Military families have the unique opportunity to live in new locations every 1-4 years. Living in these new locations allows for ultimate staycations. Due to the stressors and unknowns of the military schedule, vacations that involve extensive travel do not always happen. With the addition of the global pandemic, travel is at a standstill to some extent. Now, more than ever, building a local duty station bucket list provides the opportunity to build resilience through exploration with family and friends, and maybe even self-care for ourselves!
Put your family first by penning in time together, while exploring and supporting your now local area by building and writing a duty station bucket list!
Why? Why make a duty station bucket list?
Honestly – writing it down makes it more likely you will do it! Writing
down the list on an external source from your brain makes it easier to recall.
What better way to learn about your new home than through exploring the area! Perhaps the city you are near is a foundational city in the exploration of the west. Take the opportunity while living there to learn about it.
How?
- Check out the local tourism board websites. These websites often break down the area into categories like food, museums, outdoor exploration, and by neighborhood/area making it easier to plan or determine what specific things appeal to you or your family.
- Check out local blogs. Local blogs share their unbiased opinions and novel ideas, and often include information that locals know – like where to park, or how doable that hike is with a toddler. Bonus that you can search these websites much easier than social media groups or accounts. Build an informed bucket list that you can actually accomplish.
- Ask your friends or local military family groups. Like local blogs, people who have already lived there know about the area, and military discounts which make it easier to see even more for the same cost.
- Don’t forget the bounty of Pinterest! Easily search bucket lists or locations on Pinterest with a few simple clicks.
When?
Make a bucket list the first opportunity you get! When you are actively moving to the new location, look up things to do in the area as a way to get the family excited. If you have been in the location for a while, try creating a season specific list.
We like to plan one new outing each month. Pre-children, we would do one new hike a week. Plan a manageable exploration schedule for you, but do plan it. Write that bucket list down and make it a priority to get out and explore!
What?
This is totally up to you! If your family likes scuba diving or hiking, cater your list to what you want to see and do. Add links you find while researching to the digital list so you can easily access it.
Remember – what you do on your bucket list doesn’t have to be expensive. There are free hikes, parks, and museums across the world. For military families, the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families offers the Blue Star Museums program offers free museum admission to military families.
Where?
Build a digital and printed list. The digital list makes it easy to amend, research with the links you added, and print an updated list when you make major changes. Hang it in a prominent place. We put ours near our calendar with a pen nearby so we can schedule and plan visits to the places on our
bucket list, and so we can manually cross off the items when we visit.
Ideas
Not sure where to start? MilMomAdventures and other military spouses have built and shared bucket lists for Southern California, Monterey, MCAS Yuma, 29 Palms, New Orleans and Northern Virginia. MrsNavyMama has an entire section on duty station bucket lists including San Diego; Charlottesville, Virginia; Altus AFB; Rota, Spain; and Aviano AFB. Check out what other military families suggest in your area.
Building a bucket list is a fun way to get out and explore the area you live in, however long or short.
