Monday, October 3, 2011

Vacation Mode

I'm allllready in it.

Hubs and I are taking a little trip for our anniversary and I can't. wait. I love traveling, but we hardly ever get to go anywhere. And then when we do, we tend to go to the same places over and over again. I wish we could manage to leave the west coast for once, but alas, that's not to be anytime soon.

Still, I won't complain-- California is a beautiful state, and has a little bit of everything. This time, we're going somewhere new-- San Francisco-- as well as our old favorite haunts in Monterey and Big Sur.

I'm looking forward to clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, sleeping right on the ocean, taking tours of kitschy places, camping under the redwoods, and driving down the gorgeous coast. It's strange how much I want to try something new, and yet, at the same time, I want to go with what I already know. Monterey and Big Sur are where my heart lives, I like to say. And it's true-- whenever the travel urge comes calling, my mind wants to visit those places first. So despite my desire to expand our travel horizons, it would have to be at the expense of a visit to my favorite place on earth.

Which of course leads to the conundrum of the fact that I might find a NEW favorite place on earth if only I'd go somewhere else.

Ah well. One step at a time! I will put on my fancy high heels just once during this trip to try something new, but then I'll slip right back into my old comfy shoes and relax somewhere that feels like a second home.

I still can't wait.

What's your travel style? Do you visit different locales or do you tend to gravitate toward the same spots? Have you ever had a clam chowder sourdough bread bowl in San Francisco, and if so, where is the best one?

3 comments:

Adam Heine said...

I tend to visit the same spots. My wife always wants to go someplace new. Between us, we have a pretty good time.

Or did, back when we could take vacations.

The best clam chowder sourdough bread bowl I've had was at Pier 39, which is also one of my favorite SF places :-)

Unknown said...

Mmmm clam showder sourdough bread bowl sounds like heaven. I actually can't say I've ever had one before.

Most of my facations are with my family and since we used to live in Washington state they are usually up and down the Pacific coast. It's familiar but sometimes forgotten familiar. As in "Wasn't there a place around here we used to stop a lot?" "OH my gosh, yes! I haven't been there since I was nine!"

And I LOVE Monteray. Love. Love. LOve.

Keriann Greaney Martin said...

We tend to go to new places that are similar to places we already love. For instance, we went on a Cruise way back in 2003 and loved the Caribbean. So for our honeymoon, we went to St. Lucia. Still the Caribbean, but a different island. I've been to all of the major Hawaiian islands. And now we're thinking of going back to the Caribbean again, but a different island maybe.

Hope you have fun on your trip! Someday we'll make it to Big Sur, after hearing you talk about it so much :).