Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The bucket list January 15, 2016

Two years have passed since Annie and I tramped in New Zealand.  It was that journey that compelled me to organize a bucket list, yet I’ve made only one dent in it so far: the French Open to watch Nadal.  Since then, I lost all track of the list in the midst of devastating family trauma, but now as we are healing, I am daring to pull it out once again.  The list is not impossibly long nor are the adventures overwhelmingly difficult, but each requires a bit of get up and go:  hiking in Iceland, a safari journey to the Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti, exploring Israel, Petra, and Turkey, trekking in Bhutan, bicycling in southeast Asia.  Well, one could go on and on. 

The new year rekindled my resolve, and I began with the top of my list: Machu Picchu.  Last week I booked a trip with REI for Annie and me to trek the Salkantay Trail next Christmas.  Now I am toying with a yoga-focused trip during the summer solstice in Reykjavik, and then there is ever-tantalizing RAGBRAI – the bicycle trip across Iowa.  My architecture teacher Bill does RAGBRAI every year and encouraged me to join in.  He commented, “It is the kind of thing where everybody is happy to be alive”. 

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