Popular places you have no desire to visit

Phoenix is great as a home base for a lot of outdoors stuff in the areas surrounding the city. But Phoenix itself? Yuck.

 

Bill Valentine, the longtime GM of the Arkansas Travelers baseball team, told this story many times over the years.

"My wife said she wanted to go on vacation, and I should take her someplace she's never been.

So I took her to the kitchen."

Badda-boom.

 

Third this. Every cruise from Port Canaveral/Port Everglades/Miami winds up in Nassau at some point. If we go again, I'd rather stay on the ship for the day than waste money at the market, Paradise Island or a ride anywhere else on the island. It's Gary, Indiana, with better weather.

 

Really? Loved Gastown, riding the light rail, seeing a Canucks hockey game, looking at the scenery. Plus, we had the most amazing breakfast at some little hole-in-the-wall place, blueberry pancakes with at least a cup of them stacked on top.

It's interesting how everyone has different frames of reference from first impressions.

Except Orlando. Orlando sucks. I had multiple opportunities to take jobs in Orlando and turned them down because Orlando.

 

Gwen did a bike trip to the San Juans a million years ago, so to celebrate her retirement last fall, we drove the motorhome to Anacortes and took the ferry every day to a different island. We even spent one day just riding the ferry. It's that pretty.

 

I used to go to Nassau for work and it is basically a dirty port town, no charm and the Straw Market is wildly overrated.

Did an extended weekend at Atlantis that kicked ass as all the water stuff was a ton of fun.

Best Bahamas experience is to spend time on the other islands.

 

If you end up in Oklahoma City on vacation, you need to reassess the situation.
Aside from Bricktown, it's a hellish experience.

 

FTFY

 

Let's just go with "If you go to Oklahoma for any reason at all, you need to reassess the situation."

 

I believe that is an old Henny Youngman line.

 

Really, anywhere from the Cascades to the coast is pretty great. Portland is much easier to get around than Seattle, and the Pearl District has a shit-ton of brewpubs if you're into that and many really good restaurants.

Hiking on Mount Hood is great.

There's the largest Sitka spruce in the lower 48 on the road to the coast that's pretty cool.

Avoid tourist trap Seaside, but go north a bit and you have the coast to yourself. In Astoria, hit the Buoy bar/restaurant and take a look at the sea lions through the glass floor. Get there early for a seat that allows you to see the sunset.

I did all that and much, much more when I lived there and when I went back three years ago. I'll retire there someday.

 

I've done NYC, and I have no burning desire to ever do NYC again. Not worth the hassle.