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It has been written here and elsewhere that there is more value in using your money for experiences instead of buying stuff. I fully agree.
Experiences with family and friends are most important especially as you get older, but beyond those, what experiences stand out for you?
Most of our traveling was after we retired. We isolated funds for that purpose. While working, our travel was limited to business events, mostly employer paid. That’s how I had dinner at Mar-a-Lago Club.
During working years family demands, two mortgages and college expenses limited travel. So, when those were done and we finally got the chance to travel, we really went for it — and the result was a host of memorable experiences.
Here are few of ours.
Kissing the Blarney Stone – and getting dizzy
Walking on Hadrians Wall – those Romans could build
Being stopped on the road as a twenty minute long herd of buffalo crossed
Attending an Papal audience in St Peter’s Square
Placing a prayer in the Western Wall – surrounded by armed soldiers
Walking on a warm lava flow – with steam rising
A home cooked meal at a friends house in Bordeaux – best meal of my life
Walking on Omaha Beach – I brought home sand so I will never forget
Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau – no words to describe, but tears to remember
Eating French Fries on the Eiffel Tower – pretty soggy
Making snowballs atop mountain Etna in August – kind of weird
Crashing in the Arizona Dessert in a hot air balloon – we ran out of fuel
Walking among penguins in the Falklands – fascinating and smelly
Hovering over the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter – a bit scary, but quite a view
Sailing the canals in Amsterdam – almost as dirty as Venice
Riding in a blimp over Manhattan – attracting attention
Being quarantined in a ships cabin for two weeks – get to know your spouse
Being yelled at by a Russian soldier in the Kremlin – a better understanding of Russia
Sailing though Panama Canal – read the book The Path Between The Seas, by David McCullough
Riding a camel in Morocco – one off the bucket list
Walking the field of the Charge of the Light Brigade – a history lesson
Riding on the Maid of the Mist under Niagara Falls – wet and incredibly noisy
Playing golf with Jim Furyk – those pros make you feel inadequate
Walking Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields and finding my great, great grandfather’s name on a Union roster – emotional especially since I have his full military/medical records. He fell off his horse an got a hernia
And many others …
One observation I have from having done a lot of travel particularly when younger and much more into packing a small pack for a week or two then grabbing a flight and seeing what I could fit in.
It’s often not the “brochure” sights and the perfect grammable photos that stay with you. It can be the other stuff – smells and sounds or the conversation with a local or the wildlife you happened to see. So much so that I don’t believe that it matters how big or extensive the list (in it’s way that’s just another version of collecting stuff) but rather how you felt at the time and the fondness (or relief sometimes) with which you remember things. So nearly being driven off the road by a redneck Utah cop has its own place in my memories possibly more than seeing the Taj Mahal.
I get your point, but are there any “rednecks” actually in Utah?😎
Ah interesting etymological question. And am I using “redneck” as a an adjective rather than a noun to heuristically indicate attitudes, education and conservatism? Or perhaps it is a reference to the Scottish Covenanter sense of the word to signal both religious rebellion but again a certain degree of conservatism?
I’ve always felt this experiences vs ‘stuff’ is a bit of a false choice. The pursuit of experiences (largely through travel, at least in terms of this thread) and tangible things are not mutually exclusive