Our son, a skier, finds time every year to visit Western Colorado’s powdery slopes and endless mountains.
We hear place names like Telluride, Steamboat, Aspen, Crested Butte and Breckenridge, but since I’m not a snow person, those resorts ring up “no sale” for this traveler.
That all changed a month ago.
We took a mid-August visit to Pagosa Springs in Southwest Colorado, in the heart of the San Juan Mountains, and couldn’t get enough.
Flying to travel and holiday destinations these days is rarely fun. In fact, I’d rather go to the dentist or even the opera than get in an airplane.
That said, I’m happy to report a delightful experience in the air. I just returned from several weeks of Germany and Croatia, which included six separate flights, and each and every one was a delight. Now, that is news!
California and Oregon rank high for Puget Sound summer driving vacations. From Disney’s new California Adventure to the perennially fresh Monterey-Carmel-Big Sur and the unhurried destinations of Oregon’s state parks, driving I-5 south for a summer getaway is a vacation that always delights.
David Vokac, a San Diego-based travel writer who has written extensively about American towns and cities, anoints Santa Barbara, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, as America’s most beautiful town with a population over 50,000.
I concur.
It had been six years since I had last set foot on Maui. I won’t make that mistake again. The…
Mention autumn and most Americans think ‘New England.’ I am among them. Sunny mornings in farming villages with snow white…
Before there was a Washington, there was Oregon. It was a fabled land of extremely fertile valleys, rivers so full of salmon that you could catch them by hand, and mountains so high, the snow stayed year-round.
Palm Springs. It is the first week of February, and Palm Springs has not seen a “winter” like this for years. Day after day, the cloudless blue sky frames the emerald golf courses and tennis courts. Locals pinch themselves to see if this fabulous weather isn’t just a dream. It isn’t. And snowbirds like me, whether we are from Mercer Island or Long Island, just smile and hope it lasts for one more day.
I smiled the entire week. Thanksgiving this year found us in one of my favorite places on the planet. It was cold — though not by Seattle standards — and the citizens of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and Lagos de Moreno were struggling. Those late November days were crystal blue clear. By afternoon it was 75 degrees, and we were taking laps in the pool or a siesta under the persimmon tree on our patio furniture. But the señoras at the Mercado were all wearing two layers of wool serapes and moving spritely if only to keep warm.
Say what you will about Florida. It is a fun state. We found ourselves during the first week of November needing one more week of short-sleeve weather after our fabulously rare, sunny Seattle October — and, well, we had other reasons to visit the Sunshine State besides the sun.
When it comes to winter getaways, the Mercer Island Reporter has you covered. My friend and fellow travel-lover, John Naye, a long-time Island resident, fills you in every ski season on all the classic and new snow destinations. Look for his articles if you love gravity.
Sometimes, the best getaways are the easiest. And the most overlooked.
If a poll were taken of all the people of Europe and North America in 1900 and the question was: “Who is the most famous living person in the world who is not a head-of-state?” Buffalo Bill Cody would have won. Easy money.
