Monday, May 27, 2013

Oh The Places You Go!

Both M's graduating preschooler (see here) and I (see here) were recently given a copy of Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! (I noted that the subtitle was "Party Edition" and wondered if they were all Party Editions? And then I thought:  Hey!  I am a Party Edition!)  And so of course I had to add a new box to the right because that's how my mind works...


Anyway, I reread the book this afternoon, because, well it was day 6 of the driving rain and I needed to cheer myself up!  What helped me turn the corner was this verse:

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

And that got me to thinking about places I have been and loved and some places I need to get to, pronto...

So today, we are going on a little side trip to divert me from the rain!  There are two categories: places I have been and ESPECIALLY loved  and places I have not been yet but think I WILL ESPECIALLY love:

Places I have been and especially loved:

L'Etre Bidault in Normandy - one of the prettiest places we have every visited!  Just divine!

Little gite in Normandy called L'Etre Bidault.  This place was divine, from the cows in the adjoining field, the house up the lane that sold champagne out of the kitchen, the little town 5 minutes away with the chocolatier that sold chocolates in Kama Sutra shapes.  I could live here from May to the end of October, when I would have to go South!

Mont St. Michel, France...also known as Hogwarts/Tangled.

Mont St. Michel.  Like a little fairy world, but with tacky shops.  One of those AH..... moments...

Claude Monet’s House in Giverny, France

Monet's Garden.  Like a pilgrimage to me.  Almost pitched a tent to stay for the duration.



And I'll always have Paris.




The Tower of London.  I am a history geek and I just kept touching the walls and thinking "Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I might have touched these walls..."


Quebec City.  Why go to France when you can have the same experience so close to home?  So divine!


My brother lives in Jasper, Alberta, and you would have to go a long way to find something so beautiful.

and of course, I cannot forget New Brunswick


A little je ne sais quoi by the ocean in St. Andrew-by-the-Sea...

I could go on and on...

places I have not been yet but think I WILL ESPECIALLY love:

Dunvegan Castle - the home of Clan Macleod on the Isle of sky

Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye in Scotland, home of Clan MacLeod.  I think they have been waiting for me "Ohhh - she's back."  Much frivolity all around then!

Bruges, Belgium | Incredible Pictures

Bruges Belgium.  Ever since I saw "In Bruges" I have been desperate to get here.  Am willing to dodge hitmen and movie sets if need be!

Lovely house in Giethoorn, called “Venice of the Netherlands”

Giethoorn in the Netherlands.  What is about a town with a lot of canals?  Oh yeah - it's boats and lush greenery and the promise of living like Snow White...(I will see Tabs there for sure).

Venice, Italy

Mai Tai just did an amazing series of posts about her recent visit to Venice, which has made me desperate to go there, and while there, I will have to pop up to Florence:

Four Bridges of Florence, Italy

Only downside is that Barry will be constantly impersonating Denholm Elliott in A Room with a View - "I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!"


Carmel California


And California must be visited!

Oh gosh, then I am going to do some hiking in El Camino...

El camino al faro  Cudillero Astúrias

And I want to see the hill country of Texas..

THC - Best of Fredericksburg Texas - Texas Hill Country Trail, Texas  Location: Austin through Bandera and other towns  Distance: 280 miles; 5 hours, 30 minutes

And my grandmother was born 99 years ago this year in Invercargill, New Zealand, so need to go there as well..



Once you just start dreaming, it is hard to stop.....

It is still raining outside, but that's okay.  I'm too busy travelling and dreaming to pay that never-no-mind.

What about you?  Would love to know some of your favourite haunts and what's left on YOUR bucket list!

Have a happy, and hopefully for me at least, dry Monday!  Stay Safe out there!


47 comments:

  1. I hope the WMM tour brings you to LA or San Francisco, since I am bound to guilt you and Barry into tea with my husband and yours truly. San Francisco is truly a marvel, if my husband didn't have to spend so much time in LA for work, I would buy an apartment in Russian Hill and just stay put. I dream of going to London, Prague, Rome, and the Isle of Skye, and more immediately Canada! Coming from an underprivileged family, I have not yet had a chance to see all these wonderful places, but I have to admit that while tempting, I have the best view when I wake up. I hear the waves and get to see my beautiful husband. Nothing can be better than that :)

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    1. well we have the california guide book sitting on the coffee table right now, so you never know!

      I didn't really get to start travelling until I was in my 30s - we never had money to travel further than Boston or Ottawa when I was a kid, so feel I am making up for lost time!

