https:\/\/sfbaytimes.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\nPart Une is titled \u201cBucket List Equals Hope,\u201d and Part Deux is titled, \u201cA Father Son Trip to Bali.\u201d The first two were surprise entries on the list.<\/p>\n
Jumping out of an airplane was never a lifelong dream. I was watching Top Chef, they jumped, and I decided I could, too. Bobby came along for the fun (?). Bali sounded exotic from the I first time I heard the song \u201cBali Hai\u201d in the musical South Pacific. When I looked on a globe, it was too far away. You\u2019d have to be Hai to want to travel that far. Then my son invited Bobby and me to take us there! I couldn\u2019t turn that down. It is stunning.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Tim Seelig in Nice, France (July 2026)<\/p>\n
Part Trois has been on my list for a very long time. I know that nobody wants to hear about what I did on summer vacation, see the slideshow or PowerPoint. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m no Rick Steves. I\u2019ve been lucky to travel to Europe many times and lived there twice. I\u2019m not climbing the Alps or walking the Camino any longer. How about a Mediterranean cruise? Yes, please. I just had to schedule it between cataracts, rotator cuff, and knee replacement surgeries. You didn\u2019t ask for an organ recital. Moving on.<\/p>\n
The bucket started off rough. Sing along, \u201cThere\u2019s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza.\u201d Poor Henry had no idea how to fix it as the hole got bigger.<\/p>\n
I left Portland on Sunday, the 28th of June, headed through SFO to Rome. You all were busy priding. The flight was delayed. Then we sat on the tarmac another 45 minutes due to air traffic in San Francisco. Surprise. When we arrived, the United app said it was a 24-minute walk from D2 to G1. Boarding ended in 14 minutes. They knew I was coming. I made it in 18 minutes. As I approached, the agent said, \u201cTim Seelig?\u201d I panted, \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry, they just closed the door.\u201d I could see the jet bridge maybe 2 feet from the airplane. Nope. No turning back. She was able to book me that night through London arriving in Rome Monday night. I was grateful(ish).<\/p>\n
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Bobby Jo Valentine and Dr. Tim Seelig in front of Michelangelo\u2019s David in Florence, Italy (July 2026)<\/p>\n
I got to Rome late Monday\u2014baggage, customs, exited, and swelteringly hot. I then scheduled an Uber. The driver wasn\u2019t at the meeting spot. He called me. He only spoke angry Italian. He canceled. I called another. He spoke very little English, but I found him\u2014dragging my bags and sweating in all the places.<\/p>\n
I fell into the backseat, grateful for air conditioning. At the hotel, I schlepped my bags into the lobby. They asked for my passport. I turned to my pile of bags. No backpack. I had left it in the Uber. Now don\u2019t get all judgy on me, but it had my passport, wallet, laptop, credit cards, and everything I own except my phone, two suitcases, and neck pillow! Without a passport, I could not board the ship the next afternoon. Without a passport, I couldn\u2019t leave Italy. Without paying the city taxes the next morning, I couldn\u2019t leave the hotel!<\/p>\n
Bobby\u2019s bucket wasn\u2019t going much better. He had been at a writing retreat in Ireland for the prior nine days. He was coming from Belfast. He had reserved a 2 am bus from Belfast to Dublin to catch a 6:30 am flight to Rome. When he arrived at the bus, it was oversold\u2014filled with a youth soccer team! He had to take an Uber from Belfast to Dublin in the middle of the night! But he made it. I shared none of my travails with him. He didn\u2019t need that.<\/p>\n
The hotel clerk tried to contact someone at Uber. No luck. There are no humans there. No luck calling the driver. The U.S. Consulate opened at 8:30 am the next morning. A replacement passport takes a minimum of 24 hours. We would miss our cruise. I finally went to bed around 11 pm\u2014no sleep, of course.<\/p>\n
At 1 am, the hotel clerk knocked on my door. The Uber drive was downstairs with my backpack. He had just found it almost four hours later. I started singing, \u201cHeaven came down and glory filled my soul!\u201d as I gave him the largest tip of his week. Maybe month. The hole had been plugged! Bless Henry\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, June 30, at 3:30 pm, we boarded our ship for an amazing 9-night cruise. In Naples it was legendary pizza! In Florence, we saw David (all of him). In Nice we ate mussels down by the seashore (different than David\u2019s muscles) and scored an extravagant one-of-a-kind souvenir. It was very nice in Nice.<\/p>\n
We will end our cruise with an extension of four days in Sitges and Barcelona. Part Trois has more than made up for the rocky start by being a slice of heaven.<\/p>\n
Liza heard my prayer. The holes in our bouquets were miraculously fixed by Uber drivers in Belfast, Ireland, and Rome, Italy. Who knew? Gotta run now. Another French word\u2014the buffet\u2014is calling. And I\u2019m still not going to Target (tar jay) when I get home.<\/p>\n
If you do not have a Bucket List, start one. You can start with a tiny bucket: things I\u2019d like to do in the next year. Make a 5-year list and then one you might start checking off when you\u2019re 75! Y\u2019all, in our crazy world, there is no time like the present! Get busy! Leave a few blank spots for the surprises.<\/p>\n
Dr. Tim Seelig is the Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Gay Men\u2019s Chorus. http:\/\/www.timseelig.com\/<\/a><\/p>\nTLC: Tears, Laughs, and Conversation
Published on July 16, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tim Seelig\u2014 I am writing this on a big boat docked in the stunning harbor in Nice,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-401791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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