Crossing off My Bucket List One Item at a Time - Northern Lights

Have you watched Bucket List (2007) with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson?  As cheesy and predictable as the movie was, I remember bawling as I finished the movie, thinking to myself what would be my regrets as I lay on my dying bed.

I know, such morbid thoughts.

Come 2015, 8 years has passed.  I was determined to make a dent on my bucket list as I knew it would only grow as I expanded my perspectives and learn of new places to visit and new experiences to try.  I was super lucky to have a friend who was determined to cross off a huge item on her bucket list as well.  Impetuously, we decided to cross off Northern Lights from our list.

In 2015 October, we took a 17 hour flight via Moscow, and landed in Finland.  Perhaps all the praying and fingers-crossing paid off, because we were super lucky and saw Aurora Borealis on the first night!  Here's a picture I took with my 2-day-old camera at the time (excuse my amateur photo-taking skills).

Honestly, planning for the Aurora Borealis must have been one of the more difficult trip to research ever in my life.  We didn't just decide to see the Aurora Borealis in Alaska.  We wanted to hit up northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, and Denmark) while we try to catch the elusive Northern Lights. For some reason, there were not a lot of information and options on budget Aurora Borealis trips. (Perhaps I used the wrong search words?)  Either way, we had a fun trip and was certainly happy with our Aurora Borealis trip, though we would certainly change it up next time around. 

For the next couple of posts, I'll share our Aurora Borealis trip in details.  Hopefully this will help all friends and family looking to visit northern Europe for the very first time! 

Fan girl-ing at the Sing-off tour!

Aca-nerd alert!

What better way to start off your vacation with a concert to the Sing off tour?  As avid viewers of the Sing-off, my roommate and I rushed to buy the Sing-Off tour tickets at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.  We arrived 1.5 hours before the concert starts and we were surprised to see a line circling the House of Blues all the way around to the cigar bar.  Luckily for us, an hour passed by quickly with jokes and anticipation of our favorite acapella groups.

The concert quickly started without much technical difficulties and we were mind-blown.  For you Sing-Off fans, the concert started with a group song as usual.

BUT, it was much better than the show -- voices and harmonies were so much better live.  If you were getting the goose willies listening to the TV, man, you would probably become a fan girl like us too by the end of it.  The concert incorporated the classic songs from the Sing-off show such as Cruise (covered by Homefree) and One Direction Medley (by Filharmonic).

All of the acapella groups brought some new songs up their sleeves, and boy, the performances were sound-heaven! Homefree covered Justin Bieber's Baby. Voiceplay brought their musical theater background into play in their new mashup with Homefree.  Homefree's amazing rendering of Party Rock Anthem quickly started the party in House of Blues.  Did I mention that Austin tried to rap and Tim was twerking? Yes... shit went down.

Overall, it was 2.5 hours of extreme happiness.  Acapella might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those of you who do love acapella music, I would strongly recommend checking out concerts by any one of the contestant groups.  The Sing-off tour might be over, but Homefree did imply they might come back soon (and don't forget, Filharmonic is from LA).  If not, check out all of the contestants' youtube accounts -- I've attached one of the mash-up I love from the concert down below.  Survivor performed live was as much, if not even more, goosebump-inspiring.

Survivor - Cover by Hillbillies (Homefree) and Zombies (Voiceplay)

If you want to hear acapella anywhere and everywhere, my roommate strongly recommends voice play's new album, which you can find in their website down below.

Voiceplay Store

Thanks to everyone who made the Sing-off Tour such a memorable concert!

First Words

Hi to all who happened to stumble across my blog.  I'm a young professional who loves traveling and food.  My vacation has dropped dangerously towards the negatives in my attempt to satisfy my travel and food addition.  Just as my blog description states, this is a non-consistent blog for my travels, food, and urban adventures.  There's no theme to my blog, but if any of the posts or information helps you in your travels or urban adventures, that's a success.