1000 Places to See Before You Die

     Let me just start by saying that the title of this book by Patricia Schultz is a lie. There are actually 1040 places mentioned. And as I understand it she's revised the book since I bought my copy and it now has 200 more destinations in it. Scary.
     I pulled this book out today just to see how many locations would be within plausible travel distance from London. I ran out of post-it tags. I don't know if this is really exciting or really daunting yet.
    For now, I'll include the places on the list that I've been already. :)

Europe

England

1.          London

France

2.      Biarritz

3.      Paris

4.      Cathedrale Notre Dame de Chartres

5.      Chateau de Versailles

6.      Loire Valley and Domaine des Hauts de Loire

Italy

7.      Capri

8.      Pompeii

9.      The Amalfi Coast

10.      The Best of Sorrento

11.      Rome

12.      Sistine Chapel

13.      Cinqueterre

14.      Portofino

15.      Florence

16.      The Uffizi Galleries

17.      Villa San Michele and Villa La Massa

18.      Montalcino

19.      Pienza

20.      Chianti and San Gimignano

21.      Piazza del Campo and the Palio

22.      Basilica of San Francesco

23.      Venice

Spain

24.      San Sebastian

25.      The Caves of Altamira and Santillana del Mar

26.      Avila

27.      Salamanca's Plaza Mayor (every day in the summer of 2005)

28.      La Catedral de Toledo

29.      La Sagrada Familia

30.      Museu Picasso

31.      The Way of St. James and the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (not totally sure but I think I've been to the last Cathedral)

32.      Madrid

Africa

(nothing)

The Middle East

(nope)

Asia

(nada... what's an Asian word for nada?)

Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands

33.      Sydney Opera House and the Harbor

34.      The Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea

The United States of America and Canada

Alaska

35.      Mount McKinley and Denali National Park 

Arizona

36.      The Grand Canyon

California

37.      The Golden Door (my mom worked there - does that count?)

38.      Hollywood

39.      Monterey Peninsula

40.      The Pacific Coast Highway

41.      Hotel del Coronado

42.      A Tour of San Francisco's Cable Cars

Hawaii

43.      Kauai

44.      Oahu

Massachusetts

45.      The Freedom Trail

46.      Legal Sea Foods (lots of other seafood in Boston...)

Nevada

47.      Bellagio

48.      The Las Vegas Strip

New York

49.      New York City

50.      Historic Downtown New York

51.      Museum Mile

North Carolina

52.      Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Oregon

53.      The Oregon Coast

Virginia

54.      Monticello

Washington, D.C.

55.      The National Mall and Its Monuments

56.      The Smithsonian and Beyond

Canada

Been to Canada, just no where from the list... :(

Latin America

Mexico

NOTHING - even though the entrance to Mexico is an hour from here. Really should fix this...

Costa Rica

57.      Manuel Antonio National Park

58.      Chachagua Rain Forest Hotel (stayed in a Rain Forest hotel, just not this one)

Argentina

59.      Alvear Palace and Recoleta Cemetery (almost. Been to Recoleta - just not the cemetary)

60.      Las Tanguerias de Buenos Aires

(Spent most of my time in Argentina on a work site in the middle of nowhere, after all. And after Argentina, I've got .... NOTHING from the other FOURTEEN countries in this region.)

The Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda

 I got... nothing.

60/1040 = just over 5%. Sad.

Times Tables

I've got London on the brain in a major way. This whole idea of moving abroad, just like before, is intoxicating to me. It makes me feel adventurous and glamorous and smart. And honestly, it gives me an option that feels like it might well fit right now. 


I've posted before about the difference between what a girl expects her life to look like at a certain age and what it actually ends up looking like. I, for example, had hoped Joe and I would be engaged by our two-year anniversary, married by three years, and having a baby when we're both 30, four years into our relationship. In my head that was the natural progression of things, not because we are ready to get married (we're not) or because we actually want a baby that soon (I'm not sure we do), but because that's just how things go. My parents did it that way (or at least similar to that way). But honestly, neither of us is ready to be in the place I thought we'd be right now. My more recent revelation is that that's okay with me.


Lately I've started to feel pressure due to my prescribed time table that is entirely self-inflicted. I've been anxious because there are so many things I still want to do with Joe before we have children, but I read articles about getting pregnant after the age of 30 and they completely panic me. A few months ago I was talking to two of my girlfriends, one married, one not. The other non-married person and I were talking about how long we want to be with our boyfriends until we want to get married and we were both somewhat taken aback when the married friend asked, "But why are you counting?" We were both stunned. What did she mean? She explained that she didn't understand the tradition of celebrating month and year anniversaries before marriage or tying certain events or stages in the relationship to a number of months or years. It made sense. If I didn't think that Joe and I *should* be ready for marriage at two years, would I actually think we are ready? No. So what the hell am I doing to myself?

I still want to see so much of the world. I still want to do something adventurous. I'm such a worry-wort, scaredy-cat, planner-organizer that I don't really give myself the opportunity to be spontaneous. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. Literally. That scares me. And it's probably not the most responsible thing to do in these tough economic times. Neither, honestly, is going back to school and incurring school-loan debt. But there are things in life that are more valuable than money. I have to decide if I'm going to live up to the subtitle of this blog or not.

Subtitle

Several people have asked me since I started this blog where the quote at the top came from. I finally found it again. It was a line in an article by Martha Beck in O Magazine that I used on my vision board in 2009. Here's a link to the whole article for those who want to read it: Stop Regretting Decisions by Martha Beck.