Hey travelers, welcome back to the old blog. If it’s been a while since your last visit, I’m so glad you’re here!
Today is my 45th birthday. I’m in a whole new demographic check box on the questionnaire.
Somewhere around forty, I started doing some mental calculations that had me reeling for a bit. You stop counting the years behind you and start thinking about how many more you have left. I almost have to laugh at my twenty-something self, so sure she was running out of time that she tried to cram every adventure into her early years. Here I am in my forties with more places I want to see, people I want to meet and things I want to do than I had back then.
Earlier this year I went to the Maldives on a trip that was 100% not for work (for once). Sitting still long enough to actually think, I realized how long it had been since I chose the adventure instead of waiting for one to find me for an assignment or a project.
Reflections on Aging
Getting older hasn’t turned out the way I imagined. As a teenager I thought 40 was properly ancient. Now I’m 45 and mostly surprised by how little has changed. Am I wiser? Sure. Do I give far fewer hoots about what other people think? Definitely. But on the inside? Still just me in slightly more weathered packaging.
I’ve got five years until 50. I’ll probably feel exactly the same then as I do now, but I don’t want to look up at 50 and realize those years just happened to me. So I’m being deliberate and believing the Middle Ages can be my best era yet.
I’ve never regretted front-loading my bucket list instead of waiting for retirement to travel. “Old” sounded like the end of the fun, and I was determined to beat the system. So at 29 I quit my corporate job, visited dozens of countries, swam with every critter that would have me and eventually wrote a book about it.
READ IT: My Travel Memoir, Flirting with Disaster, is available everywhere you buy books!
What I didn’t account for is that age isn’t the only thing that changes what’s possible. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). It isn’t necessarily degenerative, but some of the conditions that come with it could make travel, especially long-haul trips, more challenging over time. It turns out I was watching the wrong clock. I don’t say that to be grim. If anything, it’s clarifying.
Quitting my job was still the best decision I ever made. It built a life where work sends me to incredible places, and I’m grateful for every one of them. But there’s a difference between the adventures that find me and the ones I choose. This list is me choosing.
Five Years, Fifty Adventures: How I came up with this list
So much has changed since my last big bucket list run. I became an author, a homeowner, a wife, a human mom and a dog mom. I’m not much of a solo traveler anymore, either. These days I’d rather bring a +1 and share the experience.
The most breathtaking moments in my travels have mostly been natural ones: swimming with whale sharks in the Indian Ocean at midnight, watching the Perseid meteor shower near Yellowstone, feeling the mist from Niagara Falls on my face and tearing up during total solar eclipses. I still love a good adrenaline rush, but thrill-seeking items don’t motivate me the way they used to. I added a few anyway. I’m not dead yet.
Most of all, I know myself better than I did at 29. My round-the-world trip in 2011 was shaped by what I saw other travelers doing, and I said yes to plenty of things I now look back on and cringe at. Fifteen years and a lot of passport stamps later, I know what actually stays with me. It’s rarely the thing everyone else is lining up for. It’s the afternoon spent digging for fossils and the blankie my great grandma made by hand. So alongside the big trips, this list makes room for smaller and more personal goals, like learning to sew and finally finishing my murder mystery. Knowing what wows me also meant getting honest about what doesn’t.
What’s Not on my 50 Before 50 List
There are a few things I’m just not gonna do. I’m never going to climb Kilimanjaro or Everest. I might try a multi-day walk with Off Day Adventures, but mountainous hikes aren’t for me. I’m Floridian and I just don’t wanna. Plus my body would throw such a fit that it would take months to recover.
I’m also no longer accepting suggestions to jump out of or off of anything. Now that I know what HEDS does to my connective tissue, bungee jumping et al. is officially off the table. I have jumped off enough things. I’m good.
Visiting every country in the world used to be a vague goal, but I’ve made peace with the fact that there are some places I just don’t want to go. Same with the “Country Alphabet.” I only need O, R, V, W, Y and Z to finish, but I’m not planning a special trip just to hit an arbitrary goal.
So what is on the list? Fifty adventures, five years and a whole lot of planning. I’ll update this post with links as I check things off, so bookmark it and check back. Here we go.
Completist Staples
1. Cruise on all 7 continents.
Cruising is one of my favorite ways to see a lot of a new place with minimal effort, and that appeals to me even more than it used to. I love being able to show up, unpack once and get a taste of a country or region while someone else is in charge of the majority of the logistics. I still love to plan big trips, but realistically it takes up a lot of time to do that well and time is in short supply. THIS IS A LONG LIST. So far, I’ve cruised North America by way of the Caribbean and Europe on an Italy itinerary and then the Greek Isles and Kusadasi. I still need Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and Antarctica, and there are some unbelievable itineraries out there.
2. Visit my last continent.
I reached my goal of visiting 6 continents by the time I turned 30, and Antarctica has just been down there taunting me as the far-flung, pricey and wildlife-filled continent I am missing. I’d love to do an expedition cruise down there and knock out No. 1 at the same time.
