Jumping up and down because I was suddenly younger!

But seriously, probably on a small boat cruise in Alaska or exploring Costa Rica by jeep.

Well, I’d have to go way back in time to do this for my 50th, but for my next big birthday, which is this year, I’m thinking about taking my first cruise.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I’ll bring the cheese and crackers.

And I’ll bring the bubbly, @janbb.

I celebrated my 50th birthday in 2010 with an Asian vacation to Taiwan.
That was when I had money, not anymore. lol
I wish I would have bought that little bungalow in the banana grove in Toroko Taiwan. lol

Long cruise with my husband and some of my closest friends along. Minimum 10 days.

I am such a pooper.. I spent mine doing a project. I figured at 50 was finally an adult and could have a large tool chest for my garage.
Everyone in the family collected all the tools from everywhere: tool boxes, basement, kitchen, utility room, garage, barn, car trunks. We dumped them all out on a sheet on the garage floor and began to sort. Socket sets, screwdrivers, wrenches, drills, .... Some of the sets had not been together in 30 years!

The duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates were then sorted out and put in useful places . I now have a complete set of everything in the barn too. My basement work bench is well stocked and every car has a tool box.
It was such a nice way to spend the day and it accomplished something to boot! I still smile when I open the drawers and see all those screwdrivers all lined up.

If money were no object I would have enjoyed spending the day the same way.

One month, Amalfi Coast, Itally – in a cliff side villa overlooking the ocean.

The hubs is much closer to this than I, so the thing that immediately comes to mind is more for him. 70,000 Tons of Metal A cruise ship gone heavy metal festival.

Moving into a newly furnished, two story house with a big, covered front porch on fifteen or so acres of hilly land that has been furnished by a blank check to Ethan Allen furniture. Or , Thomasville if they’re still in business. Then, everyone would come over to enjoy a catered dinner with orchestra.

My sweetie’s is coming up, but sadly, time and money are tight. He stayed that he doesn’t want a party (we’re both introverts), so I’m just planning a nice evening for us.

I’d fly everyone who I wanted at the party to my favorite vacation spot; bring in my favorite musicians and artists and performers, and party it up for a weekend… or a week.

Rent a house on the Cayman Islands and invite friends to come for a weekend and big party.

I’d rent a villa on Lake Como in Italy for a weekend and feast northern Italian style with my friends and relatives.

My ex asked me that a month ahead of time, and then she didn’t like my answer so she didn’t even get me a fricking card.

I just wanted a super elegant dinner at a nice restaurant in San Francisco with three other couples who are close.

If I could do it now, it would be dinner in Lago Como or Venice. Plus a couple weeks before and after. Then a lot of sex.

I would fly my whole family to a rented condo on the beach. We would have a catered barbecue dinner and a band for the younger ones.

I don’t remember what I did for my 50th birthday, 20 years ago. For my birthday last year, we used some free room points and rented a two bedroom suite at a hotel with an indoor pool for my hubby and I and my son, his wife – who has a birthday the day before mine – and the boys, age 3 and 5.

Our adult grandsons drove over with some friends and we all had a giant pizza party in the living room and the bedrooms with the TV’s in each room watching the big game (whatever it was) and kids playing on the video games we brought. Some of us were on our laptops much of the time.

Everyone went swimming before the party and to the jacuzzi later in the evening. I was grateful for the pool side dressing rooms, I don’t know how we would have fit a dozen wet, dripping people all in our suite. We had a Deli cold cut platter buffet for evening snacks.

That night, the two little ones fell asleep in one bedroom, while the rest of us had popcorn and drinks, except the designated driver, who drank only Sierra Mist.

This year, we all went to the Golden Corral Buffet for our birthday.

Tour of Europe, or at least rent a villa in Tuscany for a month or so.

Mine is coming up. If money and time were really no object, I’d spend several months leisurely traveling through Europe.

I’m assuming that time travel would be no issue, too.

This time, I’d like to have my Dad call to say Happy Birthday. He died two days before my 50th.

I took a cruise to Alaska.

Like @janbb said, I’d pull out all the stops to be suddenly 20 years younger.

But to the meat of your question, the theme for someone else turning 50 should be that they have finally reached an age where they have now gathered wisdom, and they still have the rest of their life to capitalize on it.

I can’t remember what I did on my 50th, birthdays have never really been a big deal to me. But if I were suddenly to start celebrating I would fire up the land cruiser, buy a nice sized off road camper, load up the dogs and my husband we would take off to SA and follow the coast around through WA and on up to Darwin. Then on the way home we would criss cross the country on the Gun Barrel Highway, Birdsville Track. I have been through a lot of this country but not the western side or lower middle!

Can’t believe all you who would go on cruises. I can’t think of anything worse than being a prisoner on a big boat where all you do is eat and drink!

African safari

Already did it. My sons packed up me and my husband and their girlfriends and took us (that is, we took them, in our big old van) way up the Queets River on the Olympic Peninsula. We crossed the Queets with 60 pound packs and hiked another 8 miles or something till I was completely willing to die and then they cooked chicken adobo and we all ate till we dropped off to sleep in our lovely little tents. We stayed three nights. We slept on gravel bars in the river to keep cool. I took a long wander on my own up the river – it was very low – and watched otters playing on the bank for a half-hour before I climbed over a big fallen tree and was horrified to see a huge gathering of enormous bears, which luckily turned out to be an enormous gathering of huge elk. Oh god it was fun.
All of us were so young.