Tuesday, October 25, 2011

In Which I Make Some Plans

So I asked myself, "Self, should you have to move from Arizona*, what would you feel ashamed of not having seen?" And after a bit of thought, I narrowed down to 2 things: the Grand Canyon, which I did visit at 13 but barely remember, and Bisbee, because I want to stay at Shady Dell. And while Arizona has a lot of pretty mountains and hiking and caves and such, I am not an outdoor girl. Nor am I a small town hanger-outer. Besides, I've seen scenic downtown Florence, and it has really declined since Murphy's Romance. As a second tier of places to go I'd put trips to Tucson and Ajo down--it might be interesting, but not really worth the effort.

So while I'm unemployed, I am going to try to schedule trips out of town. Maybe I'll even see snow up in the mountains. Of course, I still have my Groupon-like deal for the Greer Lodge and Resort Cabins, but since the lodge and restarant burned down last spring in an arson fire, I'm thinking I can get a refund for that. Plus, scorched earth in fall--exciting!

I'd also like to go to New Mexico, since that was the prettiest part of my drive in 2009, and Denver, because you can rent bikes to get around the city. And Portland and Seattle are also appealing.

One of the things I hated about my job is that I never got to take time off in summer to flee the heat, because that was when the audits were due, and it was year-round scramble.

I also took my first unemployment monies and bought a ticket to see Genevieve and her family in January, after the Christmas rush and before she returns to work.

*Not happening any time soon, but I am still embarrassed that I lived in Ohio for 15 years and only went to Columbus a few times, and never visited the 15 room used bookstore.

2 comments:

Anne At Large said...

Just to check, have you been to either Sedona or Flagstaff yet? I think the Grand Canyon would be awesome in the fall, and I remember Flagstaff having lots of bookstore-related potential and Sedona had some good hiking.

And I always recommend Portland, especially if you are talking about a place to go in the summer to escape the heat. I also regret not doing more traveling when I had the flexible schedule for it.

Genevieve said...

If you plan a trip to Portland enough in the future that I don't have a newborn I could maybe plan a trip to meet you there :).

When we went we stayed at the Ace which had the pluses of great room decor, a Stumptown coffee in the lobby and Powell's books across the street and the minus of being hipster central and hard platform beds.