The Updated Travel Bucket List

Not too long ago, Dennis aka LufthansaFlyer asked about everyone’s travel bucket lists. At the time, I responded with the top 10 things I could think of off the top of my head, having never actually taken the time to write it all down. Then I got bored on the plane coming home from Maui. My kid was sleeping, my husband was watching a movie, and I just happened to have a pen and a notebook handy with which to keep myself entertained.

Without the distraction of a computer or cell phone, I made productive use of my time and about an hour later I had 4 pages filled with all the things I could possibly think of to put on a travel to-do list. Some of the items are a little vague- like the name of a country. Some are more specific, like visiting a particular viewpoint in a National Park. Many are self explanatory, but some needed a few more words to explain the thoughts going through my head. As readers, these are things you can look forward to at Miles, Points, and Mai Tais. Some are old, some new, and as always the list is subject to change. A lot of it is focused around my love of the Pacific. Even more is centered around the two activities I like to do most- skiing and stand up paddle (turns out that trip to Alaska opened a huge can of worms! Before then, I didn’t even want to ski anywhere else).

Then the thought occurred to me- this wasn’t really a bucket list at all. Thanks to miles and points, it’s more like a 5 or 10 year plan. While some of these items are admittedly more “someday” than others, a lot of these things are stuff I actually want to do! I once heard someone describe our hobby as a chance to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip, once every year. Instead of hopelessly dreaming that I might make it to one or two of these places, I now plot which credit cards to churn and how many Vanilla Reloads it’ll take to get me to them all. Maybe I’m being a little overambitious, (after all some of us do have kids and jobs), but what if…

The Trip to Alaska That Started It All

Here’s what made my (ammended) travel to-do list (in no particular order):

1. Brazil- specifically Iquazu Falls and Rio de Janiero
2. Ski Mauna Kea- if I big storm hits the Big Island, I might just be on the next flight to ITO or KOA
3. Ski Japan- either Sapporo or the Japanese Alps (Honshu), or maybe both! I also want to fly Hawaiian Airlines to get there. Something about checking my skis via Honolulu makes me laugh a little on the inside.
4. Paddle Black Canyon below the Hoover Dam (inspired by a recent article in Stand Up Paddle Magazine)
5. Cook Islands- Rarotonga and Autitaki- this is why I hoard United miles
6. American Samoa
7. Easter Island
8. The Grand Canyon- Phantom Ranch and Havasu Falls
9. Toroweap
10. Revisit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks- hike the Virgin narrows at Zion
11. Paddle Isle Royale NP
12. Earn the Epic Mix Conquerer Pin- it’s a skiing thing, and well documented obsession of mine
13. Kennedy Space Center
14. Hike Haleakala- despite well over 100 trips to Maui, I’ve never been there for the sunrise and I’ve never gone inside the crater- shameful, I know
15. Kauai- it’s the only Hawaiian island I haven’t been to
16. Attend Duke’s Ocean Fest at Waikiki
17. African Safari
18. Victoria Falls, Devil’s Pool- talk about an infinity pool!
19. Paddle Amsterdam, maybe Venice too
20. Make a GoPro time lapse video of the road to Hana (also buy a new GoPro)
21. Hike to the top of Half Dome, Yosemite
22. Angkor Wat
23. Ski, revisit New Zealand
24. Great Smokey Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway
25. Visit the Jack Daniel’s factory in Lychburg, TN
26. Visit the Coke factory in Atlanta
27. Visit the Lego factory in Denmark
28. Turkey and Greece
29. Petra
30. Rangoon, Burma
31. Vietnam
32. Machu Picchu
33. Paddle the channel from Maui to Lanai on a calm day- it’s only 9 miles!
34. Maliko Downwinder- it’s another paddle thing, the famous run from Maliko Gulch to Kahului on the North Shore of Maui
35. Loreto, Mexico (Baja)- because it looks cool and Alaska Airlines flies there!
36. Panama Canal
37. Take my kid to Disneyland before he’s 3
38. Try ziplining
39. Go back to Australia
40. Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany
41. Ski Europe- not sure exactly where yet, maybe Chamonix or Switzerland
42. Ski South America- again, not exactly sure where, Bariloche perhaps
43. Ride the Bore Tide in Alaska
44. Pike’s Peak Cog Railway and Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado (maybe also go visit Great Sand Dunes NP)
45. Fly to all 50 states/territories
46. Tinian- see where the Enola Gay took off
47. Great Wall of China
48. Take a cheesy photo in front of The Pyramids at Giza (to go with ones in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Taj Mahal)
49. Marina Bay Sands Infinity Pool, Singapore
50. Koh Samui
51. Go back to Tahiti
52. Barrow, Alaska- consider taking the polar bear plunge
53. Banff, Canada- looks pretty
54. Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands, NM
55. Pima Air and Space Museum
56. Titan Missile Museum, AZ ( I’ve been to the Minuteman Missile in SD and thought it was cool)
57. Itsukushima Gate, Japan
58. Go see those creepy rocks that mysteriously move around at The Racetrack, Death Valley
59. Boarding pass = free lift ticket to ski in Utah (make it a day trip and fly into SLC, finally a good use of Delta miles)
60. Gibralter (and one of the coolest airports in the world!)
61. Ski all the resorts around Lake Tahoe (next winter!)
62. Go on the Boeing Factory tour again, Everett, WA (x100)
63. KL, Malaysia, Langkawi
64. Kerala, Goa
65. Go on a tour of ghost towns in central Nevada (I even had the entire road trip planned pre-baby)
66. Go see the volcano on the Big Island at night (only been there during the day)
67. Ski Dubai (been there, but didn’t ski- only interested if I can take my own stuff and GoPro the experience)
68. Canary Islands
69. Costa Rica
70. Paddle across Lake Tahoe (22 miles)
71. Ski 50k vertical feet in one day at both Heavenly and Northstar (next season!)
72. Run the Maui Oceanfront 1/2 marathon (actually thinking of doing this in January- p.s. I’m not a runner)

So what do you think?