Above is a picture of me, our daughter Kayla, and Vickie on one of our prioritized adventures in 2015, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. Vickie and I started to really prioritize adventure in our vacations around 1999. The idea was formulated in a hospital waiting room……but that is a much longer story for a different time.
We decided to call this a ‘Life List’ rather than a ‘Bucket List’ because we are ‘glass half full’ kind of people. I didn’t want to focus on the kicking the bucket deadline, but rather focus on the living part based on our physical and financial abilities. It is a constantly evolving list. There are so many cool places and exciting things to do and new adventures not even dreamed of yet so the list will never really be complete. We use this list to determine which adventure to schedule next.
I would bring the list periodically to ‘date night’ (once a week Vickie & I go on a ‘date’). We have been dating for over 33 years. This is where we discussed which adventure to do next. We each only had about 4 weeks of vacation per year, so we could only reasonably spend 1-2 weeks on the list. The choices we made depended on the physical shape we were in and the money it would take to make it happen.
A few years ago as we really analyzed the list and calculated the amount of vacation needed to take actually complete each of the places on the list. At two weeks a year, we figured it would take at least 50 weeks (25 years) to complete a good part of the list, if it didn’t continue to grow. We also wanted to be physically able to handle some of the more physically challenging items on the list (think mountain climbing). Every year as we age it gets more difficult to stay in shape and handle the rigors of a challenging adventure. At 50 it’s a lot harder to sleep on the cold ground than it was at 25. I won’t get into aging but I think that youth is wasted on the young and inexperienced.
That is how the seed of the idea to take a hiatus was planted. Once that seed was planted every bit of bad news we heard about family, friends, and acquaintances watered it. The older we got the more we were aware of our physical decline. The ‘smart money’ said to work for another 9-1/2 years and ride off into the retirement sunset. So many things can happen in those years.
We decided to plan for the possibility of a hiatus. Up until the last couple of months, we still had the opportunity to take the nest egg we were saving and invest on a significant down payment on a new house we would retire in. Instead we took the leap, sold almost everything and travel the continent in a van. So far, so good.
Here is the list (not updated) in no particular order.
| The Lifelist | experience life | |||
| Date Complete | Event | Where/What | Description | |
| Climb | Aconcagua | Argentina | ||
| 2015 Feb | Climb | Kilimanjaro | Tanzania | 8 day guided climb to the summit of kilimanjaro |
| 2013 Aug | Climb | Devil’s Tower | WY | Climb Devil’s Tower |
| Climb | Volcanos | NW | Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, Three Sisters, Jefferson, Shasta | |
| Climb | Mt. Baker | WA | ||
| Climb | Mt. St. Helens | WA | ||
| Climb | Mt. Adams | WA | ||
| Climb | Mt. Shasta | CA | ||
| Climb | The Sisters | OR | ||
| Climb | Mt. Jefferson | OR | ||
| 2000 June | Climb | The Grand Teton | WY | Summitted the Grand (Sean & Vickie) |
| 1999 Sept | Climb | Mount Rainier | WA | Summitted (Sean) |
| 2002 June | Climb | Mount Rainier | WA | Summitted (Vickie & Sean) |
| 2008 Feb | Climb | Mauna Kea | HI | hike to the top of Hawaii’s high point |
| 2005 June | Climb | Katadahin | ME | Summit the end of the Appalachian trail |
| 2014 Sept | Event | Skydiving | Skydiving (Vickie) | |
| Event | Grand Canyon Rafting | AZ | Raft the Grand Canyon | |
| 2009 July | Event | Rafting the Gallatin | MT | Raft the Gallatin river (dislocated my shoulder-Sean) |
| Event | Deep Sea Fishing | Deep Sea Fishing | ||
| Event | Walk the Inca trail | Peru | Walk the Inca trail | |
| Event | Maccu Piccu | Peru | ||
| Event | Poker tournament | Vegas | Play in a major poker tournament | |
| Event | Moose Hunting | Canada | Moose Hunting in Canada (or Minnesota) | |
| 2012 Sept | Event | Boundry Waters | MN | Kayak in the Boundry Waters by myself (Sean) |
| Event | NASCAR | Attend a NASCAR race | ||
| Event | Mardi Gras | LA | ||
| Event | Comedy | Try an Amateur comedy night open mic (Sean) | ||
| Event | Dancer | background dancer or background on workout show (Vickie) | ||
| 2011 Jan | Event | Rock’n Roll 1/2 Marathon | AZ | Run the circuit of Rock-n-Roll half marathons around US |
| Event | Albuquerque | NM | Experience the Largest Ballon Festival | |
| Event | Las Vegas | NV | Attend a Country Music Awards Show | |
| Event | Denver | CO | Red Rocks Concert | |
| Event | Show | NY | Get it Studio audience of Jimmy Fallon Show | |
| 2001 Oct | Event | Twin Cities marathon | MN | Sean & Vickie |
| 1999 June | Event | Grandma’s Marathon | MN | Sean & Vickie |
| 1995 March | Event | Ejection Seat | FL | Rode the world’s largest ejection seat |
| 2005 June | Event | Fenway in Boston | MA | Attend a Red Sox game |
| Goal | Own Land | ?? | Where | |
| Goal | Learn Spanish | Learn Spanish | ||
| Goal | Win Lottery | Well, I would have to buy tickets every now & then | ||
| Goal | Write a blog | Have something to say | ||