3. Visit all 50 states.
I got an early start on US travel driving to dog shows all over the place with my grandparents, but I’m shocked after counting them all up that I still have 10 states to go! (It was almost 11 but I just went to New Mexico last weekend to get a head start.)
4. Visit 50 national parks.
I have become obsessed with National Parks! I still need to visit Arkansas, West Virginia and the Dakotas to hit all 50 states, so this could be a great BOGO situation.
New Skills
5. Learn to sew baby blankies.
My Great Gram Gloria Kralicek of Racine, Wisconsin, was famous for sewing blankets for all the grand, great-grand and great-great-grandkids in the family. I took my original pink one everywhere with me until I was robbed in San Francisco when I was 19 and some criminal snagged my most valuable possession. All these years later, my mom has taken up the blankie mantle and yep, that makes me next in line. The hard part will be finding a time to coordinate with Mom since she’s ALWAYS in Orlando with the grandbaby 😉
6. Publish my “fictional” murder mystery.
Writing my memoir was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and getting it picked up by a traditional publisher wasn’t even the worst of it. For me, it was making the time to sit down and actually write 80,000 words. The reality is, I’m never going to be a prolific author if every book takes 13 years from conception to pub day. This is the most time consuming item on this list. I have a 9,000 word head start… from a burst of energy over a year ago. This one is going to be tough.
7. Fly fish out West.
I don’t have to be exceptional at it, but I’d like to get a hang of the basics, especially because fly fishing plays a big part in my murder mystery.
8. Finish a large painting or mural.
I have slowly been getting in touch with my inner artist and I truly love painting anything – seashells, oyster shells, canvas – but I haven’t done anything on a large scale. I have the hardest time just getting started, but I know once I do I’ll be locked in.
9. Learn a song on piano or guitar.
This is a goal that means I have to get over the need to be really good at something immediately. Unless you’re a musical prodigy, which I am obviously not, it takes thousands of hours to be good enough to play competently in public. So it may be that this goal is just for me in my She Shed.
Adventures & Thrills
10. Try a legit winter snow sport like skiing or snowboarding.
As a Floridian, the winter activities have mostly gone unattempted by me, so I’d like to give it a try.
11. Storm chasing in the Midwest.
In another life, I would have been a meteorologist. One of the recurring dreams I have is of seeing a tornado. I’ve been in plenty of duck and cover situations with storms in Florida, and I’ve seen a few waterspouts in my day, but I’ve never seen a full-fledged midwestern twister. There are actually tours you can take where you storm chase with experts, and I can’t imagine anything more thrilling.
12. Find a mega Meg tooth.
I’ve dug up some 1-2” teeth in the Peace River, but the big 4-6 inchers have eluded me thus far. There’s a scuba option in Venice, Florida, that we’re looking at once Rick gets certified, and there are some really cool digs in South Carolina. I could look every day for the next 5 years and not find one, so I’m going to need a bit of luck for this goal.
13. Cosplay a cowgirl at a dude ranch.
Horses are outside of my comfort zone due to past experiences, but I’m willing to get back in the saddle as they say to give the ranch life a try. I just love Wyoming and Montana so much, and dude ranches seem like a charming way to connect to the land and way of life.
14. Do a polar plunge.
For real, not in Florida.
15. Find a gem in the wild.
If you were to dig around in my purse or nightstand, there’s a 90% chance you will find fossils and rocks, so anytime I can play archaeologist/geologist/paleontologist in the wild, that’s the best day for me. I’ve found lots of fossils and sharks’ teeth on my adventures, but never a real gem. There are some domestic options for this in Arkansas (diamonds), Nevada (black opals), North Carolina (emeralds) and some potential international spots in Queensland, Australia (sapphires) and Thunder Bay, Canada (amethysts). Have you ever found a gem in the wild? Tell me your experience – this is one of the items on the list that I could do every day and still never make it happen.
16. Do something wild and wacky in Vegas.
Did you know you can ride down the Strip in a giant shopping cart? Did you know you can drive a military tank over a car? Did you know you can fire a flamethrower? Did you know you can hang out the side of a helicopter and shoot at targets on a hillside? Vegas has the most whackadoodle adventures and I’m ready for them all. LET’S GO.
17. Do a wreck dive.
But not just any wreck. I want to scuba dive the USS Oriskany, intentionally sunk off the coast of Pensacola and dedicated as a memorial to honor the thousands who served on board during 25 years of service. My grandpa was one of those sailors on the Oriskany back in the day. I think it would be really special for that to be my first wreck dive.
Extraordinary Accommodations
Open to your suggestions for this section, as there are so many options to explore. If you have a treehouse or ice hotel on your bucket list, drop it in the comments or a DM so I can research!
