
12. Austria--including where the sound of music was filmed :)
13. Australia
14. New Zealand--Lord of the Rings! (Yes, I'm a dork! XD)
15. City Museum, St. Louis Missouri

London and Paris--the Plane Ride Over

My trip to Europe was phenomenal. We ran around every day all day to pack in as many things as we could. I loved it--but I didn't have much time to write about it, and my head is overflowing with many many posts about what I saw and experienced. We'll see if I can rein it in, or if this post turns into a series of posts!

The trip started off great. I'm one of those people who usually can't sleep before I travel, for whatever reason. Even if it's just a little business trip, I'm often awake until the wee hours of the morning the night before. It's not because I'm worried or excited, necessarily... I don't know what it is. But somehow I managed to sleep just fine the night before. It seemed like a good omen. :)

Hayley recommended that on the flight there, I watch one in flight movie, eat dinner, and then go to sleep. So, I watched the new live version of the Jungle Book (I liked it, but I'm not really hankering for a rewatch), ate my dinner, and... conked out! Again, so surprised I could sleep.

Dinner was some chicken thing that was actually pretty good! And the cheesecake dessert was a very nice touch.

Amazingly, I was able to sleep on the plane. I had one of those neck pillow things--highly recommended! Usually I have trouble getting comfortable.

Hayley and I were on a row together--she was on the aisle and I was at the window seat. She booked the seats that way hoping that no one would take the middle seat, and no one showed up... but I wonder if someone booked the spot and missed the plane, because at meal times they would bring special meals someone had ordered and we'd tell them it wasn't either of us. So I woke up to the stewardess trying to deliver a special breakfast meal. She said, "Did you preorder breakfast?" I guess she didn't realize we were sleeping? We both popped awake and I just stared at her while she repeated herself at least 6 times as my fuzzy brain tried to figure out where I was and what was happening. This was the only time on the trip I had trouble understanding a British accent. Finally I noticed the tray in her hands and assumed she was offering me breakfast, which I didn't much want at that moment, so I said, "No thanks." She looked at me like I was a crazy person and tried one last time, finally getting through to me. "Did you preorder breakfast?" "Oh... no, sorry."

At last we landed. I was so giddy. Every little British thing excited me at that point because it was all so new. Look, the elevators are called lifts! Hey, their toilets look different. Wow, listen to all the British accents!

Customs was a nightmare. We were in line for 2 hours. But I got my first stamp in my passport, much to my delight. :)

Hayley's sister-in-law Anna was sweet and came to pick us up. For our first two days, we stayed with Hayley's brother's family while we attempted to recover from our jet lag. That first day, I felt like a total zombie. I didn't do much besides sit around the Carters' house and try to stay awake. I did try to take a nap at one point, and I couldn't even sleep! Craziness. Most of that day is a complete blur to me.

Haha, wow, okay, I've barely dipped my toe in here, but it's late, and I guess I'll post this anyways just to let people know I'm still alive. ;) The actual exciting trip stuff will come soon!

London Eye Ticket

Long, long ago I put the London Eye on my bucket list... Inspired by the opening credits of BBC's Sherlock, I admit it. :)

Just now, I purchased  my tickets to go. :) It's very surreal and I'm very excited.

Note for Future Stargazing

Tonight for our ward activity, we drove out to a bishopric member's ranch in Larkspur for a hay ride. It was a pretty magical experience. I am a sucker for stargazing, but always disappointed because in this modern world, it's hard to find good places where you can really see the night sky.

Well, add Larkspur to the list! It was a perfectly clear night, and we could see billions of stars (probably :) as well as the Milky Way. I even got to see a falling star so I could make a wish.

Add to that epic stargazing that we were on a hayride complete with old school lanterns (okay, the candles inside were electric). It was one of my favorite ward activities we've done so far. Can we make that an annual tradition?

At Last I See the Light

Ever since I've seen the movie Tangled, I've wanted to go to a floating lantern festival, and tonight I finally got my chance. Lori and I went to the Lantern Fest held at the Pikes Peak Roadway down in Fountain. It was even more magical than I thought it would be.

Lori thought she was borrowing my camera to take a picture, without realizing it was set to video mode... and caught this cool video of the underside of a lantern as it was preparing to launch.



You can skip to 2:12 to see me and Lori (and hear our excitedness when they played the song from Tangled, "At Last I See the Light". :)

Crossing that one off the bucket list! :D I realized later that was especially appropriate considering my word of the year is Light! What better year to go? Before we sent the Lanterns up, we got to decorate them with markers. I covered mine with the quotes from my word of the year post. And of course, Mormon.org. :) Probably it will just get tossed but figured it couldn't hurt!

Published

Since I was a tiny little kid, I've always dreamed of publishing a book.

I was thinking more along the lines of an epic young adult novel, but... I think this counts too. :)

I got my free copy of the Family Life Education: the Practice of Family Science textbook today. They included one of my research articles as a book chapter. I'm especially psyched about this, because it's a textbook I used in my classes back in the day, and some of my professors will probably be using it in the near future here. :)

Sorry for all the pics. I know I'm a dork. :)

Now, to go work on that whole novel thing...

My Bucket List

1. Publish a book. October, 2015--one of my research articles was included as a chapter in the textbook Family Life Education: the Practice of Family Science.
2. Ride the London Eye.  July 15, 2016
3. Eat gator meat.
4. Visit Walt Disney World.
5. Learn to horseback ride.
6. Visit a castle in Europe (I'm not picky about which one!).

• July 17, 2016--saw the outside of Buckingham Palace (the Queen was in residence so we couldn't tour)
• July 18, 2016--Tower of London (where I saw the crown jewels)
• July 21, 2016--Palace of Versailles

7. Visit every continent... except Antarctica. I'm not a big fan of cold. :)
8. Kiss in the rain.
9. Ride in a hot air balloon.
10. Go to the Floating Lantern Festival in Thailand.  Okay, so I didn't make it to Thailand. But I did go to a Floating Lantern Festival in Colorado Springs on November 7, 2015


Hmmm... More to come. I think I'll add to this as ideas hit me... and mark things off as I go!