These challenges are from the Lonely Planet website, which I LOVE. www.lonelyplanet.com
- Read a travelogue – This makes me super excited because I already have a handle on this. I would love to be a travel writer, but in order to write about traveling, you have to travel and as of now… I haven’t seen more than half of the United States and I’ve been to Canada twice. I have a lot to do. Here are the travel books I have on my good reads account (a little ambitious):
- The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
- The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure by Rachel Friedman
- Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with recipes by Elizabeth Bard
- 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family’s Journey Around the World by John Higham
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
- A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
- Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
- Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
- The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner
- Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
- The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town American by Bill Bryson
- In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
- Up the action – Everyone talks about exercise and getting healthy as part of their New Year’s Resolutions, so this challenge is about taking that to the next level. Run a 5k somewhere crazy, hike part of the Appalachian Trail, climb a small mountain, rent a bicycle and tour a new city.
- Make your own attraction – I have visited the largest ball of twine in the world. I didn’t find it in any book of places to visit before you die, but we drove by and had to stop. Those are the attractions and restaurants that you will remember forever because it’s a one of a kind experience.
- Close your eyes for 30 minutes – Every time I close my eyes, I see the castle at Disney World… I guess that means my brain is already focused on my fairy tale vacation with friends, family & my husband in October. WOOOO HOOOO.
- Make a travel video – I think that this is the year that I bring back my video camera. The vids from college of karaoke and dance parties and hours of laughs are memories that are super fun to relive and I want to continue to create those. I hope for a great roadtrip this year because I think that would be the ultimate travel video.
- Be a home tourist – As much as I agree with this, I will not be spending the money this year on a local hotel or B&B. I vow to take my husband to new restaurants and museums here in the city, but we will be saving our money for weddings and vacations.
- Be your own Olympian – The world is filled with ridiculous athletic competitions and they are everywhere. 2012 is a year with Olympics, so the challenge is to discover one of these competitions. For example, Scotland has a stone skipping championship and Finland has a wife-carrying contest. I just attended a Red Bull Crashed Ice Competition.
- Rediscover forgotten history – the example they gave was the War of 1812 – unless you are Canadian, you don’t really think of the War of 1812.
I think you’re all fucked in the head. We’re ten hours from the fucking fun park and you want to bail out. Well I’ll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. It’s a quest for fun. I’m gonna have fun and you’re gonna have fun. We’re all gonna have so much fucking fun we’ll need plastic surgeory to remove our godamn smiles. You’ll be whistling ‘Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah’ out of you’re assholes! I gotta be crazy! I’m on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose! Holy Shit! – Clark Griswold, Vacation
Sorry, that was a little inappropriate. Here is something better?
A vacation is like love – anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia. ~Author Unknown
