The first question of November is…
“What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been, and why did you think it was so beautiful? Why were you there?”
(I realize that’s actually THREE questions, but it’s my blog! Nyeah!)
As I said in my previous post, feel free to answer, and then check back in, and say if you’ve been someplace that someone else has, and whether you liked it or not, and if you’ve always dreamed of going there, etc. etc. etc….
I understand it’s pretty gray and cloudy everywhere but here (oddly, we’ve got no rain, and it’s crisp and clear and frosty… who took our humidity?) so remembering beautiful places in our lives is often just the ticket to providing a little personal light.
And now I’m going to go write Hallmark cards while eating cotton candy. Gosh!
November 1st, 2006 at 10:07 am
Two places, Meg. Halong Bay in Vietnam (incredibly serene, went for work) and the Galapagos Island (like going back in time, went for our honeymoon.)
November 1st, 2006 at 10:11 am
You know, I’ve been a lot of places, but to me the most beautiful place on earth is still Long Beach, between Tofino and Ucluelet.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:25 am
this is going to sound lame, perhaps, but the vistas from Keats Island (only an hour from home) are still my favourite. I have been to a few other places (though none so far flung as Vietnam or the Galapagos), but I still find my best self and renew my faith when I sit on a Keats rock, attuning myself to the many moods of the sea.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:34 am
i am going to say Playa Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica. it is a nature preserve with an absolutely pristine beach with sparkling white-sugar sand, and warm turquoise water. AND! there are spider monkeys just hanging out in the trees! i found it remarkably beautiful because it is well preserved and clean, albeit a tad crowded. i have been there a few times on vacation, and can’t wait to go back.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:01 am
Taking this from two angles…the first most beautiful place was the top of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (mmm, Blood of Christ) just outside Taos, New Mexico. More than four times on this driving trip of the southwest, my husband and I stopped and were moved to TEARS by the light. I kid you not. Desert light is magic.
Second answer: The most beautiful place is always California, where I live, when I am coming home from somewhere else. Possibly the most beautiful time was after coming home from barren, cold bumf**k Havre, Montana. Oh, my beautiful rolling hills!
November 1st, 2006 at 11:08 am
standing on the new black sand beach in kalapana, hawai’i on my honeymoon in 1991. there was something so hauntingly beautiful about standing on land that no one else had ever walked on before. but it was also quite a testament to the power of nature because the volcano had destroyed over 180 homes and businesses to get to the ocean to make that new land.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:41 am
Liz: I’ve been to that beach twice, and you’re right, it is extraordinary. I like that you have to hike for an hour to get to it–it makes it all the better. I don’t think I found it particularly crowded, but I guess I’ve always gone in the rainy season.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:46 am
“Determined Vancouverite” (I’m grinning), I totally agree that Keats is a beautiful spot. It’s almost absurdly perfect during a sunset… you can’t find that kind of view many places.
How expensive is it to go to Costa Rica? Is that something you could do on a budget, or one of those outlandish HOLY CRAP WHO CAN AFFORD THIS spots like Hawaii?
November 1st, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.
I was there for my honeymoon- Picture an empty white sand beach at sunset, with a trio of wild horses running down the shore.
Yeah.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:21 pm
ireland–both northern and the republic of. went there for my old boss’s wedding back in 1995. it was greener than you can ever imagine. and there were rainbows ACROSS the green mountains (as in, lower in the sky than the ones i’d previously seen). way beautiful.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Oooh! Tell me about Northern Ireland. My family’s out of there, and I’ve not been. If you’re reading this… ANYONE… and you’ve been there, do tell.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Redwood Forest NP Cali and Organ Pipe Nat Monument Arizona
November 1st, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Flying over the rockies with my mom at sunset. We were right below the clouds and the clouds turned pink, the snow below was pink on the purple mountains, even the air seemed pink in the most happy and warm shade of pink you can imagine. And I never liked pink before that day. Now I love it.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:55 pm
i’ve found flights to Costa Rica to be quite reasonable, though i’ve never researched flights from vancouver. once you get there….dirt cheap, if you don’t mind staying in hotels and hostels that are full of, ahem, charm. the few times i’ve gone, i’ve always traveled by bus within the country, and that’s cheap. i eat cheaply too, and don’t buy a lot of knick-knacks, so i don’t spend too much once i’m there. i’m ready for another trip…any takers?
November 1st, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Crater Lake, Oregon. Even looking at the pictures now (every day; it’s my laptop’s wallpaper) takes my breath away.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Meg: Let get around to blogging about Costa Rica (unless I have already).
As for Northern Ireland, I’ve only been to Belfast a couple of times. It’s a strange and eerie city–a bit like an enormous film set. It’s not particularly dangerous, so long as you know which bits to avoid (that’s true in any city).
My understanding is that the rest of Northern Ireland is much like the Republic–green rolling hills and charming small towns.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:29 pm
The most beautiful place I have ever seen — though, sadly, only on film — is the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. There is just something about that place that makes me very emotional and I am not sure why.
I would love to go to many places but Costa Rica and Ireland top the list.
This may sound biased, but the mountains in the Salt Lake City are pretty damn nice to look at. Here is a picture for those who have never seen them.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
all of northern ireland was beautiful. went to a little town named ardara (pronounced arDRA) that was so much fun. the drive to get there (near londonderry) was out in the middle of nowhere and way way cool. if you ever come to the bay area (again) i’ll get out my photo album!
