It's Sam's Turn: My vacation bucket list

Growing up, I would say that I traveled a decent bit around the country, mostly around the midwest and the southeastern United States. But now that I’m out of college and am in the working world, I’ve thought about some places that I would like to visit and I was wondering if anybody else had some feedback on this topic.

I’m going to keep this list as a domestic list. I don’t want to be a person that’s gone to Prague or Paris but hasn’t seen the beauty of their own country.

At the top of my list is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Now the main reason I do want to go here is the fact that there’s a floating green on a resort golf course and it looks incredible, despite how much I despise par 3s (mainly because my golf shots go haywire on those holes).

The second place on my list, and probably the easiest one to knock out, is the Boundary Waters up in Duluth. Prior to living in the land of 10,000 lakes, I had heard of the Boundary Waters because of Boy Scouts but I have yet to venture up there for a trip. I think I’d enjoy hiking, canoeing, as well as fishing.

Third on my list is essentially the entire state of South Dakota. Whether it’s Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, or the Badlands, I think going to see some of the nature of these areas would be fun.

I’ll also mention that trips to Yellowstone and Glacier National Park should be on the docket as well.

This next place or places on my list are on there strictly because I like the idea of a road trip – and I was a fan of the movie, Cars, when it first came out. Route 66 was one of the original highways in the United States Number Highway System. It has since become probably the most popular road in American culture and although it may not exist today, I’d still like to see what the roads that were built in its place would lead me to.

I’d like to see what roadside diners or unique mom-and-pop shops there are. I guess I’ve technically partially done this with travels on the old route in part of Missouri, Oklahoma and maybe Illinois as well, but there’s a lot left to explore. I’ve seen some posts on the internet of people traveling as much of the old Route 66 as they can, and I’d like to try that sometime.

And while I’m on the old Route 66, I could cross off the next few places on my list.

Those places would be any ghost town in the southwestern United States. As a matter of fact, let’s throw in any ghost town in the old “Wild West” of the U.S. as well. I can’t exactly pinpoint why I feel this way, but ghost towns to me have such appeal to them. Maybe I feel that way because they’re reminiscent of the past for visitors to enjoy.

While we're talking about the southwestern U.S. I’ll bring up the Grand Canyon as well. I feel like that’s probably the biggest geographic attraction that I’ve yet to experience. And let’s add Roswell, New Mexico, to the list, just because UFOs fascinate me.

I’ll round off my list with this – I’d like to see the northeastern U.S. While New York and Boston are places I’d like to visit when I’m out, I’d be more interested in seeing nature’s beauty in states like Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.

I hear the northwestern U.S. is beautiful as well but I have other places I’d like to check off my list before going up there.

While I do have an interest in traveling internationally to places such as Italy, Spain, Iceland and Canada, I want to knock out some of these destinations in the U.S. first.

What other places in the United States should I add to my list?

“It’s Our Turn” is a weekly column that rotates among members of the Echo Press editorial staff.