Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Bucket List of Places to Visit, Part 3, By Nancy Taylor Wright, CarolAnn Taylor Hart, Tom Kinsella and Kristin Walker

From Nancy Taylor Wright:

On my Bucket List is to visit different National Parks around the country, visit with many of my family that I haven't seen in a while, create a beautiful food and flower garden that I can pick my lunch outside and eat it on a patio under the shade of a tree basking in the beauty of it all, and have enough friends and family around me to be able to have some card game nights again.

Very simple, nothing elaborate.

 

From CarolAnn Taylor Hart:



White Pass Scenic Railway
 
My suggestion would be to do a Cruise to Alaska via the Inside Passage.  I went in 2005 on the Norwegian Spirit, stops included Juneau, Ketchikan, Skagway, Prince Rupert, Canada.  Nice and relaxing!

In Skagway, I hopped aboard the White Pass Scenic Railway, beautiful views (and yes I did lean out of the train to take the picture, crazy me), visited Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, quite an amazing site.


Mendenhall Glacier

 On the way back to Seattle, WA they had a Chocolate Buffet-- it was several tables with delectable delights--wonderful! 


Chocolate Buffet--YUM!


From Tom:

I’m going to stay on the North American continent for my list.

Here are places that I have visted that I really liked: Las Vegas, Nashville, Toronto, Montreal.

When my college buddies were first talking up a trip to Las Vegas I poo pooed the idea. I figured it would be over the top in a bad way or somehow gauche. Well, about one day into my first trip I realized that just about the entire strip (and the old city section too) made me smile, and often I found I was laughing out loud. Vegas is great for people watching, food and drink are always available, and there is a certain “always on” feeling that reminds me of my college fraternity. At Theta Chi I could walk out of my room and down to the barroom at 4 a.m. and something was usually brewing. Same thing in Vegas. Always on. It is a very diverting vacation spot.


Nashville, TN
 
Nashville is a great city for food and especially for music. In fact, I am trying to convince Christine that we should retire to the area. I was surprised at how beautiful and entertaining it is.

Toronto — believe it or not I had never visited Toronto until three years ago when my college buds and I chose it for our golfing destination. I cannot express to you how impressed I was by the beer selection in Toronto. Walk into a little dive bar — you just passed 4 on the block — and you’ll find 60 taps flowing of great, great beer. Who cares about the winter when you have that.



Finally, Montreal is a spot I’ve visited several times. I have not been to France, and therefore cannot compare the food, but if France is demonstrably better than Montreal, then I have to go. I once made the mistake of having breakfast in the Montreal Best Western Hotel I was staying in. 



  Farmer's Market, Montreal
 

It was without question the best breakfast I ever had. I dream about that breakfast. And it was pretty poor fare compared with the lunches and dinners that Montreal serves. Vive la Quebec. And here’s another plug for Toronto and Montreal, often enough given exchange rates they are almost one third off! What a bargain.
  

From Kristin:
Ohhh, what a good topic to think about!  I could probably come up with twenty different choices, but here are just a few that others haven't listed yet.

 

 Cinque Terre, Italy

Cinque Terre, Italy - five little towns perched along a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean.  The buildings are beautifully colorful and are interspersed with winding paths, vineyards and olive groves.  There is an awesome hiking trail that connects the five towns, which is the main way to travel between them.  There aren't many roads or cars, so it is quiet and peaceful.  Delicious food, wine and views.

 Seattle

Seattle, WA - I've been lucky enough to travel to the Seattle area for work a number of times and I am just in love with it.  The Seattle area has lots of cool places to check out, awesome seafood and really nice people.  I love traveling across Puget Sound on the ferry, over to the Olympic Mountain Range where the hiking is outstanding.

Ireland - I was going to try and narrow it down to somewhere more specific in Ireland, but there are too many great choices.  What a wonderful country!  Amazing, welcoming people - there aren't many places where you walk into a local pub and are immediately best friends with half the folks in there.  The history, the castles, the hiking - so much to do and see.  I've got a long list of places still to visit there and can't wait to go back.



3 comments:

Pat Herdeg said...

Wow! All these places sound terrific!

--Nancy, I am with you that a garden of food and flowers around us as we play cards (poker, canasta, or whatever)with family sounds like heaven.

--CarolAnn, I went to Alaska also and loved Skagway and Juneau also. BUT, I did not have the fun of a chocolate buffet!

--Tom, all of your places sound great. I MAY even have to visit Las Vegas!

--Kristin, I too could go to Ireland many time and not be bored--so much to see and experience! Loved Seattle the one time I was there and wished I had the time to take the ferries to the various islands. And, Cinque Terre just sounds like a dream.

Thanks to you all for sharing!

Anonymous said...

These days I travel vicariously so I really enjoy these reports!

Nance, I am with you in the park! Not for cards but just to sit and enjoy the beauty!

Carol Ann, Always wanted to take that trip to Alaska! So many have said it was GREAT! Glad you did.

And Tom, I always knew that your fraternity days would teach you something!! Las Vegas never appealed but as you say, I might have loved the people watching!

Kristin, Seattle is one of my favorites-- Beth did her Masters there and we visited when the World’s Fair was on ( early 1960’s) ---Great place!

Thanks ALL for the trips!

---Mom K/ Aunt CB

Julie Riber said...

We've been lucky to do a great deal of traveling to all sorts of amazing places, especially within the United States and Mexico. Cruises we've taken that really stand out was our first from Hawaii to French Polynesia. The islands of Bora Bora, Morea and Tahiti are breathtaking and have some of the best snorkeling anywhere. Next cruise was from San Francisco down the coast and through the Panama Canal, ending up in Miami. The experience of going through the Panama Canal was mind-blowing. How could they build such an engineering marvel so many, many years ago. Would love to back because they've just finished "widening" it. Glacier Park in Montana and the Flathead Lake area are another favorite place we visited in the RV a few years ago. Such a gorgeous area. Sedona, AZ is also lovely as is Lake Powell in Utah and the National Parks of Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley have scenery to die for. We also love the Florida Keys and have been back that way more than once. We are also blessed just to live in Colorado. There's so much majesty and grace here within a day's drive.