Best Thing I Ever Saw on a Trip

Based on a writing prompt on the SITS Girls website: What was the best thing you ever saw on a trip? 

It was tough to narrow my options down. There have been so many fantastic sights! From the Bicentennial Barns in Ohio, the barn quilts in southwestern Ontario, Inukshuks on our way to Thunder Bay, Ontario, the carved totem poles here in London, Ontario and the grounds at Winter Wheat in Sparta, Ontario to the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the USS Razorback submarine in North Little Rock, Arkansas, I’ve seen a wide variety of sights that I’ll never forget. Here are my top 5 choices:

1) When I was little and we lived in Montreal, we spent every summer vacation in Fundy National Park.  I loved that place.  We would regularly see deer and moose and other wildlife along the forest trails and it was thrilling to see a whale out in the ocean.  The famous rock formations there were fascinating and I was in awe of them even as a child. My dad would take me on hikes and every morning we’d attend their arts and crafts school (sadly. no longer there).

2) The Ozark Mountains are stunning and I always feel so much at peace when I’m there.  I love to find a lookout on top of one of the mountains where I can see for miles on end. They made me think back to childhood trips to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  There’s just something about the majesty of a mountain range that really gets to me.

3) I’ve seen fun sights – hanging out in Disney World when I was a kid, and I’ve seen inspiring sights – pretty much any of the historic buildings in Washington, DC and Ottawa. They were all very special and I look back on those trips with great fondness.

2) But there are two that really had a deep emotional impact on me.  These are ones that I think back on quite regularly and I often pull up the photos and look at them again and again.  The first one is the Statue of Liberty.  I’m not sure what it was about it but it actually moved me to tears. When I went to NYC a couple years ago for the first time to attend BlogHer, I just kept saying that even if I couldn’t see anything else, I HAD to see Lady Liberty.  I must have taken a hundred photos of the boat trip out to see her and this photo of me standing in front of her is one of my all-time favourites. 

1) The second “best thing I ever saw on a trip” was La Jolla, California. When I first arrived in San Diego, people kept telling me how pretty it was and that I really should find time to get out there and see it.  On my last night there, a friend took me and I was blown away.  I’m pretty sure I had a permanent smile on my face and I laughed so much that night.  Of course, the company was fantastic and much of the reason for the joy and laughter – as was my near drowning in the Pacific Ocean (ok slight exaggeration but the tide came in really fast and really suddenly!) but really, it was the sight of the seals.  There were seals everywhere. They were close enough that I could have gone up to them and tried to touch them (I’m not dumb so I didn’t attempt that!).  They weren’t in a zoo or a water park – they were out there in their natural habitat and I was enchanted. I’ve always loved animals. When I was a kid, I thought about some kind of animal related career and seeing the seals at La Jolla just really reached the child in me.

What about you? What’s the best thing you ever saw on a trip?