12 done ... 40 to go...

What: #84 Swim with another wild animal

When: April 8th
Where: Sapana Village Lodge, Nepal
Why: On my 2013 list, I checked off "Swim with Dolphins" and have wanted to find a way to swim with something else ever since that experience. Mostly, I was looking at other marine life, possibly whale sharks in Honduras or manatees in Florida. It didn't cross my mind that swimming with elephants would be an option, but then I traveled to Nepal and that all changed.

In the region where we visited, it is common practice to take elephants into the forests surrounding Chitwan National Park as safari transport rather than jeeps; the elephant scent masks our own, and animals aren't bothered by them approaching closer than a jeep could get to them. After the safaris, the elephants are bathed to keep them healthy and clean. The lodge where we stayed had their own elephants, and we were welcome to join them in the river and help bathe them!

The sight of a huge Asian elephant rolled on her side and splashing in the water was not something I was prepared to see, but she loved it! I'd climb onto her side, she'd roll up to stand up and I'd have to scramble to stay on; on this matter, I was not always successful and ended up in the river a time or two. To get back on, she'd lay back in the water or let me climb up by raising her back foot for me to remount. On her back, she'd shower me with sprays of water from her trunk while I rubbed down her ears and her head and her neck. Her mahout gave commands for her to roll back into the water and I'd scramble again to stay on, eventually getting pretty good at it! It was definitely a great way to spend a warm afternoon in southern Nepal!

She rolled and I rolled off...I got better!

Let's be honest, there's no graceful way to do this...

Chhop!

11 done ... 41 to go...

What: #4 Go paragliding

When: April 6th
Where: Pokhara, Nepal
Why: Skydiving seems to be on a lot of bucket lists. To me, that holds no appeal. I just imagine the anxiety leading up to it would override any thrill it might hold. I know that most people say that once they've jumped, they can't wait to do it again. So, I'll politely decline and keep the spaces available for their next descent. In the meantime, I did still feel a desire to be in the sky, and have thought about paragliding for quite some time. When the opportunity arose to go paragliding with a trained rescued vulture, I was completely sold and started making plans to make it happen.

As plans fell into place, we started seeing more press about the Parahawking Project, which was developed to raise awareness of the need for vulture conservation in Nepal and India, and was recently featured in the first episode of the PBS series Earth: A New Wild.

Kevin...in the car...

The day of our flight, we spent the morning training on the ground with an Egyptian Vulture named Kevin, and learning calls and how to handle Black Kites in a falconry lesson. Holding these birds close to my body (and a bit too close to my eyeballs for my comfort) was incredible! Getting to see them in the sky was even more impressive.

Selfie with Damu, my fearless guide

Just as I was about to run off the launch area in the afternoon, I was starting to get nervous. Luckily, this was a tandem flight, so I could fully trust my guide - Damu - with my life as we hurtled into mid-air and hoped for the right thermal currents to carry us. This is where Kevin - the Egyptian Vulture - comes in handy. Watching for him in the air, it gave me a distraction to take my mind off the height, and it gave me a completely unique and amazing view of what these birds can do in the air. Anytime Kevin found a new thermal (his eyesight is incredible), we followed him, then we would call him to feed him a treat as a thank-you for his help. Each time he came in for a treat, he landed on my gloved arm, then took off again with such ease and elegance.


The views, the feeling, the entire experience are all very difficult to put into words, especially now that my memories of the trip to Nepal are so bittersweet as I read about the destruction and widespread suffering after the April 25th earthquake.

10 done ... 42 to go...

What: #92 Take a falconry class

When: April 6th
Where: Maya Devi Village, Nepal
Why: Part of the reason I love travel is that I am exposed to incredible people doing incredible things all over the world. One such group of people is raising awareness of the loss of vultures (and other birds of prey) in Asia. Without the vultures in the food chain, many new problems have arisen and advocacy groups have teamed with governments to try to save the vultures. As part of this program, we were able to spend a day learning falconry and working with some of the amazing birds who are ambassadors for their ilk.

