Posted on 12/07/2014 10:59:06 AM PST by Bettyprob
Edited on 12/08/2014 4:14:54 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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A summer on the waters of Southeast Alaska with at least a 38 foot boat. Pure Heaven on Earth. Period.
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I was in Ketchikan last summer on a day when there was a fair amount of blue sky. Residents there said that only happened occasionally. Mostly it rained.
Oh jeez! I used to travel to San Antonio 2-3 times a year on business and I always liked it. Good food! I’d probably weigh 500 pounds if I lived there.
I've been there several times and while I can't say hat I *love* the city I *do* find it fascinating.I must say that it's the only place on earth where *I* have ever seen two Ferarris parked side-by-side (and it was at my hotel,not at a dealership).
I also found driving the desert roads away from the city to be fascinating.
A lot depends upon your approach, your expectations and your state of mind. The single place in this list that I visited is Stonehenge and it was a wonderful experience. Then again, I know both the history and legends of Stonehenge. Also and by great good fortune, the trip there was able to watch the August sunrise and actually walk and touch the stones in a small 30 person group. However, even without that special treatment, I know I would have valued my trip there.
If I were one of the people I see who are wedded to instant gratification through their electronics and expect these places to entertain them, nothing outside the various amusement parks will do. I hope that as these people age, since they are mostly ‘young’, that they too will learn the internal entertainment that comes from experience and learning.
Yeah the lake Superior shore is awesome for solitude. Some places you could walk on the beach for hours without seeing another human being.
I’ve also been to LA, and yes there were a few places, but I think it’s highly overrated as whole. Even California’s nature places aren’t that great, in my opinion. Sure we have a few nice zoos, and many theme parks and beaches if you’re into that, but this state isn’t where I would choose to visit if I lived in a different state or country. Maybe I’m jaded because I live here, but this state is not that great as a whole.
I like that town too. Recommended it to the friend I was talking about. He and his wife now go there at least once a year.
We wee very fortunate toured Paris for 5 days with French friends. 2 bedroom apt and good local neighborhood, bakery, store, Metro etc. We saw more than I would every planned and good local flavor thanx to them. I would suggest go to Paris use local guide for yourself or companions. I would go back anytime. been twice.
Venice doesn’t care if you come or not. Won
t see many ads. They have enough tourists. We went in early December and no crowds also avoided the high tide for two days. Bucket list recommendation. Go once for the experience. Unique.
My favorite: “[–]Noneerror 210 points 12 days ago
Gibraltar. It really is just a big rock and not the country it technically claims to be. The hotel sucked. A car had washed up into the swimming pool. That was despite a very clear sign that you weren’t supposed to throw your car off a cliff into the ocean. The food was disgusting and I wasn’t the only one who refused to eat it. Everyone who decided to eat it anyway got sick. I also got peed on by a monkey.
You can see everything Gibraltar has to offer in a few hours. We were stuck there for a week. Then we got stuck there after we were supposed to leave due to bad weather. Thick fog meant we spent 18 hours waiting in the airport while periodically watching our plane attempt to land and abort each time. Each time it almost crashing horribly in a new way that would have blocked the only road out of Gibraltar. The runway and the road are the same bit of asphalt.
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I used to do Computer field service and would walk among the tourists everyday in Boston and would always ask myself who in their right mind would spend hard earned money to visit THIS place.
This was also during the Big Dig when the entire city was one big construction mud hole.
On vacation when I was a teen, I almost drown up there trying to learn to water ski. Never thought I would make it, but finally turned loose of the ropes....after being dragged underwater for awhile. I did get out of it without an ambulance, barely.
Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the world, geographically. Now nearly all cesspool.
Have given numerous family and friends tours and they all loved it.
Don’t forget to visit the world’s largest ball of twine! Actually several claim the title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggest_ball_of_twine
Or the world’s largest frying pan. Six claim the title.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2010/07/the_worlds_larg.php
Went in March of this year. No crowds and got an apartment on the water for next to nothing. Very little waiting to get into the main attractions. Flooding can be an issue at that time of the year, but we got lucky..
Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Park, Union square shopping. Architecture: Victorians downtown bridges, etc. Largest Chinatown outside China. Theatre (beach Blanket Babylon alone worth a trip). North beach for what’s left of little Italy.
Cross the bridge to Sausilito. Down to carmel and Monterrey.
You could do a week and have a greta time if you know what to do and where to go.
I’m going to disagree about Paris. Yes, the locals can be a bit surly. I myself did not find them to be excessively so. Let it be said that if these “reviews” were written by people thinking that an entire city should be sort of waiting around for their entitled selves to be shown around in pampered kind of way, disappointment is likely to result.
I visited Paris twice in 2005 for a grand total of about 4 hours each. I was working on a cruise ship which docked at Le Havre, from where we had to take a 2 hour (each way) fast train ride to Paris. You miss the return train, end of story. So one time I joined with 4-5 much younger folks who had mapped out a blitzkrieg high-velocity precision walking tour of the Tower, l’Arc de Triomphe, buzz by the Louvre, and some Seine walking. The other time I just hung out, wandered around in a small circle near La Gare (train sta) and looked at old buildings, wandered into a perfume museum, and sat down for a coffee.
Because of my absolute time limitation, not to mention poor funding relative to how freaking expensive things are in Europe, I nevertheless had a great time wandering around looking at old buildings and shops and sensibilities.
I also got a haircut there (much cheaper than on the boat, even w/my discount) and had a great conversation with the barber who cut my hair about GWBush and the state of things in the world at that time. I was initially a tad concerned about expressing a generally pro-American viewpoint with someone who held a blade near my corotid artery, but found the man to be a nice guy and rather pro-US.
It’s a city. Get over it. People are there to earn their livings, and some of those livings derive from outrageously wealthy people who think nothing of spending $300 on lunch. If that ain’t you, you won’t feel comfortable. It reminded me a lot of NYC. Stuff to look at everywhere you look, new, 100 years old, 200, 300, 400, 500 years old, juxtaposed together. You don’t go there expecting a nature preserve.
We went to Iguazu Falls border of Argentina and Brazil. Great two day visit, spectacular. National park on each side of the border. Some great places in southern Chile/Argentina. After Rio and Buenas Ares and the Falls we took a great cruise Buenas Aires-Valpairiso.
Right on. I always liked the River-walk, too. Before I had kids, I was there for 2 weeks and I flew my wife out so that she’d be there Thursday night to Sunday night (the boss scheduled Friday’s activities to only last until noon). My wife really liked it, too. We liked going up in their version of the Space Needle and eating in their rotating restaurant.
Venice was an ugly city back in the 1970s when I first visited. The place smelled musty and the buildings were dirty and falling apart. Apparently, sometime before the late 1990s when I was in Venice for the second time, it appears the city was cleaned up and the musty smell was gone. I don't consider Venice a tourist trap. It has lovely architecture, the people are nice, and a visit to the glass factory is awesome.
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