My Bucket List

Do you have a bucket list? A list of all the things you want to do in life before you cash out? Sailing around the world was one of ours and we just ticked it off. Hurrah and hallelujah for that, but there are still lots of things I'd like to do and see before I take the big dirt nap. Though we share some bucket list items, like the circumnavigation, David's list differs from mine (e.g. Northwest Passage?) and I'll leave it to him to expound on his own list at some point. Though our bucket list items may differ, it doesn't mean we don't want to do them all together.

Part of compiling the bucket list is also trying to figure out when and how you'll manage to accomplish all those things you've decided are important to do. Admittedly, most of my bucket list items revolve around travel … it's my passion. And yes, some items might have to wait until political unrest has settled in an area.

The world's so big and it was difficult to whittle down the list. Here's my top 10 list … not in any particular order.

View the Northern Lights and maybe even the Southern Lights. 

Live for at least a month in every US state.

We've already visited all of the US states, but living in a state and really touring around is different than just visiting or driving through. You can explore and find all the little nooks and crannies and try to figure out why people live there. We've lived in 11 states for 30 days or longer, so we've got a head start. Some states might be difficult by boat and some of the already visited 11 states just might need a bit more exploring. This would be an ongoing project that would take nearly four years and require some sort of land vehicle.

Visit China.

One of the oldest civilizations in the world. I want to walk on the Great Wall, see the Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City, float on the Li and Yangtze Rivers.

Backpack through Western and Eastern Europe.

There's so much to see and do and walking part of the way, stopping in little towns and hamlets, would allow us to see so much more than zipping past in a car or train. This is a pretty broad item because it includes so much territory and so much time, but hey, it's MY bucket list. I'll get more specific when we get there.

Take a barge trip down the Nile, ride a camel in the desert and see the Great Pyramids of Giza.

See polar bears in the wild (not on a Northwest Passage) … maybe a trip to Spitzbergen or the Svalbard Islands in summer?)

Take one of the world's great train trips … the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian, The Ghan?

Walk the Thames Trail/Path … 184 miles from the Cotswolds to the sea … with lots of pubs along the way.

Kiss the blarney stone … you can never have too much blarney. This would probably entail spending a significant amount of time roaming around in Ireland and perhaps sleeping in a castle.

Visit and explore St. Petersburg. This city has always fascinated me.

That's 10, but really there's so much more I want to see ... tigers in the wild and a visit to Loch Ness, preferably when Nessie is in residence and I want to see elephants swimming in the Andaman Islands and the Taj Mahal and …

Though we've done so much, there's still so much world out there. I can't imagine my bucket will ever be empty. As soon as I take one item off the list, two more pop on. Hope David and I live a long, long time.

So … what's on YOUR bucket list?

Football and Freshies

We've written many times about things we miss while we're at sea or just things we can't find in foreign countries. Crunchy green things for salads, fresh blueberries, green chiles, ground turkey … cars … washing machines … blenders. We manage just fine without, but it's always a treat when we get to have these things again. We certainly appreciate them more. For sure, one of things I miss most when we're at sea is fresh produce and I try to get my fix whenever we're ashore. Sometimes, even when we're in port, finding a good variety of freshies nearby is a challenge. When we're in Boston with Lin, we head to Trader Joe's. When in Las Vegas, Mary and I usually head to Sprouts Farmer's Market, first thing. It allows me to OD on the beautiful displays of freshies … unbelievable variety ... apples, oranges, pears, pomegranates and pineapples ... salad makings galore and everything from parsnips to peaches and kale to kiwi.

Instead of planning meals based on what's left in the larder, (pickled beets, lentils and tuna?) we plan more appealing meals and buy to suit our tastes on a given day. “Let's have roasted root vegetables tonight”, Mary suggested. And so we bought golden beets and parsnips, carrots, red potatoes and onions. We threw in some butternut squash and Brussel sprouts for color and good measure. We prepped the veggies, then Mary tossed them lightly in olive oil, salt and pepper and popped them into the oven to roast. She didn't even worry that it would use up too much propane. Oh, my … delightfully tasty, yet nutritious … a winning combination served with basil chicken sausage from the grill.

Though David might miss the food aspect of things, he rarely complains. He does miss the space to work on his projects, access to more tools (if that's possible) and watching football. Here in Las Vegas he has space, several projects he's volunteered to do for Mary and a whole cache of tools. He's installed new LED overhead lights in the kitchen and added more lights over the breakfast counter. He's replaced a temperature sensor in her all-electronic Samsung fridge-freezer. He doesn't like moss growing on his boat shoes.

Especially at this time of the year, however, his passion for watching football comes to a crescendo. On the boat, we never watch games and rarely even get to listen to them. It's one of America's autumn pastimes and he usually misses out. Not this year. It's play-off season and Sunday afternoons are usually spent watching a game … or two. Of course, that requires a TV, as well as access to the sports channels, and luckily Mary has both.

Now, how do freshies and football connect, you ask? Beyond the fact we miss both things while we're at sea is the fact that not only do we eat healthier here and get to watch the football games now, but we eat (not always healthier) WHILE watching football games. We plan our football feast and shop expressly for it … chips and salsa, guacamole, beer, mimosas (champagne and OJ for Mary and me), spicy chicken wings with bleu cheese dip, crudite (that's the healthy part) and whatever else strikes our fancy. Me? Oh, I like football okay - I can take it or leave it, but I enjoy watching with everyone and then there's the mimosas. Did I mention the mimosas?

Catching Up on Politics

Being away from the US for such long periods of time, we're always out of touch with politics and what's happening on the political front. Usually, that's not a problem, but here we are in a presidential election year and we need to learn a bit about the prospective candidates. We don't consider this blog an appropriate place for discussing politics (or religion for that matter...much too controversial for us laid-back sailors). But the process of catching up is an interesting exercise. We took a look at who was running first … Democrats and Republicans et al. There were a few familiar names … Clinton … Trump ... and some we didn't recognize at all. There's a pretty full roster of Presidential hopefuls out there. We're used to hearing about American politics through the eyes of people in the countries we visit. Amazing how much other countries know about American politics and how little we know about theirs (or ours). Can you name the Prime Minister/Premiere/President/Head of State of Great Britain? France? Germany? Australia? I'll wager most Americans cannot, yet most of the citizens of those countries know Barack Obama's name.

So, we searched on-line to find the major issues of contention and where individual candidates stood on each. Immigration, gun control, ISIS/terrorism, the federal deficit, health care, environmental issues … seemed to top the list. The issues are complicated. It's hard to figure out, sometimes, exactly what the candidates are advocating. They tend to spout about what's wrong and how they disagree with the other candidates … but they have a hard time defining exactly what would be right. Understandable … there are no easy answers, and to quote the 15th century monk and poet, John Lydgate, “you can't please all the people, all the time.”

We found several quizzes on line that matched up our political views with candidates. Sometimes I couldn't figure out the question; sometimes the questions were phrased in such a way, I couldn't answer. Then there were those questions, I'm sorry to admit, where I was totally ignorant of the topic, e.g. Do you advocate American exceptionalism? (Yikes, what the heck's that ... I had to look it up). Depending on the quiz you chose and the wording of the questions, it was possible to match up with a different candidate each time, even though my views hadn't changed. Just google “presidential candidate quiz” and see the results.

So, between now and November 8th, we'll stay tuned to the American political scene and try to figure out who best represents our own ideologies. We'll make a sincere effort to learn more about the issues and the candidates and vote accordingly. David and I certainly do not always agree on each issue. We do agree however, that it would be nice if the Democrats and Republicans could, perhaps work together for the good of the country versus their own political agenda. Enough said … let's move on to something even more controversial. Sail or motor? Stick or stinkpot?