18. Yacht or sailboat
19. Ice hotel
20. Underwater hotel
21. Overwater bungalow
22. Glamping
23. Castle
24. Treehouse
25. Luxury overnight train
26. 6-Star hotel
Events
27. Junkanoo in the Bahamas (Dec. 26 & Jan. 1)
28. Marquis sporting event, e.g. Super Bowl, World Series, Olympics, World Cup
29. Attend a film premiere
30. Cheer on the Jacksonville Jaguars at a London game
31. See a concert at Red Rocks
32. Dia de los Muertos at a legit celebration (Nov. 1)
Animals & Nature
33. Snorkel or dive with hammerhead sharks.
There are magical dives in the Galapagos and, but also encounters much closer to me in The Bahamas.
34. Swim with any whale, anywhere.
Could be orcas in Norway, humpbacks in Tahiti or belugas in Canada.
35. Redo with great white sharks.
But Angie, didn’t you already cage dive with Great Whites in South Africa on your 30th birthday? Yes, I did. And it was incredible, and my camera equipment then versus what is available now hurts my feelings. I need a do-over. Doesn’t have to be in South Africa and doesn’t have to be in a cage (sorry, Mom), but I would like to meet more great whites.
36. See a Polar Bear.
There aren’t many polar bears left in the wild, so this one will be challenging indeed.
37. Snorkel with manatees in Crystal River.
An iconic Florida bucket list item that I embarrassingly have never done.
38. Get face-to-face with crocodiles.
There are some really wild croc experiences around the world, from Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin where you are lowered into a croc pool in an acrylic box called the “Cage of Death” to Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa where you are in a cage and a crane drops you into a pool of Nile crocodiles.
39. See an erupting volcano.
I just missed Kilauea in Hawai’i in 2024, but it’s still cooking on and off so that’s an option. There’s also potential in Mexico, Indonesia, Iceland and Italy, so I may be able to tack this onto another adventure.
40. Experience another total solar eclipse.
I am hesitant to include this one since I have experienced totality twice in the past few years, and there are only a few options between now and 2031: Aug. 2, 2027, in Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia; July 22, 2028, in Australia or New Zealand or Nov. 25, 2030, in Botswana, South Africa, Australia. Totality is an experience I would love to relive, especially somewhere like Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, so let’s see what we can do about this one.
Miscellaneous Hodge Podge
41. Host a group trip.
Now would be a good time to chime in and tell me where you’d like to go!
42. Eat and drink multiple items where they were invented.
E.g. the Goombay Smash at Emily’s Blue Bee Bar in Abaco, the Rum Runner at Tiki Bar on Islamorada or Buffalo wings at Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. It can also be as vague as Port in Porto, Champagne in Champagne or tequila in Jalisco.
43. Go to Taylor Swift’s next tour.
Pending Taylor’s life plans, obviously.
44. Grow 20 different edible plants in my yard.
So far I’m shockingly good at figs and Seminole pumpkins, but I’m ready to branch out. (Get it?)
45. Win a ribbon at the county fair.
I’m competitive about the most ridiculous things, and I just went to the Jacksonville Agricultural Fair this week. After perusing the winning entries, I think I have a good chance at placing for something I made or grew or cooked. Wish me luck!
46. Be a contestant on a game show.
Jeopardy makes the most sense but they better hurry up and invite me on because my memory is not what it used to be.
47. Do a writer’s residency.
I did one of these in Georgia years ago and it helped me get Flirting with Disaster in really good shape for shopping to agents. Would love to do another one somewhere fun!
48. Visit all my best friends.
The majority of my favorite people live everywhere but Jacksonville. I want to make an effort to visit them or meet up with them in the next five years – that means middle school, high school, college, Atlanta, NYC and travel friends – let’s make plans sometime between now and Nov. 13, 2031!
49. Get a tattoo.
Ok, I’m not sold on this one. I mean, if I haven’t figured out what tattoo I want now… I may never be able to commit. But I am the only person in my family who doesn’t have one, so maybe this can be accomplished as part of Do Something Wild in Vegas. See No. 16.
50. Reader’s choice!
I’m all out of ideas and open to your unique, unusual, quirky or just plain fun suggestions
*The fine print: Naturally, this list leaves out the less glamorous goals. Perimenopause came with its own bucket list: lift heavy things, eat all the protein, sleep through the night and age gracefully(ish). Those are happening too. They’re just a lot less fun to photograph. For the women who have gone before me into this phase of life, please drop all your book recommendations and important info!
The Clock Starts Today, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026
By my math, I’ll need to knock out about 10 of these a year to finish by my 50th, and that’s before life does what life does. Over the years I’ve been thrown off course by a global pandemic, more career pivots than I can count and the whirlwind of foster care and adoption. So think of this list as less of a promise and more of me manifesting what I’d love to do in a perfect world, and writing it down so I actually go after it.
I hope you’ll follow along. I’ll be sharing as I go on social media, and I’ll write up each adventure here on the blog, with the real stories, tips and photos, so you can steal any of these for your own list. And if you happen to work for a cruise line with an Antarctica itinerary, a tourism board that knows how to get face-to-face with polar bears or a treehouse with a vacancy, you know where to find me.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that the years go faster the older you get. Five years sounds like plenty of time, but 2031 will be here before we know it, and I’m going to go for it with gusto. My first 50 Before 50 adventure is already on the calendar for Monday morning. Wish me luck!