Your Favorite Places

[Greggulator]

A brief list:

1) PHILADELPHIA -- My home for most of my adult life. I'm not a native but my civic pride runs deep. People here love it. We have amazing food. We have amazing VEGETARIAN food as my wife will attest. We have so many fun, unique and weird neighborhoods and things to do. It has its industrial wasteland but a great spirit of making a lot of those areas work. It's legit beautiful in many parts of the city. The local culture is so great and fun. Crazy ass sports events. Big 5 college basketball. History. Art. THIS IS THE BEST.

2) MILWAUKEE -- The hidden gem of America. I visited it last summer. I would have moved there in my younger days. It's a lot like Philly -- gross foods, unhealthy local pride and love, etc. But it's also shockingly beautiful with so much to do. MKE is awesome.

3) LAKE GEORGE, NY -- My third hometown (behind Philly and North Jersey). My parents live there now. This was our vacation spot for my childhood. A charming/goofy downtown at the base of a deeply beautiful lake at the foot of the Adirondacks. It has family fun stuff at one side and serenity on the other. It's also not too far from the really great Saratoga and underrated Albany.

4) PRINCETON, NJ -- The best small town in the country. It has my favorite coffeeshop and my favorite bookstore and my favorite record store. It's just a very nice place with a lot of nice things.

5) PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON -- A getaway for Seattle people on the Olympic peninsula. Incredibly beautiful and artsy.

6) PORTLAND, MAINE -- My favorite city in New England. Great foodie city. You can actually hang out with fishermen. All of Maine is amazing.

7) PLYMOUTH, MASS -- I worked there for two years and was endlessly impressed by its constant charms. It's like Cape Cod without being Cape Cod. Beautiful ocean/bay views, deep forests with great lakes, a fun downtown and a lot of history and sense of what started America.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

You put Philly, I think you meant to put Baghdad.

[Craig H]

Chicago. Either downtown or the Wrigleyville area. Downtown is great because of obvious stops, like the Art Institute and the tons of restaurants in the city. If you're ever there in the morning, there's an amazing donut shop near Hotel Palomar in Chicago. I wish I could remember the name of it, but it escapes me at the moment.

[Red is Dead]

Edinburgh - where I was born, and raised for 9 months. Every time I go back (far too rarely, and only for funerals and the like) I'm transfixed by another section of its natural beauty. I always try and make a visit to Arthurs seat, if I can. If money were no object, I'd move back in a heartbeat.

 

Birchtree road, glenrothes, fife, scotland - my maternal grandparents flat. I could even tell you the code to get out to the back communal garden. Outside was a weird scene, a concrete construction of hippo with a wall through its stomach, a couple of toadstools, and a mushroom. 

 

In the car - I always feel at home in the car. Its a lease car - Peugeot 207 - and we've got it for another 18 months. It was the car used when to transport a family of 2 which shortly became a family of 3. For that reason it holds a special place in my memories.

 

As a follow on...

 

I feel at home in my daughters bedroom. I feel utterly at peace - even at four in the bastard morning.

 

I decorated it, I built the furniture in it. I had a hand in building the occupant...I've made it as safe and secure as possible. I've put the glow in the dark plastic stars in the shape of various constellations on the ceiling. I've hung up the curtain rail, I've planed the doorframes and door so that they dont stick in the hot weather. I've put up the pictures, art and wall hangings she's done. And I've already got ideas for when she moves into the other room - either a fairytale castle, or s.h.i.e.l.d. helicarrier interior. all depends on if she follows in daddy's footsteps or not.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Seattle.

 

This has come up elsewhere, but I hate my hometown (San Diego). The way that it's so thoroughly landscaped eats at my psyche bit by bit. So every time I go up to Seattle, when I'm at the outskirts of the city and I can see how the woods try to push in, I feel healed.

 

Also a small town in Idaho, but if I give the name it can't be my secret anymore.

[Zimbra]

I've been here for a hair under a decade and I still absolutely love Madison.  It's just the right size and speed of city for me, there's amazing food and beer all over, and I can drive 5 minutes and be out in the country.  The very beginning of spring up here is my favorite thing because you go from snow to flowers in the space of a few days.  It's like a goddamned magic trick.

[Tabe]

Hmm...

 

1) Avista Stadium (Spokane, WA) - Obviously way more specific than what you guys were going for but this is definitely my favorite place.  Avista Stadium is the home of the Spokane Indians, the local minor league team here in Spokane.  38 times a year, I get to go and hang out for 3 hours in a beautiful ballpark with my friends and all is right with the world.  It is quite literally a cathartic experience for me to walk through the gate, see the familiar workers, smell the familiar smells, see the smiles on the faces of EVERYONE, etc.  Then walk out the tunnel and see the ballpark, it's like I'm "home".  3 hours a night during the summer, I don't worry about my wife's cancer, the mortgage, or whatever.  It's just baseball, the snack combo named after me ("The Chris" - Pepsi & a pretzel w/salt), the friends I see only at ballgames, Recycle Man, and a good time.

