Picking a Destination

Anyone who has been following this blog for any time knows that my travel goal is to visit all 50 states and not just as a layover on the way to someplace else. No I want to spend quality time in each state.

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I was watching a travel channel program today and it hit my why I have such a problem with that goal. I mean , really, I set it. Why should it be such a difficult thing to work toward? The reason, because each state has so much to share. You just aren’t finished with a state with one vacation. Each state needs time to get to know it. Like a person… you don’t get to know someone by sharing a drink at a cocktail party.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been to Florida. I don’t always spend the time at Disney either. That’s a nice visit but not a priority for me.

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But as I watched them talk about the Coral Castle in Homestead, FL I realized that I’m not done with Florida yet.

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I haven’t ben to the Coral Castle, or the Miami Zoo.

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I want to return to the Everglades and explore it in a lot more depth.

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I haven’t spent any time in the northern part of the state or Panhandle and only touched on the sights in St. Augustine.

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I’ve been to Hawaii twice but really want to get back there again. I haven’t been to Maui or taken the “Fast Ferry” between islands. I need to snorkel off Molokai and see Kilauea pour lava into the sea at night.

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I can’t forget Alaska. My first visit was on a cruise ship . A nice trip but too tame for my taste. I want to set up a “base camp” maybe in Anchorage and explore out from there. I want to visit Fairbanks and see- no not just see-the northern lights, but photograph them.

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One of the best trips I’ve done was with my sister to South Dakota but we didn’t get to see a pow wow or visit Sturgis or many other old west towns and there’s the whole eastern side of  the state.

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It’s hard to turn away from unfinished business. Every state I’ve visited needs a return visit to finish the exploration started on that first visit but if I always do that I’ll never get to the rest of the states. What a huge amazing country we live in!

Bucket List of the States

Well my little exercise of reviewing the 50 states was interesting. It took so many posts and so much research that I think it needs a summary list just so it’s all in one place.

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Visited                                                                       To Be Visited

Alaska                                                                          Alabama

Arizona                                                                        Arkansas

California                                                                     Colorado

Connecticut                                                                 Delaware

Florida                                                                         Idaho

Georgia                                                                       Illinois

Hawaii                                                                         Indiana

Maine                                                                          Iowa

Massachusetts                                                           Kansas

Nevada                                                                        Kentucky

New Hampshire                                                        Louisiana

New Jersey                                                                Maryland

New York                                                                   Michigan

Rhode Island                                                              Minnesota

South Carolina                                                          Mississippi

South Dakota                                                            Missouri

Texas                                                                          Montana

Vermont                                                                    Nebraska

Virginia                                                                      New Mexico

Washington                                                               North Carolina

Wisconsin                                                                  North Dakota

.                                                                                   Ohio

.                                                                                   Oklahoma

.                                                                                    Oregon

.                                                                                    Pennsylvania

.                                                                                    South Carolina

.                                                                                    Tennessee

.                                                                                    Utah

.                                                                                    West Virginia

.                                                                                    Wyoming

So there’s the bucket list. I will be in San Diego, CA for a few days in January for a business meeting so I’ll have another notch on the California side but that doesn’t work off the pending list.airplane_wallpaper_e4b70

I was thinking about a visit to Williamsburgh, VA for my vacation in 2014 but now I wonder if I should “rethink” that and aim to go to one of the remaining states.  I will have to think on this .Colonial_Williamsburg_ladies

Thanks for taking this journey through the States with me. 🙂

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