Part of the program was learning how to tie a knot from the bird's ankle wraps to the perch and to the glove. After quite a few tries, it was something I could do with one hand in just a few seconds, which would come in handy when working with the Egyptian Vulture "Kevin," sitting a centimeter away from my face and getting a bit anxious about why I'm fumbling with his wraps.

Next, we learn about imprinting and the importance of this for working with birds, making sure they are always comfortable in their surroundings to help them relax and conserve energy for true flight rather than expending it on futile attempts to take-off from the glove. We also learned about how to keep birds at their "flying weight"...hungry enough to want to do what they do in nature to seek prey, but fed enough that they stay healthy; not an easy balance.

Finally, we were able to spend time working with Black Kites. These birds are amazing raptors, much larger than the Egyptian Vultures, but much lighter. When Goggles - the bird I worked with for the afternoon - would come in to land, her wings would always almost wrap me up with their span, brushing her feathers across my face as she perched on my outstretched arm. Her incredible grace and maneuverability in the air is amazing to see from the perspective I had, watching her skim the ground, then back-up at the last second to land on my wrist.

The entire experience was educational and awesome, and has helped me to understand more about vultures and seek out opportunities to work with birds of prey in my own area.

9 done ... 43 to go...

What: #77 See the Tigers play at Spring Training

When: March 5th
Where: Lakeland, FL
Why: Professional sports are not really my thing. I love college football for the spirit and spectacle, and I love olde timey baseball, but I think I always felt that the sheer enjoyment of the game was lacking in pro sports. As a girl, I collected Topps baseball cards with my brother, we followed the stats of the players and watched games on summer evenings with my dad and my grandpa. The 1984 World Series...I can still name almost every player on that team, and have autographs from three or four of them. Something changed after that - most people blame the baseball strike, so maybe that was it

Then, I started following the Tigers again, attending more and more games, and fell back in love with America's past-time. The players are all familiar to me again, and the atmosphere at the ballpark is always humming with excitement. And this year, I just couldn't wait until Opening Day, so we headed to Lakeland to see Spring Training!

We arrived at breakfast in our hotel that morning to find out that the entire place was filled with Michiganders who had escaped our frigid winter for a few days to enjoy some sunshine and baseball. After a quick bite to eat - and grabbing an orange for the road - we headed to catch batting practice. It was great fun to watch the warm-ups, see the sluggers knock ball after ball out of the park, and to be that close to the action.

Brad Ausmus pitching?!?

Miggy and JD at the batting cage!

 After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to our seats for the game. The whereabouts of these seats had remained a surprise to me...and quite a wonderful surprise - right behind the dugout!

It was so fun to see all the players up close, to watch them goofing off and to hear their banter and strategies. Oh, and to see this pair have a little conversation:

Jack White and Alan Trammell...yes please!!

Our seats were really amazing, and I took advantage of the view of a few of my favorite players at the plate!

The outcome wasn't a win, but the whole day was a blast, and it was a wonderful sneak peek at our team and a great way to get pumped for the new season! Go Tigers!!

8 done ... 44 to go...

What: #87 Adopt an animal

When: March 3rd
Where: World Wildlife Fund website
Why: For awhile, I had this on my list to encourage me to adopt a dog or cat from my local humane society. As my lifestyle continues to make that a bit difficult - out of town too often - I chose to instead set my sights on adopting a symbolic animal. For the past few months, I've found myself gravitating to rhinos, from pictures on Instagram to articles I've read to planning an excursion to see them for myself
in Chitwan National Park. My fascination with them could be that they were the one missing animal from my safari a few years ago; at the time our guide had said he might see one way out at the edge of some trees, but even with my binoculars I wasn't convinced. 

Today was World Wildlife Day, which seemed as good a reason as any to financially support the efforts to help conserve these animals. I'll proudly display my adoption certificate on my refrigerator, along with my other recently earned accolades, like "Perfect Attendance" for Pilates and my participant numbers from my recent 5Ks!