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My list of fun places to spend a few days would run something like:
1. NYC (the performing arts, Central Park, delis)
2. Mexico City (arts, food, pyramids)
3. Montreal (cafes, more cosmopolitan than NYC)
4. San Francisco (scenery, food)
5. San Diego (weather, zoo)
6. Anchorage (salmon bakes, mountains, outdoor stuff)
7. Vancouver (food, the Fringe, scenic, not too far from Victoria and Buchart Gardens)
8. Seattle (fish, gardens, ferrys)
9. Chicago (pizza, architecture, American Gothic)
10. DC (museums, monuments, plus crab cakes up the road in Baltimore)
Also rans - LA for the beaches, Guadalajara for food and music, San Antonio for general ambiance, New Orleans for food, booze and music, Buffalo for Frank L. Wright and proximity to the Shaw Theatre and Niagara Falls.
There's a city list at Mongabay to help jog your memory.
We hit a dock on the Charles River for some sunbathing one trip and that was fun hanging out on. Then my wife decided to cool off and jumped in the river and I thought the 20 other people on the dock were going to freak out. If cell phones had been common back then, I'm sure a few would have called 911. We didn't know that the Charles was about as safe to wade in as Love Canal at the time. :P
We spent a few days there on another trip and stayed with an old college roommate of my wife. Her boyfriend almost got into a fight at a fern bar (the roomies old flame showed up and that didn't set well with the current flame).
But those are the kinds of trips you remember.
I need a San Diego fix - haven't eaten at the Hob Nob Hill for years.
I don't know, a couple of Corona's and lot of nice stuff to see lounging on the beach while soaking in the rays! I think I could last more than 2 days there!
That trip wasn't a total loss though - I got to see Priscilla Presley at the Arch. Woo Hoo. :P She was too claustrophobic to go up in the tram. The museum in the base of the Arch is terrific btw.
My wife is a native of San Diego, so I always got good tours there by locals. Then all her relatives moved away, darn it.
But there were LOTS of categories and SD did well for weather and cleanliness.
I think it's a popular city for families traveling together, which is a form of vacation rather outside my lifestyle these days.
New Orleans rated as the least clean city and one of the least attractive for a family vacation.
Dallas scored pretty badly in just about all categories except "affordability".
You may be right about the safety issue in Mexico, but the news reports, right or wrong, shape perceptions. I imagine many parts of Mexico are reasonably safe, while the border towns and Mexico City have elevated risk. I'd take a chance on Guadalajara, which I'd love to visit, and Cancun. I was in Cancun briefly several years ago, and Acapulco many years ago.
That said there's loads of probably great cities that I just haven't gotten to yet.
New York is one of my "familiarity breeds contempt" cities.
Also, while it is great fun there, you do have to sharpen your elbows. There's always someone lookin' for that little edge.
I was born and raised there, so I feel qualified to pontificate on this subject :P
Boston didn't make the cut. Toronta did, which suprised me a little. I'd rank it behind, oh, Edmonton or St. John's for a tourist to Canada.
What am I missing about Charleston SC.? Aren't they a bunch of troublemakers?
I'd put Rome over Florence anyday, but I agree with Cape Town being a fabulous city to visit.
Not sure why Carmel made the list...pretty and all that but how many teddy bear stores can you bear?
I got a watch in Carmel. Still ticking although I may only wear a watch once every year or two. Found it on the beach. I don't remember any good food there. :shades:
I'll have to add Hanoi and Cape Town to my list.
I'm expecting road trip company next week - makes me jealous. We'll be a stopover for their PA to Fairbanks excursion.
I did see Kirstie, though!
We have a family vacation, next month.. Thinking about going to Baltimore. (main reason: non-stop airfare for $100/ea. R/T).
Any thoughts on Baltimore?
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I wonder if the Food Network has a travel agency....
Speaking of Carmel----if you want to stay at one of the best camping spots in the world, try Kirk Creek in Big Sur. There's also the Henry Miller Museum nearby, a most eccentric little shack filled with Miller memorabilia, and if you're tired of camping you can book the Director's House at the Asilomar Conference Center---sleeps six, right near the beach for $300 a night, with kitchen, fireplace and nearby recreation center--and you can walk along a boardwalk all the way to Spanish Bay and even beyond--miles and miles and miles. Or rent a bike there and do it that way.
