It’s been over four years since I made my first travel bucket list. Boy does time fly. Alaskan Cruise done. Small-town holiday carriage ride check. Driving all of the Great Lakes Circle tours to completion, off to a great start. Besides that though I have not had the chance to do anything else on the list.
That isn’t to say I haven’t done anything. The last four years have been great. Lots of travel yes, but I have also gotten married, purchased a home and recently our first child was welcomed into the world. More on that wonderful addition in an upcoming post. 🙂 I have also become obsessed in a good way with a thing called coffee and I now look at the coffee shop as second home.
Keeping all that in mind my priorities have changed. While the things at the top of my original travel bucket list will stay, this edition will feature more items close to the homestead, a lot involving coffee and also ones related to family and kid travel. As with any list like this it is always a work in progress.
Well as I like to say, without further ado:
- Visit places significant to my family history, local and far.
- Take my boy on our first father-son coffee outing. That will be the first item that gets crossed off. Down the road, have our first father-son day road trip.
- Experience every new independent coffee shop that opens, soon after opening within an hours drive from home. Sorry no chains.
- Visit coffee hotbeds in the states that I have yet to dive into specifically Seattle and Portland. Northwest coffee trip anyone? Could throw Vancouver in there too.
- Really dive into Ann Arbor and Detroit, exploring the hidden, unknown gems outside of the tourist trap type places.
- Hawaii and the North Shore. Watched the short-lived FOX show North Shore a while back and have been clamouring for a visit there ever since.
- Complete all the Great Lakes circle tours and checkout every lighthouse along the way.
- Drive from Miami through the Florida Keys to Key West.
- Consume a bowl of New England Clam Chowder from as many locales in Cape Cod as possible as an adult. A favorite childhood memory with my dad. One I hope to share with my son one day. It would be just us two, my wife is not a fan of the chowder haha.
- Kayak to Turnip Rock in the thumb of Michigan.
- Hang out along and explore the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
- Explore the coffee scene internationally, specifically London and Wellington.
- Attend a Denver Broncos home game with my son (my favorite professional sports team). I’ve been to a lot of Bronco road games but never set foot in Mile High Stadium, now Sports Authority Field at Mile High. This is bucket list item #1.
- Go winery hopping with the wifey on the west side of Michigan or up by Traverse City.
- Have an Irish coffee in a small-town in Ireland on a cool morning day.
- Take a hot air balloon ride in San Francisco, Napa Valley and Sonoma with my wife. Winery hop.
- Have gained on this some. Capture pictures of all 50 welcome-to United States state signs. Rats, would be a lot further along on this if I took pictures as a kid haha.
- Visit a coffee plantation, where the magic all begins.
- Watch a barista competition up close.
- Walk the Santa Cruz boardwalk in California holding my wife’s hand on one side and my sons on the other.
- Spend a weekend at Mackinac Island in Michigan. Can’t believe I have never been there.
- Complete or at least attempt a food challenge seen on Man v. Food Nation.
- Drive the Tunnel of Trees in northern Michigan in Autumn.
- Enjoy a family, fun-filled weekend on the Lake Michigan beaches in Michigan.
- Spend a day at an independent coffee shop, side-by-side with a barista(s) learning the ins-and-outs of coffee-making.
- Return to Disneyland, Disney World and other theme parks this time with my wife and the little one in hand.
- Experience a lot more of what New Zealand has to offer, starting with Wellington.
- A general item, go up-top the tallest buildings in as many big cities as possible to capture the views from above.
That is my updated travel (and coffee) bucket list. Hope to see you all “Out on the open road”. 🙂
What are some new additions to your travel bucket list that were not on the first edition?
