After that trip out West last year, I came home with fierce USA pride. But it wasn’t in that pick-up truck and country song kind of way. By virtue of having family scattered across the plains, parents that like to pack up the car and hit the road, and my own willingness to go into a little debt, I’ve seen a lot of the United States and man, is it beautiful.
During college I flew out to Salt Lake City to meet my father at a work-related conference. Instead of flying back, he thought it would be cool if we rented a car and took a week or so to drive back home. When we pulled into Arches National Park, located in the Moab desert, I thought we’d been transported to another planet. The red dirt, the huge monoliths, the squishy soil–it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, absolutely breathtaking.
I’ve had similar experiences out on the Great Plains, up in Alaska, and down in the sweaty, vibrant South. And I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been struck by how pretty New York State is with its mountains and lakes and metropolises. In all of those moments I have this same thought, Wow, I can’t believe this is New York State/the U.S. too. This place is awesome.
This pride has lately eclipsed my interest in international travel. It’s not gone by any means, I’m just interested right now in exploring the States. In order to satisfy my raging wanderlust, I sometimes research and plan fantasy vacations and trips. Mini-obsessions that last for an afternoon, couple days, a few weeks.
After finding a particularly gorgeous set up in coastal Washington State, I couldn’t keep my “dream vacation” to myself. I emailed it to Sean and some friends with a “let’s do this” message. They agreed. Who knows if it will ever happen but you gotta dream big, right?
I want to share those fantasies on this blog too, and maybe someone out there can take the idea and run with it. I’ll post my travel tips and teasers here and tag them “spacious skies,” after my favorite line in “America, The Beautiful:” O beautiful for spacious skies/For amber waves of grain.
Not all my tips/teasers will be about travel within the United States but because that’s where I live and where I want to travel right now, I expect it’ll be the focus.
BONUS: If you want to be inspired by the U.S.’s National Parks, check out this beautiful photo set on Flickr. I might’ve starred every photo as a favorite.
show hide 3 comments
Lisa @ Lisa's Foods on the Move - I know what you mean. As much as my wanderlust calls me to travel internationally, there are so many places in the U.S. I haven’t seen yet and long to visit – Alaska and Hawaii, the Northwest coast, the Gulf Coast. Yes, we should dream, but we should also make these little trips happen.
courtney - I hear that. I have always wanted to see almost all of Canada before I get started on the Volcanoes of the World (okay, just Vesuvius, but).
#reverb10: wonder, let go, make | oh, what? - [...] I actually think I do a pretty good job at wonder. I like to dwell on how amazing the world is, sometimes to the point of sounding like a space cadet. But how can you not? When I start to really think about weather and seasons, or migrating animals and volcanoes, it’s impossible to escape awe. [...]