Places That You Love

In My Humble Opinion
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Inspired in part by the best/worst towns in Canada/U.S. threads.

What are the places that you have lived or even just visited that you have really loved? The places that you would love to live in, or that you go back to repeatedly, the places that feed your heart and soul? And, briefly, why? Also, where have you NOT been but would like to go because you think it might be such a place, a place you could fall in love with? I am always interested in visiting great places, so I’d be really interested to hear your opinions.

I’ll go first:

Flathead Lake, Montana. This is the home of my heart. Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe it and I have a lot of family history tied up in the area. I hope to be able to move there permanently some day.

Catalina Island, California. Every time I’ve been to Catalina I’ve been struck by how pretty and peaceful it is, considering its proximity to LA.

Paso Robles, California. Beautiful wine country.

Vancouver, British Columbia. My favorite big city in the world. Clean, cosmopolitan, international, beautiful setting. Also, Victoria, British Columbia.

Edenton, North Carolina. Quiet pretty historic town on the North Carolina coast.

Charleston, South Carolina. Historic, attractive, arty, great restaurants, friendly people.

I have not been to but would love to visit Barcelona, Stockholm, and the highlands of Scotland.

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Chapel Hill, North Carolina - I’ve been there a million times. I have made a lot of friends there. When I go, I get to stay out in my friend’s farmhouse way out in the country and then spend my nights partying at all the different music clubs. If you’re part of the music scene at all, it’s nothing but a small town where everyone knows everyone else.

I also love traveling out to Durham, Pittsboro, Carborro, Hillsborro and Raleigh while I’m there. I am never ever bored when I’m in the RTP.

I miss it, a lot.

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Do these have to be towns/cities? Mine would mostly be wild areas…

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UP of Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior. I would live there in a heartbeat if I could. But we would probably have to retire to do it, because neither of our jobs would be do-able from there.

The Hawiian Islands, especially Maui. Can’t beat it for natural beauty and great weather.

The Black Hills area of South Dakota. Don’t know why, exactly…I guess it still kind of has the wildness of the west to it…you can imagine what it was like with herds of buffalo on the prairie.

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Lake Crescent, Washington. Blue blue water, hills covered in evergreens rising on each side.

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The Emigrant Wilderness, California. I’ve been in on horseback a couple of times, and I will go back before I die even if I have to hike. Gorgeous country, every bit as majestic as Yosemite, but you can go all day and see one or two people.

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Of course not! Do tell . . . .

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My most favorite place in the world is Buckhorn Lake State Park - This is the lodge. My family used to go on vacation there.

Place I’d want to go? I always thought somewhere out west - Nevada, Montana, South Dakota, I don’t know - I always thought Washington was beautiful too from the pictures I’ve seen…

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Why so US/Canada-centric?

Boston took my heart some years ago.

But I also love Punjab, India.

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Salzburg. Standing by the river on a rainy morning, looking up at the fortress half hidden by the clouds… it’s a city I could live in. I can see myself enjoying pastries and coffee on the weekends, watching the people walk by.

Crater Lake, Oregon. It’s so beautiful I could stand there all day watching the clouds reflected in the water.

Actually, anywhere I’ve ever been where there were mountains would qualify as a happy place for me. I need to visit the Canadian Rockies soon, and now that my sister is in Vancouver I have an extra excuse to do it.

I also love old cities with narrow streets and cafes. Needless to say, I loved Europe. I would live in Paris, in Florence, in Rome, in Amsterdam, in Salzburg, or in Prague. I don’t know if I could live in any of those cities forever, but I’d happily spend a year in each.

Oddly, NYC also put me in a happy Zen mode. I liked the bustle. I liked sitting in Central Park with a magazine, and I liked looking out at the city from my hotel balcony and hearing the city happen.

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Besides Boston, my favorite city in the entire world is Nara in Japan. It has the world’s largest wooden buildings, a giant Buddha, friendly people, and the DEER. Soooooooo cute! The deer walk through the city like it’s all one giant petting zoo. You can touch them and feed them and everything!

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I’m a big city guy, and my two favourite big cities are Chicago and Toronto. I lived in Chicago for years, and know my way around it better than some of the natives! My wife and most of her family are from Toronto, and I’ve come to love it and know it well over the years.

My other favorite place is Isfahan. I was very young when I lived there, and was only there for a short time, but I have very vivid memories of the dusty streets and surrounding mountains. I’d love to go back and visit someday.

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In the US, Honolulu. The rest of Hawaii, too, but living in Honolulu was great. And I enjoyed my brief sojourn in Albuquerque. I took the wife there, and she loves northern New Mexico.

Internationally: the Kathmandu Valley; and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

And Bangkok, of course. When I lived in northern Thailand, I hated Bangkok, but after you live here so many years, it grows on you, sort of like a fungus. I can’t imagine staying away from Bangkok for long. It always feels so GOOD to return when I’ve been away, even just upcountry.

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Oh, and where I want to go: Rwanda, to see the gorillas. I WILL do that some day.

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Do you like waterfalls? What about Upstate NY? My favorite places are the southern tips of the Finger Lakes. Not only Watkins Glen, of course, but also the innumerable waterfalls around Ithaca, and the several glens around the southern tip of Canandaigua lake including the nearly-unknown Clark Gully. Clark Gully is so steep and spectacular that we found it by simply looking at a topo map and guessing that there would be some fabulous terrain there! (It also has an interesting phenomenon of a disappearing creek: most of the time the creek that runs through it filters through to the underlying ground before it reaches its “parent” river.

If I could live anywhere it’d be somewhere on the southern tip of the Finger Lakes.

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Sedona, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona
Mogollon Rim, Arizona
Arcadia National Park, Maine
Mystic, Connecticut
Salem, Massachussetts
Vermont.

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Well, I already live here. :stuck_out_tongue: But yes, upstate NY is beautiful…stunningly so. I’ll bet for all the fun people poke at NY not one of you could match our fall season…'tis a thing to behold. It truly feels as though you could reach out and touch the sky.

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I haven’t been to very many places, so there’s really only one place (out of, say, 6 that I’ve visited) that I love and would want to visit several times over.

Reykjavik, Iceland (and the surrounding towns): It’s got a mix of modern and old world in it, and the scenery outside of town can be striking and stark. I have a lot of happy memories from visits there, and it’s one place that I’d like to introduce all my friends to. The downtown area is full of colorful buildings and neat shops, and the backdrop to the city is breathtaking. Outside of Reykjavik, there’s a wealth of different landscapes-- some are stark, while others are lush and green, and others are a mixture of both. I’ve never seen anything else like it besides film footage of New Zealand.

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Man I would second that! I did a project up at Big Mountain–and as you come down off the mountain, I really fell in love with this Valley. I also like the town there and just nice people. Schweitzer Mountain just to the west in Idaho is also very nice–but I would take Big Mountain/Flathead area over it.

The southern side of Utah–where the mountains hit the desert. Very nice–Arches, Monument Valley, etc. I grew up in Utah, and now when I go back I am just amazed every time.

Seattle and Portland–I really enjoy both of these areas quite a bit. Seattle is my home now and has been for 20 years but I am constantly impressed with the beauty here.

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Gross reservoir ,Colorado proposed to my wife here, spent many a drunken night on the shore, never once caught a fish out of it, but that’s ok.
Brú na Boinne - Newgrange and Knowth

Dublin and Kilkenny.