| Goal | Have grandkids | Hopefully our only daughter is in agreement | ||
| Goal | Build a house | On the land I bought in another goal | ||
| Goal | Movie Extra | Be a Zombie in a movie | ||
| Goal | Learn to surf | Learn to surf | ||
| 2001 Aug | Goal | State Champions | MN | ASA softball class C champions, went to nationals Right after 9/11 |
| Highpoint | 50 States | USA | Climb Highpoint in all 50 states | |
| Highpoint | Granite Peak | MT | ||
| Highpoint | Gannet Peak | WY | ||
| Highpoint | Mt. McKinley | AK | ||
| Highpoint | All Colorado 14 ers | Climb all 52 of Colorado’s 14ers | ||
| Hike | Superior Hiking Trail | MN | Hike the complete SHT | |
| National Park | Visit all National Parks | USA | Visit all USA national parks | |
| National Park | Zion | UT | Glen Canyon | |
| National Park | Yosemite | CA | Hike & Explore Yosemite | |
| National Park | Glacier | MT | Glacier National Park | |
| National Park | Crater Lake | OR | Crater Lake | |
| National Park | Isle Royal | MN | Kayak, Hike, and camp at Isle Royal | |
| National Park | Denali | AK | ||
| 2016 May | National Park | Smoky Mountain NP | TN | Hike in the park |
| National Park | Grand Canyon | AZ | ||
| National Park | Sequoia | CA | ||
| 2015 Feb | Vacation | Serengetti | Tanzania | Week long Safari, elephants, lions, leopards, hippos, Gazelle, Ibex, warthogs, etc. |
| Vacation | Memphis | TN | Walk Beale Street and visit Graceland | |
| Vacation | Nashville | TN | Country music capital, Grand ol’ Oprey | |
| Vacation | New York City | NY | Statue of liberty, etc. | |
| Vacation | Branson | MO | ||
| Vacation | Vancouver | BC | ||
| Vacation | Austin | TX | ||
| Vacation | Vancouver Island | BC | ||
| Vacation | Hollywood | CA | ||
| Vacation | Lake Taho | NV | ||
| 2014 Sept | Vacation | Archery Elk Hunt | ID | Bow Hunt for Elk in the mountains (Sean) |
| Vacation | New Zealand | New Zealand | ||
| Vacation | Ireland | |||
| Vacation | Olympics | Go to the Olympics | ||
| Vacation | Chile/Patagonia | |||
| 2013 March | Vacation | Key West | FL | Watch the sunset in Key West, have Key lime pie |
| Vacation | Hawaii | Vacation in Kauwi | ||
| Vacation | Alaska | AK | Explore everywhere! | |
| Vacation | Whistler | BC | ||
| Vacation | Banff | |||
| Vacation | Olympic Mountains | WA | Hike & explore the Olympic mountain range in Washington | |
| Vacation | Great Barrier Reef | Austrailia | Snorkle the Great Barrier Reef | |
| 2009 Aug | Vacation | Yellowstone | WY | Grand Canyon of yellowstone, Ol Faithful |
| 1997 March | Vacation | Orlando | FL | Disney world, Discovery Cove, Universal Studios |
| More to be added as we go! | ||||
Life List Adventures 
Great list! Very ambitious, but it looks like you’re doing pretty good with it. I’ve been to about 15 places on the list (mostly National Parks).
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Your list is amazing and I’m so excited to hear details and see pictures of every single one of them!! Have fun with Kayla 🙂
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We enjoyed catching up with Kayla. We were hoping to summit Gannett together but between Vickie’s altitude sickness and Kayla’s major blisters, we decided to postpone that peak. We made due with going out to eat, playing cards, and reading.
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Love keeping up with your travels, your life list is fab!!! The Lande’s would love to check off you deep sea fishing on your next trip to Destin :). Safe travels and hope all is well.
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We would love to go deep sea fishing with the best outfit in Destin. We enjoyed spending time with you guys this spring. When it turns colder we will turn south.
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This is awesome Sean, so glad I came across it. I do see one thing missing on your list, the new SPAM museum. Geez, where are your priorities? 😃 I look forward to following you on this amazing adventure!!
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Actually, that is on the list. But its on the completed part of the list. I didn’t post all of the completed items on that part of the list. Maybe I should post that one also. What would a life list be without the SPAM museum……..incomplete?
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Wow, I thought my list was ambitious. As you know from my BHAG post, I love big thinking like this. I look forward to following your progress. You and I would get along well I think. I have many of the same hunting related goals as you too.
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We have been contiously planning and updating our written life list for over 17 years now. We get bolder with each success. I like your BHAG thinking. I love to swap hunting and fishing stories too.
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I think we need to see a post from Vickie’s perspective. While you do a great job of telling the overall story it would interesting to get her thoughts and insight. It could be about a particular place you visit, what it is like to live in a van down by the river, or how you choose the next destination.
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I would love to have Vickie prepare a post. The key of course is talking her into doing it. Maybe you would have better luck convincing her……….
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