Whatever Wednesday w/some added whimsy

A Bucket List + Whimsey You May or May not Have Been Waiting For

I have taken the liberty of posting the bucket list of destinations for Lois & my road trips in the coming years. [One flaw:  although Lois & I have often discussed some of the exotic locations on this list, I did NOT consult her before actually posting this for posterity.] CAVEATS:  

1. These soirees are NOT necessarily listed in order of priority.
2. This list is OUR list--well, MY list--so it is subject to change based on our--my--whim & whimsy.
3. Some of these trips may be biting off more than we can chew. SEE previous note.
4. Financial & time constraints may also govern this list of locales. Here goes!

• Canada, albeit briefly . . . We have made reservations for International Falls, MN, where we will travel after the Hill Summer Sister Bash 2018 at David & Carmen's on Little Island Lake. This will enable us to visit Voyageurs National Park & make a foray into Canada, where Lois has never been. COMMENT:  I was in Canada on a family vacation in 1960. I also traveled across Ontario from Detroit to N. Tonawanda, NY, in late NOV of 1974, over Thanksgiving break. I was student teaching in Detroit at the time.
• Glacier National Park, including side trips to Waterton National Park & Banff in Canada, along with a stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in N. Dakota
• Rocky Mt National Park . . . COMMENT:  My family & I drove Trailridge Road & explored parts of this park on a family vacation in the summer of 1971, after I graduated from high school. Lois was in the Rockies for a senior class trip in 1972, but I always assured her that I had been in the REAL Rocky Mts.
• Great Basis National Park & Re-Touring U.S. Hwy 50, "The Loneliest Road in America" . . . COMMENT:  We drove this route on the way back from a camping trip out west in the summer of 1988. Nathan & Sarah were little tykes & probably remember little or nothing of this route. I remember the stark beauty of driving to the top of a past, then looking out on the vast basin before us, ahead of the next pass. We skirted the national park but didn't have time to visit.
• Texas--combining a side-trip to Wichita Falls--including Palo Duro Canyon in the Panhandle near Amarillo & San Antonio . . . COMMENT:  Lois was at this canyon during one of her music tours while singing in the St. Paul's College A Capella Choir, circa 1972-73.
• Arizona, including a side trip to Phoenix to visit family, Saguaro National Park, Sedona & vicinity, Grand Canyon.
• San Diego, Death Valley National Park, etc., hopefully while we still have family stationed in San Diego.
• New England in the fall, including Acadia National Park. We have friends who live in Connecticut. 
• Gulf Coast--touring from New Orleans along the coast thru Mississippi, Alabama, & the Florida Panhandle, hopefully while we still have family living in FL. COMMENT:  I'd been to New Orleans twice for an ALSS Conference & National Youth Gathering before Lois & I spent some time there over Christmas break a few years ago.
• An Alaskan in-land waterway cruise . . . COMMENT:  My dad & mom took this cruise, which included a side trip to Denali National Park, I think in the summer of 2001. This trip is actually very high on our bucket list.
• Hawaii inter-island cruise, which may be wishful thinking. 

CAVEAT #2:  Don't feel slighted if you don't see your destination on this list. We've been to some of your locales already & I may be overlooking some obvious places. Your comments are welcomed & appreciated.

Wednesday Whimsy

Dept. of Shameless Joke Stealing

From Reader's Digest, Oct. 2017:  "Nutty Professors. The Ig Nobel Prize is a tongue-in-check honor bestowed by the periodical Annals of Improbable Research-at an event at Harvard, no less!--for research that is incredibly trivial. Here is how they toasted the winners.

• "Psychology Prize, to researchers in Belgium the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, & the U.S. for asking a thousand liars how often they lie, & for deciding whether to believe those answers.
• "Economics Prize, to the Bangkok Metropolitan Police for offering to pay police officers extra cash if they refused to take bribes.
• "Perception Prize, to 2 Japanese researchers who investigated whether things look different when you bend over & view them from between your legs.
• "Diagnostic Medicine Prize to academics from 11 countries who determined that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when a patient is driver over speed bumps."