May Photos, Day 19—A Favorite Place

 

I’m fortunate in a lot ways.  In this particular instance, I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to travel to some really nice places that I wouldn’t mind visiting again.  Also, I’m fortunate that even though I’ve been to some really nice places, I have yet to be anywhere that I’d rather live than my own hometown.  So, when deciding which favorite place to use today, I had quite a few to choose from. 

I contemplated Ted’s, my favorite restaurant.  I considered a shady spot in my backyard (especially since Brian just opened the pool today, so it looks nice out there now).  I thought about Disney World or Disneyland.  I gave a lot of thought to all the beautiful places we saw on our Alaskan cruisetour last year.  Any of those would have been appropriate for one of my favorite places.  Like I said, I’m lucky to have a lot to choose from.

But I did have to pick, and what I just kept coming back to was a place—well, a region, really—that I always say I want to go back to:  Northern California.  There are several places in that area that are beautiful.  Sea Ranch.  Mendocino.  Ft. Bragg.  And, the Redwood Forest.

Being among the those giant trees that are older than you can even imagine, listening to the kind of silence that only comes from areas that are largely untouched by meddling human hands, breathing in the clean air of nature . . . well, there’s really nothing like it.

Experiencing that kind of natural beauty simultaneously makes you feel insignificant and isolated, but still totally connected to wonder.

These are just a few of the photos I took years ago on our vacation, and they still take me back through time and help me recall that sense of wonder I felt when I was there.  And they still make me long for the day when I find a way to visit this favorite place again.