As well, to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary, we've planned touring through South Africa next August. Most of the urban time there will be spent in Cape Town. Mr. Shiftright, you mentioned Cape Town recently. Any special advice for us to follow?
Regards,
Jose
PS: In NYC there is an interesting but not well known museum in the premises of the Hispanic Society of America:
hispanicsociety
wikipedia
Southafrica.net
I think due to recent currency drops, the place is actually affordable once again (used to be very $$$). There's a botanical garden that's quite something, and hiking on Table Mountain. You can go horsebacking riding at Noordhoek Beach and get a fabulous lunch at Noordhoek's Food Barn. There's also a wine route you can tour. It's really beautiful there if you are a nature lover. As they say "Part Alaska, part Big Sur".
Also, any tricks for being able to get a specific car from a rental agency? Maybe call a few days ahead and arrange for one to be there?
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
So what road trips do you have planned for this summer?
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
The 30 year anniversary was actually yesterday (18 May).
No road trips planned for us this year, though the wife has to travel to south central Colorado for a week towards the end of June.
Hope you can make the trip on a very clear day because the mountain doesn't come out frequently. 98649 is the nearest ZIP code for getting the latest weather report.
Enjoy your trip,
Euphonium
http://www.tdn.com/app/helens/
Always liked that part of Florida, although I usually stayed over in Destin. Besides the tar balls, it'd be a major bummer is more of the fishing gets shut down and you can't get fresh seafood down there. Hopefully the mud they're injecting will plug the well soon.
Ironic thing - they are now worried about our oil hitting Cuba. I'd just always assumed it would be the other way around.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I got an email today from our hotel in Panama City. They wrote that we could cancel up to the day of our arrival, due to the uncertainty of oil getting on their beaches. Prior to that you had to give a 30 day notice to get your $200 deposit back. That takes some pressure off... as I couldn't decide whether to cancel or not. If oil hits the beach, maybe we'll go to Disney World. We've been talking about that trip for a year or two. :shades:
My guide friend says bookings up in Alaska are still way down. Good deals can be had on Denali hotel and bus tour packages into the park - those things never have been on sale before. One rafting business over in Valdez is shutting down and selling all their rafting gear.
Tough biz....
I think people will adapt over time but if vacationers keep coming out of the surf with black feet, the word will definitely spread.
Commercial fishing is another problem. But vacation economies can flourish in areas that have no commercial fishing.
The real scary part is if this oil starts creeping up the East Coast.
Or come to my home town, Santa Cruz. Our beaches are beautiful, even if you'll suffer hypothermia if you try to swim :P
Oddly enough, little kids jump right in there. And surfers, of course, who are probably crazy anyway. We have some of the *best* surf in the world here.
I wear a shorty wetsuit to boogie-board, so if you come, rent one of those and you're good to go.
We also have one of the best freak collections on the west coast.
There is a resort a little north of Oxnard, CA that has a beautiful Pacific beach, however you occasionally get a tar ball on your foot. They said at the Embassy Suites it was because of an old oil incident years ago. The gulf beach at Destin, FL someone just mentioned is fantastic. It is just horrible to see how it may be ruined for years. From what I've read it appears BP may have been rushing, or short cutting the project which may have led to the platform and well explosion. I hope that isn't true.
I remember as a kid at the Jersey shore that there was some oil in the sand. Hasn't been there for decades. Sure as heck hoping not to see it again.
Having grown up in Oxnard, I know what you're talking about. I was never much of a beach person to begin with, and every excursion seemed to end with someone having tar stuck to the bottom of their foot. Not fun!
As this was during the 70's, I suspect the issue was the oil spill in the Santa Barbara channel in 1969. It, too, was an offshore well that went bad. It was the cause of much of the drilling legislation that was enacted by California in the 70's - some of the toughest in the nation.
A quick article on the '69 spill
Of course Florida has learned the hard way that you can't control what neighboring states do to screw up your environment.
I'm trying to remember what my mother used to use to get the tar off our feet. Alcohol maybe?