Is This the Ultimate Bucket List for Illinoisans?

Thanks to a pretty lame movie of the same name, the "Bucket List" is something we often hear about, and maybe even have one of our own. For those who've been too busy living their lives to pay attention to trendy phrases, a bucket list is simply a number of things that one wishes to do or experience before they die--or, "kick the bucket."

For me personally, I was lucky enough to draw a line through one of the top items on my bucket list a few years ago when I got the chance to swim with dolphins, which is something I had dreamed about since I was a kid watching "Flipper" on TV. Other things, like visiting the pyramids in Egypt, walking on the Great Wall of China, and buying KerryGold Butter in Wisconsin will have to wait for another day.

Anyway, the folks over at OnlyInYourState.com put up a piece the other day called "The Ultimate And Definitive Bucket List For Everyone In Illinois." At first, I thought that it was a list of things we Illinoisans want to experience overall, as in anywhere. Nope. It's a bucket list of things to experience right here in the Land of Lincoln.

As we learned this morning, in spite of living in Rockford for the majority of my life, I never once visited the world-famous Time Museum at the Clock Tower (way too late now). Joe Dredge, also a Rockford lifer, has never been to Anderson Japanese Gardens. I guess their point in the Illinois bucket list piece is to point out that there are a lot of cool experiences you should have near home before venturing out around the globe.

A few entries from OnlyInYourState's "Ultimate And Definitive Bucket List For Everyone In Illinois:"

• Shawnee National Forest
• Wrigley Field
• Starved Rock
• Millennium Park
• Cahokia Mounds
• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
• Metropolis
• Anderson Japanese Gardens (in the list's top ten)
• Galena
• Alinea (voted the best restaurant in Illinois)
• Amish Country

I can put a check mark next to everything except Cahokia Mounds and Alinea.

If there's no check mark on your list next to Anderson Japanese Gardens, you're in luck. AJG opens for their 2017 season this Friday.

To be fair, not everyone's bucket list fulfillment is accomplished by traveling somewhere. Some folks can cross off an item right there in their own driveway.

Like this guy: