Travel plans

[icepixie]

I've been working on a list of all the places I want to visit before I die. Here's the list. You will soon see a theme, and I'll give you three guesses as to what it is. The first two don't count.

North America

New Mexico
- Santa Fe, epecially at Christmastime to see the luminarias/farolitos
- Albuquerque, particularly for the Balloon Fiesta in October. (What would be awesome if I had the cash and time would be to start out here in Oct., travel the West for a couple months, and end up in Santa Fe for the holidays.)
- Roswell, for obvious reasons.

California
- San Francisco
- Yosemite National Park and a Redwood Park
- Salinas and Monterrey, aka Steinbeck country. If it's half as beautiful as his books make it out to be, it must be gorgeous.
- A drive along the coast (mostly through the area known as Big Sur), starting at Carmel and ending at Santa Barbara

Portland, OR (including Powell's!)

Roslyn, WA (filming location for Northern Exposure)

Yellowstone National Park

Take a train along both the Coast Starlight (Seattle to L.A.) and California Zephyr routes.

Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian museums (mmmmMuseums, I would be in heaven), the Mall/Lincoln Memorial/other touristy government buildings, FBI building for X-Files geeking

Virginia
- Colonial Williamsburg for historical geeking
- Shenandoah National Park

Savannah, GA, for Old South architecture

St. Augustine, FL, for Spanish-flavored historical geeking

Boston, MA, for yet more historical goodness and also for parks/riverfront prettiness. Probably can throw in Philadelphia, PA, for similar history geek reasons.

Quebec City for more history/architecture (I'm sure you see a theme by now) and also the Winter Carnival

Cape Breton, particularly for the Celtic Colours Festival in October. Also, the landscape would probably be at its prettiest right about then.


Europe

Austria
- Salzburg for the music festival in August and mountain gamboling (last time I was there, it was over Easter, which was pretty awesome, but mountain picknicking was ruled out by rain on the second day)
- Vienna

Italy's Lake Como in the Alps (OMGBEAUTIFUL)

Galicia in Spain

A pipe dream is to take the current incarnation of the Orient Express from beginning to end, wherever those are nowadays.


South America

Buenos Aires--birthplace of Tango!


Hmmm. Obviously I need to become fabulously wealthy in short order if I want to be able to do all that. Anyone got any surefire stock tips?

Comments

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

A lot of these are on my before-I-die list, too--except of course the ones I've already been to. Savannah in particular is such a gorgeous city, one of my favorites I've ever visited and probably my favorite in the South. My biased love for DC and now San Francisco are on the record. :) And the Shenandoah Valley is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, I firmly believe.

[icepixie]

Savannah in particular is such a gorgeous city, one of my favorites I've ever visited and probably my favorite in the South.

Yes. I drool at pictures I see of it.

And the Shenandoah Valley is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, I firmly believe.

My family vacationed in the Smokies a few years ago, and that was amazing; Shenandoah sounds similar, but possibly even prettier. Somewhere I want to go, anyway.