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    2. That gives me hope, WMM! (on both counts) My husband loves to travel, as do I, but both of us are on a plane every week for professional reasons so being ag home feels like a vacation :)

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  2. Oh such beautiful places, that little gite is a rustic stunner, oh wasn't In Bruges hilarious?

    Hmm, I've covered most places now, I think for newness St Petersburg and I will go back time and time again to Venice, LA, Cap Ferrat, and London.

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    1. when you are in Jolly old London next, touch some walls for me! I found everyone in London so friendly!

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    2. You will be the Helen Keller of visitors, Tabs! (sorry - is that bad taste?)

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  3. Wendy, we're having vile rain too, I feel your pain!

    Love your places - I'd love to go to the Isle of Skye one day!
    If you do ever visit Invercargill, you MUST make a short detour to visit us in Sydney!!

    Hope your rain abates soon and that you make it to all of those places soon!

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    1. PS: I love your 'Party Edition' picture! It is FAB!!!

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    2. Ruth, If I can ever get over to NZ, I am definitely hitting Australia, too, so you will definitely see me!

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  4. I love your party edition photo!

    For me, to return to:
    The high desert in California
    California Coast
    Iceland
    Haute Provence
    Paris
    Cote d'Azur etc
    Les Calanques
    Fontainebleau
    Adriatic Coast
    Milan
    Florence
    Rome
    etc. basically everywhere I've been to in France and Italy and Spain
    Southern Sweden
    NYC
    New Hampshire and Maine

    To go to:
    more of Scandinavia
    Greenland
    Maldives
    India
    Japan
    S. Africa
    LA
    Northern Canada (as far North as possible)
    Gaspésie
    the West Coast of Canada, especially Squamish
    Northern California Coast
    Oregon
    NZ & Australia
    London
    Southern Italy
    Turkey
    Canary Islands
    W. Africa
    Jungfrau - ha, someday I'll get there
    Berlin
    Montblanc/Chamonix
    Pyrénées
    Ile de la Réunion
    Mexico

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    1. Ha, just realized how long those lists are! I do love to travel :)

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    2. great lists!! I only flew into Iceland - the scenery outside the airplane looked amazing! You should add Canada and come see us!

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    3. I realized that I only put the Canadian places that I've never been. Toronto and Montreal are assumed, I guess! I have been to NB, but a long time ago, so maybe a return visit is in order :)

      Iceland is amazing - one of the coolest places I have ever been. Like you, I flew through before visiting, and even that gives you a good taste for the amazing landscape!

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    4. Abby - champers is always chilled for you!

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    5. wow Abby, you have plans!

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  5. Antartic, Galapagos, Sakhalin Islands, Bhutan, and that town in Holland you showed us is now on my list! PS Skye is utterly amazing and the food there is such a high standard - they have two michelin starred restaurants there!

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    1. Uh oh - better go buy my scotland travel guide....

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    2. Skye sounds like a dream. The UK is fascinating to me! I flew through Heathrow once, and was so tempted to just get out of the airport! I like to read British cozies and always wonder about London suburbs and the Cotswolds, sounds like such a lovely place!

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    3. I went through the Cotswolds on a day trip once - just amazing! I was besides myself with the thatched roofs, which are also to found in the Netherlands. Such wonderful landscapes!

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    4. Skye is quite incredible, it feel so prehistoric, I like the little cheapie places to eat where you sit outside at a wooden table with a platter of food and a flirty alcoholic beverage.

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    5. Skye is elemental, I think. We stayed in a big Victorian B&B, African game trophies everywhere;drove the beautiful roads and bought sweaters hand knit on the island.

      We have an opportunity to see Peru and the Galapagos later this year; never thought I would be able to go and very special for a life long naturalist/biologist.

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    6. hmm - skye may be next on list, though tabs has my excited aboutr cali!

      lane! what a trip of a lifetime! we need to meet the $650m jackpot winner from florida so they can banroll our travels!

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    7. After reading a few other choices, Iceland is now also on my to go places! This list is getting more costly by the comment ;)

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    8. California is one of those places that people come to and never leave. I should know, I was one of those suckers :)

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  6. I've always wanted to go to St. Andrews By The Sea!
    Your list is excellent and I don't think I would add anything else.

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    2. get mr. bp to bring you down. he can spend his money at nearby chocolate factory!

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    3. That's so funny Wendy, they'll be happy to have Mr Big Spender On Holiday walking through the door!

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    4. Yes - and wait till the whales see him - they will be all over themselves coming up to the boat!

