US Memories

In my last post I wrote about some of the places I've visited outside the US and commented about how lucky I've been to have seen and done so much. My daughter pointed out in a comment to that post that I'd left out some pretty wonderful places in the US too. And she's right. I've been lucky on that account also.

I'll leave out the scenic beauty of Illinois where I grew up. But after all this blog is named after some of my best childhood memories from there. It was a much simpler time back then. We'd be gone all day and our parents had no clue where we were. We'd ride all over town, which admittedly probably wasn't five miles across. We'd go to "the creek" and mess about as boys do. In the winter we'd drag our sleds to the creek and slide down the hill and out onto the frozen creek. Sounds dangerous, but no one I recall ever got hurt ... badly ... enough to go to the hospital ... for more than a stitch ... or two.

We'd also go to my grandmother's house for a couple weeks in the summer. Basically there were no rules for those weeks. We didn't have to take a bath if we didn't want to. She'd give us wooden orange crates. We'd break them up, take our pocket knives and carve them into swords and play fight with them. Or we'd walk out the railroad tracks and use them to cut the head-high or higher weeds into forts and mazes -- or just cut them to see whose sword was sharpest.

Our family would go to Tennessee for vacations. Freedom. We always went to the same resort: Pete Smith's Watts Bar Dam Resort. Nothing but swimming in the pool and hanging out with the other vacationing kids there. It was a big deal to be able to order off the menu at the pool and then sign the receipt ourselves.

Knox College holds great memories. It was the first time in my life I didn't feel out of place. Lots of people there were at least as weird as I was. I fit right in. I made most of the friends there that I have to this day. And I got married there. And my daughter was born there. I remember glorious spring days running track.

And who can not like New Orleans? I moved there after grad school and
still work for the same company today. Playing volleyball at the lake front. Water skiing in the rivers and bayous -- in the same water with sharks and stingrays. I learned to sail there from two really good sailors and the passion for sailing has never left me.

Pensacola, FL beaches are some of the best anywhere. Lazy days with my family there just playing in the water ... minding our own business ... then along comes a wave (sorry, inside joke).

Where I fit the best was Northern California though. It's my kind of place. Perfect weather most of the time. More to do outside than you can accomplish in a life time. Everyone needs to see Yosemite Valley once before they die. And I'll never forget my one foray into backpacking. From the rim of Yosemite at Tuolome Meadows up to 11,000-feet at Young Lakes ... still frozen even in July. Altitude sickness for 24 hours like you wouldn't believe. Sailing in San Francisco Bay and learning what it is like to sail in real wind. And freezing while you do it. On big boats. Sausalito. Salt Point State Park for tide pooling and walking in the hills -- Pygmy Forrest. Seeing a wild mountain lion up close ... too close I now realize. Snow skiing at Lake Tahoe -- North Star, Squaw Valley, Kirkwood, Sugarbowl. Getting up before dawn to drive the four (or was it six) hours up there and being on the first ski lift ride up the mountain. And feeling like the day was not a success unless you also rode the last chair of the day to the top. Racing downhill for my company's ski team -- helmet and all. Running San Franciso Marathon and finishing. Monterrey Peninsula with Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove. Going to the aquarium in Monterrey itself -- fabulous. Learning to play beach volleyball from a real star and his wife. Santa Cruz on the weekends and playing all day. Watching my daughter grow up and seeing her learn that tarantulas are not to be feared and that being the best at cheer leading doesn't always mean you win the competition.

Business trips to Anchorage (correctly described as scenic over kill). Certainly one of the most beautiful places in the world ... but too darn cold and dark for me in the winter. Bakersfield, Ventura, El Segundo all in California. Ventura on the coast is fabulous. Bakersfield is not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. I don't think I'll ever be a fan of LA. But a week long trip there looking at colleges with my daughter -- Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, San Diego. Oh, did I say colleges? Sorry, we mixed in a little bit of volleyball too.

Las Vegas -- I've been all over the world and there is no where else on the planet like Las Vegas. It's much more fun when you're winning. Reno is OK, but it's not Las Vegas

Tulsa, Oklahoma -- not a place where I'd choose to go, yet lots of good things happened there. I owned my first house. My daughter found her life's work and she grew up straight and strong there with a good sense of herself. I learned to windsurf and to play golf (again). I scared the crap out of a guy foolish enough to let me captain his sailboat in a regatta. ("I've never seen anyone pull the sails that tight." "It's windy. Don't worry." We finished second.) Playing indoor volleyball four nights a week because there wasn't a whole heck of a lot else to do in the winter.

Wonderful trip to Taos, NM for more skiing.

And New York, Boston, Orlando, Chicago, San Antonio, El Paso, Flagstaff -- good things about all these places -- although I'm not really much of an East Coast fan. Charlotte, Charleston, Atlanta. I guess I like the South second after San Franciso.

And now Houston ... it's all good. And I've rambled on long enough