I checked off a bucket list item!
This is one I have probably dreamed about since I was six years old. Without mentioning any specific names, it was a large animal-themed park in a centrally located, sunny southern location—one that focuses on conservation, the ocean and aquatic life.
I have seen it portrayed on TV and movies most of my life. I have imagined how cool it would be to experience it in person.
This bucket list adventure was part of a recent trip to visit my niece, Wry, in that centrally located, sunny southern location.
The day started out well enough. Wry, Hal and I were ready for an adventure. We were not in a big hurry. We took it easy and enjoyed the morning.
Guess that was a good plan—the taking our time part—seeing as how the whole region had exploded with heavier than normal traffic that day, with traffic in that region being heavy on a normal day.
Understandable.
It was the last weekend of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, and there were a lot of locals, visitors from other states and visitors from other countries in the region that weekend.
Even with the crazier than normal traffic, I was excited when we made it to the street entrance into the park. Already playing tourist from inside the car, I eagerly took a picture of the park’s huge sign on the corner before we turned to enter the gates.
After sixty years of anticipation, that was about where my excitement ended.
We got there a little before midday. It turned out that getting anywhere near the entrance meant we had to pay “big bucks” to park. I’m not talking normal, big bucks parking. I’m talking Rockefeller big bucks parking, to me anyhow. Ouch!
No, really! Ouch!
Did I mention that the park was at 93% capacity by the time we arrived just before midday?
When we got to the entry gate, we started through the long entry line. We discovered, after we got to the front to scan our tickets there was a problem with two of our electronic tickets. We were sent to customer service… along with at least 80-plus other people in front of us!
Wry’s ticket worked. So I sent her on into the park to grab some shade. After we stood in line for over an hour and a half, and then back in the entry line for about twenty minutes, she met us with bottles of cold water, and the news that “shows had been canceled for the rest of the day.”
Well…we were already there, and through the lines, and it HAD been sixty years. We decided that we could still see the exhibits and enjoy the animals.
Good plan, if that had worked. A number of exhibits, just to look at the animals, were closed also.
On a Saturday?
In July?
We did manage to catch the last dolphin show of the day. We were able to get close enough for the tips of our toenails to get splashed…barely…sort of.
If Wry’s husband, Tal, had been able to go with us, he wanted to see the sea otters. That was Hal’s plan also. Tal probably had more fun at work. There were no sea otters to see that day. The exhibit was closed.
We had hoped to catch a ride on one of their six awesome roller coasters. We had hoped. The shortest wait was eighty-five minutes!
At one point, we saw one rollercoaster that had about a twenty-minute wait. By the time we botched getting a locker for our belongings and turned around, it was back up to over 90 minutes!
How could that even be?
There were no roller coasters for us that day either.
We grabbed a late lunch and then on to the shark exhibit. This was the one Wry wanted to see.
It wasn’t awful, but slightly underwhelming. We discussed afterward that we could possibly go to a good size aquarium and see a little more.
Sigh.
After the sharks, it was so hot and there were so, so many people. We were feeling a bit disappointed. (That “we” meaning me. The girls were probably just trying to give me that experience I had wanted since childhood.) We gave up a little before 5 PM and started heading for the exit.
(And, YES! People were still pouring IN!)
As we were walking out of the park at 5 PM, I looked at the temperature. It was 101°! At 5 PM!
Remember that Rockefeller priced parking spot that we paid for toward the beginning of this little story? Well, at 5 PM, after (standing) and walking and, yes, sitting in the 100+ degree temperature for nearly 5 hours, the car being two rows back from the entrance seemed like the best deal of the whole day!
It was definitely not the day that my six-year-old self imagined it would be. It was an adventure though.
It was not the first time a long-term, earthly expectation was not fulfilled in the way that I thought it might be. I’m sure it will not be the last.
I don’t really have a lot of long-term expectations left in the bucket of my bucket list. I’m not being morbid. It’s just that as you move through life your expectations sometimes change.
The older I get, the more my expectations seem to be less earthly and more eternal. My heavenly home, and the anticipation that I feel for there seems like the ultimate bucket list item to me.
We get a glimpse, in Revelation, 21:10–12, of what heaven is said to be like.
“10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:” — Revelation 21:10-12 (KJV)
Now that sounds like a bucket list location!
Was I horribly disappointed at my “less than lived-up-to” visit to that large animal-themed park in a centrally located, sunny southern location? Not really. With big chunks of the “anticipated” missing, it was still a good day.
How can I say it was a good day? It was because the day was spent with people that I dearly love, and love spending time with—in all kinds of crazy adventures.
Much of the unfulfilled expectation was due to the unavoidable circumstances of the day: the crowds, the cancellations, the closures and the heat that all came together to form the ultimate “non-perfect” good day.
I am still looking forward to the ultimate “perfect” day though. It is out there, but not on this earth.
It will be the day that I come into the city on the great and high mountain and see the glory of God with light, precious like jasper stone, clear as crystal, in that centrally located, light-filled, heavenly location!
My heart and spirit are assured by God’s Word that there will be no disappointment when I travel through those particular gates into eternity.
Do you have the same confidence?
Do you have eternal expectations?
That is something to keep in the bucket of your bucket list for sure!
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What is your relationship to the all-knowing God of the universe? Do you know the peace that can come only from an intimate relationship with Jesus? You can know Him. Jesus Christ—God’s Son, born into human flesh, sinless, crucified and giving His life freely, buried, arisen on the third day—will come into your life and change the outcome of your eternity. You just have to be willing to believe and accept His truth. In addition, here is an excellent page that can give you additional information on peace with God: PeaceWithGod.net.
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DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to bash the “large, animal theme park, in a centrally located, sunny, southern location.” I truly believe that if we had visited on a more typical day, with the park functioning as it normally does, we would have had a much more enjoyable experience. I believe our disappointment was amplified by a combination of circumstances—the crowds, cancellations, closures and extreme heat. I would still recommend it to families visiting the area.
Restricted Vision, Unburdened Sight 