Borderline Fantastic

I don’t know the distinction between trips, vacations, and places I’ve been, so I’m just going to pick the top 5 places I’ve been regardless of agenda.

5) Yellowstone, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Olympic NP, Mt. Rainier…I don’t know, I can’t decide. Can I just say National Parks in general?

4) Whistler/Blackcomb Mountains - Skiing and drinking with Canadians. End of description, what more do you need?

3) Couer d’Alene, Idaho - I know, it’s Idaho, but, it’s really nice. That was my favorite place when I drove out to Seattle.

2) Santa Cruz Island (Chanel Islands in So Cal) - It is a gorgeous secluded island. Very rustic, no people, no plumbing, no electricity. Spent a weekend kayaking, hiking, camping AND while I was snorkelling I saw fish, and anenomes, and sea urchins, and bat rays, and A SHARK!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

1) Maine - Specifically Acadia, it is just gorgeous up there.

The list of places I NEED (want) to go is out of control! Actually, I’m adding that to the 5s.

Places I WANT to go

5) Turkey…Mostly because my new group works with the Turkish gov’t and there is a chance I can be sent there on a business trip

4) Nigeria - I want to go on a safari. I want to see lions and tigers and giraffes running free (See #3). I just like to see things for myself.

3) Antarctica - They have cruises that leave from South America ~Patagonia. I want to see penguins in the wild. I think that would be a totally sweet trip. You can think I’m crazy all you want, I’m doing it!

2) Zion/Bryce/Grand Canyon, Utah/Arizona - The parks are all so close I’m counting it as 1 trip.

1) Cinque Terre, Italy - Sit on a bluff overlooking the Sea, drinking wine, and just chilling out in Italy.

I did a lot of studying abroad while i was in school, but my top 5 places are:

5) Wales - Very pretty scenery and a realitvely peaceful countryside. In many ways i found it very similar to New Zealand. (See #1 below)
4) Hawaii - i lived there for 4 years so in some ways its almost “home”
3) Ireland - good beer, and they speak english, which makes it better than Germany.
(The UK in general was awesome).
2) Australia - It was really neat to go “down under” and see all the animals. I still need to get to Perth one day though.
1) New Zealand - Wellington specifically. I love the people, the accents, the climate, and the scenery. I swear i’m going to live there one day.

Following Valerie’s lead, top 5 places i want to go:
Egypt - lots of cool old stuff.
Alaska - I like the cold, alright?
Russia - Just seems like a cool place to go. I’d like to see all their space stuff too.
South Africa - Safari’s and such. Plus i hear its pretty cool.
Antarctica - Can we say Penguins!?? Actually, i want to work there for a summer. Still working on that plan…

5. Boston…ok, ok not a vacation spot, but I absolutely loved going there for Spring Break. I know what you’re thinking, Boston? Spring Break? Really? We had our reasons…haha
4. Clearwater, Florida…Phillies training ground and the Gulf of Mexico, quite the combination
3. Scotland…the home of William Wallace and the Highlands
2. Ireland…pubs on every corner and castles all over the place
1. Italy…absolutely amazing from the north to the south
I’m just gonna jump on the bandwagon and say I’d like to go to Greece, France, England, Germany, Czech Republic aka all over Europe haha

Clearly the “this is not a top 5 “where I want to go” ” statement that I made was not heeded. therefore, i will throw mine in as well.
Prague, Tanzania (Mt. Kilamanjaro), Dubai

Looking at these responses I thought to myself that my vacations can’t even be considered as such compared to all of these grand excursions. Then I thought about the various trips I’ve taken over the past few years. While they may not have been culturally significant, they certainly were amazing. See if you can find what they all have in common.

5) DC - A few trips over the past few years. First was after graduation with the family where we hit almost every museum possible, its great that most of them are free. There have also been two with friends which had their ups and downs but both led to good stories. The first trip got me to RFK for a Nat-Phils game and almost getting stuck in DC overnight because we missed the last Metro. The second was an exercise in maximum utilization of the Metro and taking advantage of friendships. Plus, I got to be a Gator for a day.

4) 3 Cities, 3 Stadiums, 4 Days - Again an exercise in using friends and public transportation to the max. Day 1 - Must have walked around the entire city of Philadelphia then went to the Phillies game for what was to be my last game at the Vet. Day 2 - My first trip to NYC, walked around most of the city. Day 3 - Shea Stadium, my first time there. Day 4 - Walked around Boston all day then to Fenway for a game. Man were my feet tired.

3) Michigan - Things were looking good for Penn State in 2005. So good we thought it would be worth a trip to Ann Arbor. I borrowed the family minivan, headed to State College to pick up a few members of the group and then traveled on to Ohio and Michigan. While it was the most painful loss I’ve ever seen in person it was still a great trip.

2) 4 Years of Spring Training - What started as a joking comment Freshman year of college turned into my Spring Break trip for four years. This is where exceptional trip planning was born. Its probably not healthy to count the number of games we saw. There were a ton of Braves games, a trip to Clearwater each year, Universal, UF Baseball (where I got to sit in the press box and kept the book for one game, somewhere my work in the the archives), and of course Bahama Breeze.

1) 2006 Orange Bowl - Try organizing a group of 10 along with coordinating with other groups for a trip that involves airports and rental cars. Then have that be the most enjoyable trip ever. No easy task. In case you weren’t aware, Penn State won in what was the longest most draining game I’ve ever attended. My favorite non-gameday activity was easily Jelly Rolls, a piano bar at the Disney Boardwalk. We wound up on stage singing “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”

Where I want to go falls into two separate lists: there are the sports trips, which is another conversation entirely, and the regular vacations, which will be new to me. I still have much ground to cover in this country. I haven’t been West of Minnesota, I have the entire West Coast to cover and everything in between. I also need to see all of Europe, get to Australia, I think I’d love Egypt, I’m going to need to see how crazy cool Dubai is in person in a few years, and I’ll need to hit up Antarctica after I’ve been to all the other continents.