A Places to Go and Things to Do List

Do you have a bucket list? I have put together lists like these in the past but they felt overwhelming and like too much pressure.

Lately, however, I’ve circled back around to this idea and have begun creating a list of things I regularly think and dream about, but in a no-pressure kind of way. As in: I’ll get around to some of the stuff on the list, and other things will remain in dream territory, and that’s okay.

I struggled with a name for what I was putting together (I don’t love the term ‘bucket list’). Then I realized that everything I was jotting down was either a place to go or a thing to do, so there you go.

Here is what’s on my list so far.

Places to Go

• Drive up the California coast from Santa Barbara to Carmel, stopping/staying in different towns along the way.

• Go to a book/literary festival.

• (Update: Done, June 2019) Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and re-read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler before I go. This was my favorite childhood book (did any of you read it?) and it’s set mostly in this museum. I have a son in New York so this could actually happen before too long.

• Go to New England in the fall.

• Visit New Orleans. I’ve never been. I want to ride the streetcar, walk through the garden district and visit the National WWII Museum.

• (Update: Done, May 2022) Re-visit the Library of Congress. We went once at the end of a DC trip and the family was worn out and not as I excited as I was about this stop so we cut our visit short. I want to go back.

• Visit some Carnegie Libraries. I have several near me I could start with.

Things to Do

• Take a trip by myself.

• Take a trip with each of my kids.

• Have gas lanterns installed on the front of our house and/or on the patio. The cost of this is probably prohibitive but I’m in love with these so I’ll never quit dreaming about them.

• Take an iPhone photography course. Know any good ones?

• (Update: Done, October 2019 with this toile paper.) Have our powder room wallpapered. (I can’t seem to pick a pattern.)

• Stay at The Raphael Hotel at Christmastime. The Raphael is a charming European-style boutique hotel on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City and the Plaza is especially wonderful at Christmas.

• (Update: Done, August 2020. We actually put it in front of our house.) Set up a Little Free Library. I actually have a spot in our neighborhood picked out for this. I need to talk to our HOA to see if it’s allowed and then find someone to build it.

• Renovate and live in an older home.

After putting this list together I noticed that some things on it are quite big (renovate and live in an older home) and others are pretty small (take an iPhone photography course). I like that mix.

I also noticed that quite a few items have a bookish or library theme.

I plan to revisit the list often and either take things off (because I’ve done them or they no longer interest me) and add new things that I find myself dreaming about.

Do you have a list like this? I’d love to know what’s on it.