November 1st, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Haven’t been to the many “beautiful” places I dream about - yet. I long to go to some of the places mentioned here - Ireland, Macchu Picchu, the Redwoods in California and the South Pacific.
*SIGH* - some day.
The place that tops my list of most beautiful I have been so on several occasions is Sanibel Island/Captiva Island, Florida.
Particularly while watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico on a *warm* and breezy evening in the middle of WINTER. (I come from New England.)
Sanibel Beach is also the world’s best “shelling” beach, too. I can spend literally days beachcombing there.
November 1st, 2006 at 7:16 pm
Loving these answers. I think I’d have to say my all-time favorite was Little Cayman. Don’t know what it’s like now, but when I was there (nearly 20 years ago…eek!) it was what you’d imagine an almost deserted island to be. But for day-to-day, I must say I never grew tired of the views around St. Thomas (we lived there for five years)…nothing like driving home from K-Mart (tacky, I know, but it was cheap) to gaze out at nothing but blue, blue Caribbean and a bunch of islands. Danielle mentioned Vieques and I feel incredibly lame since I could see it driving to work in the morning…and we never went. I’ve heard Culebra is even more wonderful. (I’ve been plenty of places outside the Caribbean…but it just does it for me.)
November 1st, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Hi Meg,
I never post but I read you everyday! I had to comment here because I just came back from a trip to Tuscany — and it really is heaven on earth. There is nothing more beautiful than a sunrise over misty olive groves…unless it’s a sunset falling over dark green hills while pheasants fly overhead. If you’d like to have a look, here is one of my favorite scenes from the trip.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:01 pm
On the eastern shore of Kauai watching the yellow ball of sun sneak up out of the water while my feet were in the warm sand and all three of my kids stood in silent amazement. It doesn’t get much better than that. Warmth. Beauty. The presence of awe-struck children.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Wow, I’m really late getting in here…but! The most beautiful place I’ve ever been is Sunset Beach on the north shore of Oahu. It took my breath away. The amazing turquoise water with the wild waves, the perfect white beach, the sky… everything was perfect. I was there for a conference, but my two good friends and I took off in a Mustang convertible and just drove. yeah. sigh.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:43 pm
There was a beach– two beaches, actually–that I visited while in the Philippines for a family reunion. In retrospect maybe it wasn’t all that, relatively speaking, but in the morning and in the evening, with the right light… they were gorgeous. I think the fact that I was thousands of miles away from my home, in a new place, far from civilization, contributed to my perception of the moment.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:46 pm
The most beautiful place I’ve ever been was actually underwater.
I lay face down in the water off the coast of an island in the Howe Sound for three hours once, breathing through a snorkel, eyes watching schools of fish go by, watching the afternoon light break into the blue-gray-green of the waves and fade into charcoal gray below me, and hearing nothing but the waves and feeling nothing but floating.
I am a kickass floater. I don’t need to move. And I never, ever sink.
I felt more peace in those three hours than ever before or since. I dreamed, I prayed, I smiled to myself, and then I swam back to shore to watch the sun set.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:48 am
Without a doubt it’s Calgary Bay on the west coast of the Isle of Mull in Scotland. I was there on holiday and we had driven around most of the western coast of the island which is extremely rocky and quite beautiful in it’s own way - lots of waterfalls and such - and then we came around a sharp curve in the road and there was Calgary Bay spread out before us. The beach is a beautiful white sand beach - quite deep - and there is very little if any human habitation (which in imho makes any place on earth beautiful). I’m sure part of it was that it was July, the sun was shining, the waters were a brilliant blue and the winds were calm but regardless of all that I’d seen before or since, Calgary Bay remains the most beautiful.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:51 am
Sanibel is a great place…we went there every summer when I was a kid, probably for 15 years or so. I learned how to swim there; it’s very peaceful and serene, great for long walks on the beach.
That being said, the most beautiful place, for me, always involves a beach and the ocean. I am having trouble picking one particular place but the top two that come to mind are:
1) the amazingly soft white and pink sand beaches of Bermuda with the incredibly crystal clear blue ocean water that is shockingly cold at first;
2) overlooking Laguna Beach on a perfectly sunny and cloudless day, with the amazing blue sky, the dark blue ocean, the white, white beach and the palm trees swaying in the wind.
Good times.
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:36 am
Rome was really beautiful too. All the old mixed with the newer. A gorgeous fountain on practically every street corner. It was amazing!
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
It sounds so trite, really, but I have to say Paris. The first time. I was just stunned by the beauty of the city and its promise of showing me everything I loved that I knew was there and hadn’t seen. The smell of French perfume in the Metro–the outdoor vegetable garden under the a canopy of city trees I’d never seen in New York–the cab driver asking me where my femme was. It was all to perfect.
Istanbul runs a close second. I knew less about it going in, but the strangeness of it all compensated for the promise of showing me what I’ve been looking for. Lots of surprises–and very beautiful. It had a similar integrity of place, in a sense.
November 4th, 2006 at 1:20 am
I have been to many beautiful places, but Western Australia tops the list. I’d give anything to be able to go back again.
November 9th, 2006 at 3:47 am
I think that the most beautiful place I have ever been is Yosmite National Park in California.