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  7. it's funny how you hear about someplace and a name, an image sticks in your mind. I've been very lucky in my travels. I'd like to see Kashmir again, the shimmering impossible beauty so at odds with history. I'd go back to Carcassonne in a minute, the poem was implanted in my head long before George Brassens set it to music, and the old walled city doesn't disappoint. I'd run, not walk, back to Budapest, strolling, museums, squares, bridges. Any little hill town in Italy. Vergina in Thessaloniki. Germany in white asparagus season. I finally figured out why I feel so "off" in California and Oregon - the ocean's on the wrong side! So now when I go back, it's easy. My first visit to western China was under conditions so - well, unwestern? that the safest place in town to eat was the local open air market where the food, if not washed, was at least sterilized by having been cooked in boiling oil, and a week later I was at a 50-course banquet in Beijing. Ready to go back, oh, yes. Leaving for Paris and London a week from tomorrow. Still wishing someone would invent the self-packing suitcase and a not-quite-as-bonechilling way to get across a street in Moscow. There's always more do do, and best of all, there's always more to want to do again.

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    1. Fred - you should write a travel memoir - you write so elegantly about your travels!

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  8. I'm the only one who is travelled out, but then, I was one of those "unable to find herself" types and just spent my life trailing around the globe looking for "it". Still haven't found the rascal.

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    1. I keep waiting to grow up! Have resigned myself to the fact that I never will!

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    2. Tabs, I am not exactly traveled out and I haven't seen nearly a lot of the world, but I've seen enough to not have extreme wanderlust. I had opportunities to travel with student groups and friends (Brugge was in these travels, WMM! I hope it hasn't changed, it was really special), and a time or two with family when I was in my 20s. I admit your recent post about the Isle of Capri made me want to visit that area, though. I'd like to go back to Italy and see more, and England, Scotland and Ireland are high on my list. I don't yearn to visit exotic locales. I'm essentially a home-body. At least 6 months out of the year I want to go to a balmy island with a beach (never do, sigh!), but that's not for adventure, that's for heat!

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    3. Hi Cate - I am inherent homebody, too, which is why I always like to rent an apartment or house so I can make more of my meals in a nice quiet spot!

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  9. Hi WMM, so many places to see! I haven't travelled a huge amount (although I have lived away from my homeland for almost 30 years), but my favourite cities have to be Rome and Venice - I would go back there any time. We went to Skye on our honeymoon and visited Dunvegan Castle. I certainly would like to see more of Scotland - we didn't travel much when I was young and it's only after being away and reading of other people's experiences there that I can appreciate how beautiful it is. My husband would like to go back to Africa, where he lived for 6 years as a child. I know that we'll be travelling a bit more in the next few years as the boys leave home (if there is any money left after uni fees etc!). Lots of great ideas in this post and comments!

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    1. Patricia - I hear you! We will take a trip in next year, but then it will be tight with both going to school. Just gotta stay in good shape to do it all!

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  10. I feel for you WMM, we had torrents of rain last week and it has been perfect spring weather now since Saturday. I want to move my home office outside.

    Well I have always wanted to visit Canada's maritime provinces. This year we are scouting cottage locations closer to home, but maybe next year. I'd like to rent a car and drive all over the place.

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    1. well if you stick to NS, NB and PEI it is all very manageable by car! I am so glad you have nice weather - may it is a sign of things to come here!

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  11. Husby will not fly so Europe is out of the question. I once looked across to Canada but did not get the chance and have always wanted to see, visit and experience your land. Promise me you'll set up my itinerary when I'm ready. I'll be your tour guide when you come to California.

    Agree about Paris!

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    1. would he take a boat? I would love to do a boat across!!!!

      We will get you a great itinerary T.R.!

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    2. Hi Tiffany Rose- mine doesn't fly either but we still managed to get from London to LA - just take the queen mary across ( 8 day trip) but at least it is possible!

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  12. I have been all over Europe and although it is always nice, recently I have been thinking of Peru, South Africa, Alaska and maybe Tibet. Places where nature is the star, as opposed to culture and history. But I also have San Francisco and Vancouver on my list, somehow I never made it there.

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    1. so interesting - we are surrounded by nature as star here in canada, so the history and culture is such a draw!

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  13. WMM, I love your pictures. They are giving me a much needed mental vacation. I dream of going to Norway and Denmark,Scotland and western Canada. ( Sweater places!) My favorite spot( that I've been to) is Lucerne, Switzerland. Locally, I love New Hampshire and Nantucket.

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    1. I forgot Switzerland! That's on the list as well! You know, I have never been to Nantucket or Cape Cod - gotta add them! And I would like to see the deep south - have only flown over it to get to Florida!

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