My Wish List

So there are  plenty of things I want to do and I am getting better at actually doing them but I still have a long ways to go.  I have done quite a bit up to this point with living life and gaining new experiences but why stop there.  Just like what we were told as children growing up, "you learn something new everyday".  Well I want to take that and run with it.  I am not the outdoors adventurous type but I'm also not not that type.  People like my sister could probably just go pitch a tent just about anywhere and be just fine.  I however can not do that though I would like to.  Unlike my sister though I can survive in a big city and make the city work for me where she would not fair as well.  My parents did an excellent job raising me and my sister and providing us with so many wonderful opportunities to explore what the Earth had to offer.

Me and my sister after hiking up a mountain to ski it!

Growing up my family would go camping and while we had a pop up camper (still do actually) we went camping to get away.  Michigan offers an impressive State Park System with so many options.  We generally would take the campsites that were wooded but either on or near a lake or river.  The sites would have power but the only thing our pop up used power for was the few little lamps inside the camper.  I have still never to this day been tent camping but I figure if you sleep in a pop up when it rains and its cold its not too far off (yes I know I'm not on the ground but still).  I have fond memories or camping at Hoffmaster State Park and in Muskegon and up north on Mullet Lake at Aloha State Park.  I want to go camping again soon but I am getting to that.

I do not think there was ever a spring break that my family did not go someplace.  Some years were bigger then others but I have done everything from Disney World in Florida to Disneyland in California to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky to Beach's along the Atlantic.  We also went skiing and visited Washington DC and family in New England.  During the summer the vacations got a bit bigger even.  When I was in 8th grade we took a 2 week road trip from Michigan out west.  I visited Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Teton, Mt Rushmore, and the Badlands.  When I was very little I remember traveling to visit my aunt and uncle in Idaho and we drove out west in the US but returned east through Canada.

During College I expanded my traveling further and did a short study abroad in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and later in college went on a real study abroad to Lund, Sweden.  After the study abroad in Lund I traveled on my own and went to Norway where I did Norway in a Nutshell which takes you along the Flåm Railway.  I also took a ship from Bergen up to Ålesund which provided some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life of the Norwegian Fjords.  On that same trip I spent a few days in Copenhagen and then made my way to London, England.  In England I traveled outside of the city on a tour out to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath.  I was able to see so much of the world on that trip yet really I only saw a tiny portion.

Château Frontenac

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

About 2am along the Fjords of Norway

Library at the University of Lund

Stonehenge

After College I traveled the US some visiting friends that had moved around the country to places like Atlanta and Charlotte, NC.  I also went to visit my sister who lives in the Teton Mountain Valley Area (at the time in Driggs, ID but now in Jackson, WY) to go and do some sight seeing as well as some skiing at Grand Targhee where she works.  I also took another trip over the big pond to travel to the United Kingdom once more.  In 2009 I took a week or so and traveled to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland because I had been sitting still for too long.

Skiing Grand Targhee in the Teton Mountains

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

View of Edinburgh from the Sir Walter Scott Monument

In the past year I have been very active which is what prompted this blog.  I went to the Kentucky Derby, skiing at my sisters (Grand Targhee), countless festivals and local sports events, Atlanta, Michigan, Kicks for a Cure, Wildman Ranch, stepped foot in all 5 Great Lakes in 4 days, went to Toronto, went skydiving, went to Mexico, my first road football game (Penn State), Washington DC and so much more.  I know it is all great but is it enough?  I only have so long to live, and I plan on living for a long time, there is so much of this country, continent, and planet has to see.

My family and the Paulson's white water rafting at Wildman Ranch

No captain needed!

The whole group of us at Churchill Downs before the Derby

After the Blue Jays Indians game in Toronto

Me and Mandy at the MSU Notre Dame game

Me, Jeff, Patricia at the swim up bar in Mexico for Allie's wedding

The whole group of us at Allie's wedding enjoying muy mas cervezas 

Erin, Danielle, and I at College Game Day at Wrigley

Meghan, Mandy and I at Penn State after watching MSU clinch the BigTen Title

I have both a small general wish list as well as a much more elaborate wish list.  So here is just the small easy wish list:

• Go Camping
• Take some friends on a Pure Michigan tour to Sleeping Bear, Mackinaw Island, and the cottage
• I want to run the Chicago Marathon I am currently training for
• Win the Redeye weekly photo challenge
• Go explore Jackson Park and learn more about the White City
• I want to go hiking
• I want to go back to Québec City
• Do a Tower Climb

Carriage on Mackinaw Island

I also have an entire Chicago Wish list but that's for another time.

For my main wish list here we go:

• Travel to Fiji and some other less traveled tropical islands
• Visit Denver (luckily I have some friends here so that shouldn't be that hard)
• I want to see Hawaii as well as Alaska
• I also want to visit the remaining few states I have never been to
• Want to experience Australia both the cities and culture but also the outback.
• Travel and explore the Pacific Coast
• I want to visit more of Europe including Spain, Italy, France etc
• By the time I am 35 years old I would love to say that I have been to the 8 countries I have heritage in (Italy, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) So currently I have been to Ireland, Scotland and England so only 5 to go!
• I want to go explore China, Japan, Korea, and the smaller nations in that region
• I have been to the rest of Scandinavia but I want to also visit Finland
• I want to travel to Iceland and Greenland
• I have heard amazing things about South America so I want to go there as well
• I want to visit all the continents
• I want to go the Vancouver
• I want to go to the Olympics one day and I would love to be a part of them as in work for them or at least volunteer for something.
• I want to one day go to the National Park that is within Michigan, Isle Royale
• I want to live in another Country
• I want to visit Grand Canyon, Acadia, Sequoia, Zion, Olympic, Kenai Fjords, Denali National Parks
• Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam and US 101
• Visit a rain forest
• Take the train to the west coast and then take the Canadian Railway back east
• Pretty much I want to do everything on this website. 
• And so many more things that I have yet to think of.

So who wants to join me along my way to see all that there is to see on this beautiful planet?  Here is a video from an artist I found who makes me want to get out and travel more and this particular video just makes me want to go back to Norway.


The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.