Places that are special to you.

[Kestra]

Hometown - I moved back here and am currently living here. I know this area like the back of my hand, I've seen the changes as they've happened, and it's familiar in a way that reassures like nothing else.

I know the shortcuts to get everywhere, I know the prettiest road to drive down in the autumn, and every place I go contains a memory for me. Where I went to school as a child, where I took violin lessons, the place where I had my first kiss as a teen, the roads my dad would take me while teaching me how to drive, and now, where I live with my husband, as an adult. Lots of memories.

Chicago - Went to college here, and likely to go back. I'm sure other cities are awesome in their own way, but I didn't think I was a city girl and Chicago completely took me in.

Delhi (India) - Spent many winter breaks here. Got to know my relatives, and gained so much perspective from my time there. I'm spoiled as it is, and naive, and a host of other things. But if I hadn't spent so much time in India I'd be a much shallower, less empathic person. They find ways to be happy with so much less than what we have here. Other places in India are special to me too, but I'm not going to list them all!

Alaska - Only been there once. My family wanted to take a trip to Hawaii and I somehow managed to convince them to go to Alaska instead. I had always wanted to go. I was worried once I got there, I wouldn't like the reality of it at all. But from the instant we got there, it felt like home. So difficult to describe. It just felt like the most natural place in the world to be, and I feel that part of my heart remains there.

 

[mimic]

Hyde Park, VT - my family has gone up there for a few weeks nearly every summer since I can remember. My Grandpa's memorial garden that my Dad built is there. There's also Stowe nearby, and the Long Trail (which I hiked in 2003) and the Green River Reservoir.

Old Lyme, CT - where my Grandma lives and where we've had a lot of family get-togethers.

 

[Rii]

There was a rock outcropping a few hundred metres from the homestead at the farm at which I grew up on, it overlooked rolling fields out to the horizon and I spent many hours there as a child reading and playing in solitude.

 

[LeahBoBo]

St. John's campus in Upstate NY. Park-like setting and I have fond memories of the place.

 

[Cakes488]

Montauk, NY...ditch plains. Many many memories...but there is still one memory that I still need to create there *wink wink*

 

[Shaw]

Where I was born is very special to me... La Jolla, mainly the campus of UCSD. For the first thirty years of my life I never ventured too far away (most likely afraid that I'd end up as I am now, having a hard time getting back ).

Second would be where I lived growing up... the Coronado Cays

Montauk, NY...ditch plains. Many many memories...but there is still one memory that I still need to create there *wink wink*

Hey, isn't that one of the places that played a part in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? I loved that movie... and now I'll associate you with it.

 

[Holdfast]

There are certain places I associate with really intense feelings of calm (if that's not too contradictory a statement). It's not so much an entire city or country, rather moments of being totally tranquil. Oceanic experiences where one is at peace with the world. I could rattle off a list of those places, but they won't necessarily mean much, because it's about a moment rather than a place. Some are famous beauty spots or exotic places and some are fairly mundane.

Having said all that, I love the city I live in (Oxford) - beautiful place, and I can't really imagine leaving it. And of course there are more than a few locations in the city where I've felt that kind of peace.

 

[freak]

The ballpark. Although I'm not a huge sports buff by any means, I remember going there when Mom was in the hospital and praying to God that she would make it through her heart surgery ok and that she would come home. Since that time, the ballpark has sort of become a "second home" as well cause I've met some really good buds over there that are really fun to be around. Plus, they want me to go to TX with them the end of this month and I may take them up on that offer. Sounds like loads of FUN!

 

[TheBrew]

Lake Tahoe. My mum has been a Park Ranger there for all of my life and I have spent countless summers there. Hell, I've spent over a year (when you add it all up) working there during the summers and once in the winter. It is my perfect place (but only in the summer, I am not a fan of winters in Tahoe).

Plus you haven't lived until you jump into water that is below 50F.

 

[Cakes488]

Where I was born is very special to me... La Jolla, mainly the campus of UCSD. For the first thirty years of my life I never ventured too far away (most likely afraid that I'd end up as I am now, having a hard time getting back ).

Second would be where I lived growing up... the Coronado Cays

Montauk, NY...ditch plains. Many many memories...but there is still one memory that I still need to create there *wink wink*

Hey, isn't that one of the places that played a part in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? I loved that movie... and now I'll associate you with it.

I can't remember because my own mind is pretty spotless...but thanks sweetie for associating me with such a beautiful place.

 

[Candlelight]

Milford Sound.

Probably Milford Sound. Only been there once but such a magical place.

 

[Aurian]

Looks absolutly breathtakingly beautiful

 

[RJDiogenes]

Beautiful picture, Candlelight, but a bit stretchy, so I turned it into a link.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Bonnets Bookstore in Dayton Ohio

 

[Candlelight]

Beautiful picture, Candlelight, but a bit stretchy, so I turned it into a link.

Sorry, I'm working on a 1680x1050 screen so it all fit perfectly for me.

 

[RJDiogenes]

No problem.

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

I love London. Crossing the old Hungerford Bridge ((now called Princess Diana Memorial Bridge I think) for locals the one that joins Charing Cross to the Southbank) on a summer night. London looks and sounds incredible from the middle of that bridge.

I recently went to the Sahara Desert on a camping/camel trek and at night one of the camels stood on a dune near us silhouetted against the starry sky and it was one of the most strangely christmassy things I have ever seen. The Sahara is an incredible place which looks incredibly desolate but is teeming with life. There was fenic and golden jackal tracks all around our tent in the morning.

Where I live (Surbiton) we have a very lovely walk on the Thames called the Victoria Promenade. It runs from Surbiton to Kingston-upon-Thames and is a lovely place to wander along.

 

[An Officer]

Your desert trip sounds amazing. Did you take any snaps? Were you comfortable in your tents, or did you feel like you were roughing it?

 

[Deckerd]

My family home (like most people); sailing around the West coast of Scotland on our boat; Glasgow - so many memories from my yoof; the house I have now at Culross which is big and old with a huge area of land only partly tamed.

 

[Cakes488]

Milford Sound.

Probably Milford Sound. Only been there once but such a magical place.

Reminds me of "The Rock" Newfoundland, it does.