I'm going to try and go somewhere last week of September/first week of October. Probably want to leave the PNW Alaska will be getting pretty damn cold by then. Cali could be cool San Diego for beaches, but never been to San Fran. Maybe Utah? Weather will be just starting to turn, and Nat Parks will probably still be super crowded. Maybe San Diego to Joshua Tree or something like that.
if you've never been to Yosemite then the first one. I love Joshua Tree but 1-2 days is fine there. Yosemite could fill a week even without time in SF
I have taken a number of short weekend or day trips over the past two months. Big Bear, Joshua Tree, Newport, Catalina Island, Baja California, and Palm Springs. The Palm Springs trip was a bad idea. Unreal hot. I need to check the weather before I venture that far inland during the summer again. I want to make it up to Big Sur, but it hasn't worked out. Never been before, but have heard cool things.
Wife and I are spending our 25th anniversary tonight in a local boutique hotel where we spent our wedding night For what we're gonna do, a $300 cleaning fee sounds about right
What’s your plan for Tampa? Wouldn’t mind shaking the hand of the man that was reckless enough to have his girl join TMB. oh and good news, already had COVID, so handshake is good to go.
Idk when you’re hitting Des Moines, but if you’re staying anywhere check if they have power. We were hit with a pretty big storm on Monday and I just got power back an hour ago. A lot of other parts of town are out still. Trees everywhere. Also, not really much to do here besides grabbing a bite to eat.
We still a ton of outages in Chicago as well. The latest estimate for my house from ComEd was Sunday at 4 pm Eathan Edwards
So desperate to GTFO of our house/the August heat and humidity that I just started seriously looking at driving out to Jackson Hole for a couple weeks. I almost talked myself into it (32 hours), could easily split up into 3 days of 10 hour driving. Then I realized how much I would dread that drive back and abandoned all hope.
I'm going to Tahiti for the first time in September with a couple buddies. Hoping to WFH from the airbnb for a few days so I don't have to take any days off. I plan on busting out the ol' PADI Scuba license for the first time since I got it in 2017. Will definitely need some refresher courses.
One buddy works at UCSD and will be able to get his without issue. A friend of mine that is a teacher got a "rapid" test two days ago for $110. She thinks it'll be covered by insurance, but not sure. Guess that'll have to be my route.
Rough plans are ferry from Pape'ete to Mo'orea and stay there. Take a trip to Teahupo'o to check out the surf. Other than that, simply maintain a good buzz.
This is currently required for both Alaska and Hawaii. We’re still hoping (but it’s fading fast) of a Hawaiian honeymoon and fiancée is desperately wanting to go back to visit friends/get outdoors in Anchorage but the logistics of a quick test like that are scarce in our area
In the event that Europe isn't reopened to the US by next summer, any suggestions on a backup anniversary trip in the states? Was thinking a national park that's near a decent city. Yo-semite seems nice. Grand Canyon seems good too.
In DC right now and there is NO ONE walking around the city. Feels like that scene from Vanilla Sky. Separate note - Pittsburgh was a really fucking fun city.
By the end of my excursion we will have pretty much hit every major US city and national park - so I’ll give a breakdown of those, for whatever that is worth. Jackson Hole is still a strong #1 for me for a couples trip but we still have half the U.S. to go through so we’ll see how that ranking plays out. edit: you can do all the bougie dinners, bars, etc but you’re also directly next to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Snake River, etc. And there are also local spots where people are just getting obliterated like it’s Flora-Bama. Depending on how the next few months go - very good chance we just move there and call it a day.
Jackson is awesome, but it's a pretty damn remote place to live. If you want to live a little closer to a city with people getting black out drunk in the mountains, check out a place like Frisco, CO or hell even Aspen. There's a surprising Ole Miss contingent in both Aspen and Jackson, FWIW Also, I forget the exact route you're taking back to LA, but see if you can't fit Gunnison/Montrose/Telluride/Ouray, CO in on your way to UT. Never been, but countless friends tell me it's the best part of CO
Yeah, I don't think you can see anything or much from shore. It's a pretty good ways out beyond a lagoon. Even a kayak might be a trip. If it's pumping, it would be sick to just be on a boat drinking beers in the channel and hooting & yeeeeewww'ing at the guys in the water
I may not be the best person to answer this because I don't really like cities, but I do love national parks. From Seattle you can easily access Olympic NP, which is one of my favorite, as well as Mt. Rainier and even North Cascades. The San Juan Islands are also nearby and neat. That would probably be my first suggestion. Another Idea from San Francisco is to drive up the coast to Redwoods NP. It will be less crowded than Yosemite, and is obviously a completely different type of beauty. Depending on time you can continue up to Crater Lake NP, which is a very under rated park. You might even be able to hit Lassen NP based on time. Yosemite is awesomely beautiful, but the crowds when I was there did take something away from it. Not national parks, but from Portland you could do the Columbia River Gorge, which is awesome. Also stuff around Mt. Hood and the Oregon Coast. From Denver/ Boulder you can hit Rocky Mountain NP pretty easy and it's a park I really enjoyed. There are also a ton of outdoor opportunities near Denver, and you can get to Aspen/ Glenwood Springs easily. I have done the South Rim of the Grand Canyon twice and the North Rim twice. I find the North Rim much more enjoyable, but it is hard to get from any populated area. Salt Lake City is about four hours from Jackson WY, so you could combine it with Grand Tetons. I did the Tetons for the first time this summer, and it is one of the most beautiful places in the country. If I were recommending one national park trip it would be the five Utah parks, that doesn't really meet your city requirement, but Springdale and Moab are nice towns. You could combine Zion and Bryce Canyon with Las Vegas.
If you're into big trees but don't want to drive four hours north of SF to find them, you can always go south to Big Basin and Henry Cowell State Parks. It's not the "Hey cool, Return of the Jedi Endor scenes were shot here" experience, but more accessible. http://www.redwoodhikes.com/Cowell/Cowell.html
City was more interesting architecturally than I expected, food was good, bars were a good time, people were extremely nice. Me and MLS are more than likely going to buy a bar there in the coming months and partner with a friend who is from there (which is who showed us around this most recent time). But I was literally there for one day and night so I’m definitely not an expert of the area by any means.
I’m mind blowingly bad at taking photos - so don’t judge a city based upon anything I post in this thread. But here was one attempt. Pittsburgh
We’re stuck keeping a place in LA regardless - but I would love to be between there and a few other more interesting cities. We’re hitting everything we can on the way back. We’re going back to Jackson Hole to look at places and decide if we want to get something there....../attempting to hit Zion, Bryce, Moab, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc. We have a group of friends quarantining in Aspen now so I’m sure we’ll make that a stop. Vacations become really fucking relaxing when you can throw the end date out the window and just actually enjoy the places you’re at.