 

2) Kalamazoo, MI - I graduated from Western Michigan, which is located in Kalamazoo.  I loved the city and would have happily lived there for the rest of my life if I could have found a teaching job there.  I don't know that I'd ever move back as I'm sure my memories of how much I liked Kalamazoo are no doubt colored by it being my college years but I have nothing but fond memories of K'zoo.

 

3) Grand Haven, MI - home of an incredible beach.  White sand as far as you can see, right on Lake Michigan.  Awesome little town and incredible beach.  If we ever DID move back to Michigan, this area is where we'd be.

 

4) Grand Junction, CO - when we lived in Craig, Grand Junction was our weekend getaway spot.  Just fair enough away (150 miles) and just big enough to not be Craig.  The weather in Junction is great - you can play golf 11 months a year - the scenery is beautiful and it's really just a nice Colorado town.  Loved going there.

 

5) Friday Harbor, WA - could never live there but loved our visit to Friday Harbor a few years ago.  It's a tiny little resort town in the San Juan Islands northwest of Seattle.  Just a beautiful little artsy tourist/resort town.

 

 

If all goes well, a few places in Hawaii will be added to this list in 6 weeks.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Birchtree road, glenrothes, fife, scotland - my maternal grandparents flat. I could even tell you the code to get out to the back communal garden. Outside was a weird scene, a concrete construction of hippo with a wall through its stomach, a couple of toadstools, and a mushroom.

I know where that is!

 

Don't let nostalgia drag you back. It's junkie central.

[Red is Dead]

I google map'd it. The hippo is still there! I heard it got guy rough after the g'parents moved out. Dont really want to go back.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

The like is purely for the use of the word "guy", ken?

[Red is Dead]

oh uh-huh.

[cwoy2j]

I went to college in Miami and I love South Florida. I've also lived in Atlanta and for my money, nothing beats Spring in the ATL. San Diego is a great place as well.

[Brian Fowler]

As is well known, I'm a total homer, so Michigan will dominate this list:

 

Traverse City, MI:  About an hour or so North of me, just a beautiful town in the most beautiful place on earth.

 

Greektown, Detroit:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, Detroit's a shit hole, blah blah blah.  Greektown is fantastic.  As is:

 

The Riverfront, Detroit:  Start at the new stadiums, and see New Detroit and Old Detroit meet.  Beautiful churches, some extremely successful urban renewal efforts, Joe Louis's Fist...  There is a lot of bad in Detroit, but this is as nice a ten minute walk in a city I have ever seen.

 

Duluth, Minnesota:  Way the fuck up north, cut right against Lake Superior.  It's been far too long since I was there.

 

New York City:  I don't think I could ever live there, but the two times I've visited, it's amazing.  Just so much there.

 

Ann Arbor:  Forget for a moment that Michigan Stadium is there.  It's beautiful (trees everywhere) and it's liberal, and the line between campus and town is virtually non-existent.  The Michigan Theater is amazing.  The downtown shops and stores are, to me at least, the very definition of "idyllic downtown."  Oh, and MICHIGAN STADIUM IS THERE.

[MADCAP]

Maui, HI:  I lived there for three years growing pot.  It's just absolutely beautiful.  You know it, I know it, and any description I give won't do it justice.

 

Tulsa, OK:  I pulled into town expecting a bunch of cowboy hats and whathaveyou, and left thinking about why I don't move there.

 

Lake Tahoe:  it was kind of snooty, but the view of the lake and the fresh air were awesome, plus I hit a jackpot on one of the slots there, so that just made it sweeter.

 

Phoenix, AZ:  Besides the fact that there's no reason for to be 108 degrees except for in an oven, I would move there in a heartbeat if it was possible for me to.

[The Damn Yeti]

Blacksburg, VA - The first college I attended, and the only region in VA I still enjoy visiting.  Doesn't hurt that I still have some of my best friends living there.  Lots of shenanigans over the years, including a return for my bachelor party weekend.  I try to make it down to one Hokie football game each year.

 

Canaan Valley, WV - The true "middle-of-nowhere" around here.  My family has had a home there for many years.  It's a skiing/hiking/biking destination, but I usually just cook, drink, and relax when I'm there.  Should have been heading that way this weekend, but I've been a little under the weather.

 

Kentucky - The last few years I've spent a lot of time in Lexington, Bardstown, and the Northern KY area outside Cincinnati.  Very cool, charming locations, neat history, good food, nice people.

 

New York City - I haven't been since 2009, but I used to visit regularly for the bigger ROH shows.  When you walk out from Grand Central you just feel like "this is where all the things happen."  I hope I can go back and explore outside Manhattan.