Adventures

Ever wish you could just disappear for a few weeks and go where you want to go and just do whatever you wanted?  I definitely do.  I would travel to Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Peru to see Machu Picchu, China to hike the old Great Wall of China (not the rebuilt tourist section), and hike the Glaciers in Alaska.


Yellowstone fascinates me because it's an active super volcano.  Not active in the sense that it's erupting, but the caldera is filling and is shifting the land to the point where the lakes in Yellowstone are shifting.  I'd love to see Old Faithful just get a sense of the volcanic activity around me.  The wild life is also something I really want to see in Yellowstone and hopefully I would be able to get a photograph or two of them.  Seeing pictures that someone else took just doesn't do it for me, as it doesn't for most people.


Yosemite is something I would love to see because of all of the geologic beauty and wildlife.  The area was formed by glaciers and from pictures it just looks amazing.  Just like Yellowstone, Yosemite has a lot of wildlife throughout the park and I would definitely like to get some pictures there too.


Machu Picchu is a Wonder of the World for a reason.  Built by the Incas high up in the mountains, the architecture has stood the test of time.  The stones are cut with such precision, that you can't even fit a piece of paper between the stones.  Some think it was built by aliens because the stone cutting is so precise.  It's a large city where they also farmed their food on stepped terraces.  I just want to hike all around Machu Picchu and also head into Lima, Peru to get a taste of the people, food, and culture of Peru.  Since I don't speak Spanish, luckily a lot of the people in Peru do speak English fluently, so I won't be too lost.


The Great Wall of China is another Wonder of the World.  The pictures you see of it on TV where it is completely built and tourists are walking on the way is a section that was actually rebuilt by the Chinese government to bring tourists in.  I have very little interest in this section of the wall because I am not a fan of touristy areas.  I want to hike the ruins of the Great Wall through the Chinese country side.  I don't feel the need to hike the entire distance, but I would like to hike a large section while looking at the ruins, seeing villages near the wall, and just experiencing the Chinese country side.  This of course would take a lot of planning, but I think it would be so worth it in the end.


Hiking the Glaciers in Alaska is a dream of mine.  Now, you're probably thinking that I'm crazy for wanting to go into such a cold harsh environment.  I LOVE the cold!!!  I'd much rather be cold than hot, so Alaska is my cup of tea.  Hiking the glaciers would be like walking on another planet to me.  It dangerous, it's exciting, it's beautiful, and it would be one hell of an experience for me.  Glaciers slowly diminishing by melting and breaking off at a fast rate, so the earlier I could hike the glaciers, the better.


That's my short list of what I would like to do if I could just disappear and do whatever for a few weeks.  I'm not much of a party guy, so I won't be disappearing to Vegas and drinking myself to oblivion.  Now, I could do this alone or take my boys.  I'm not sure my wife would want to do this at all because she's not an outdoors girl, especially when it comes to hiking, but I think my boys would have a great time and would be in complete awe.  It would also show them how big the world is and just how small they are.  There is a saying that I've heard that I truly believe in, "The more one travels, the more one realizes how little they actually know and how insignificant they are."  I have no idea who originally said this, but I think it's a 100% true as long as you're truly taking in everything around you.