[RickG]

South Central LA...when it's on fire...

 

[ssblood]

Hmmm. Niagra Falls! (isn't it in Canada though?).

 

[skippy]

according to some show on the WB, it's everwood.

 

[AIM9x]

i dunno, it's a tradeoff between compton and mendota, both are equally ghetto fabulous

 

[grinch]

cities are not beautiful. the ocean is.

 

[grancasa]

I'd have to say Berkeley is one of the most beautiful places I've been. You can go up into the hills and camp in the woods of Tilden Park, or hang out on one of the rock parks (like Indian Rock) and look out over the city and across the water to the Golden Gate Brigde and San Francisco. You can go down to the Marina and take a kayak out into the Bay, or walk around the Berkeley campus and enjoy the sights and sounds of Telegraph and the surrounding area.
There's not a whole lot that you can do anywhere else that can't be easily done from Berkeley (great snow in Tahoe, great surf at Stinson and Santa Cruz, world famous food like Chez Panisse, wine tasting in Napa).

If you can't tell, I'm looking foward to being able to return.

 

[wallijonn]

Dove Creek, Rico County, Colorado
Nemo, South Dakota
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Payson, Arizona
Santa Cruz, California
Bulls Gap, Tennessee
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Telford, Pennsylvania
Jennifer Lake, Wyoming
Sedona, Arizona
Hazelton, Pennsylvania

 

[stuartr]

Ok, nobody has said Santa Barbara, which is really surprising. Montecito is pretty amazing...You have mountains, the ocean, and the only Mediterranean climate in the United States. It is not too big at around 85,000, but it boasts a pretty decent cultural scene for a city its size. It has some great classical music because of the proximity to LA and the Music Academy of the West. The restaurant scene is good, and you are not far from LA if you want big, or the more remote areas of the central coast if you want small. Not bad if I do say so myself. Oh, did I mention lots of hotties.
I am pretty partial to Vermont as well though, and for a few weeks in autumn, you could not drag me away from some of the more out of the way places around Stowe or Middlebury. Nebraska Valley near Stowe and Ripton near the Breadloaf Campus at Middlebury come to mind.

edit:
West Tisbury and Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard are also incredibly beautiful places, but I must admit I have not been to them for over 10 years. We stopped going after Clinton came and brought a whole new wave of tourists.

 

[JMT]

Pebble Beach, CA.

 

[HappymaN]

Sydney

 

[scrypt]

Savannah, Georgia is lush in a way that interests me -- fecundity amid restraint, verdant woods amid manicured lawns. A statue by the port of a woman waiting for a sailor who will never return.

Tampa is gaudy in a way that seems strangely aesthetic: There's something innocent about its sleaze. I like walking down its empty streets among brick-red buildings in sweltering weather and seeing the horizon ripple through rising steam: a scenario to be painted by an American De Chirico.

San Francisco is everyone's idea of a beautiful city. But it can also look cruel, cluttered and shallow. Hills tilt in ways that seem unkind to me. They barely tolerate their houses.

I used to love the Northwest when it was overcast and rainy. When I first moved there, I lived on a hill and had a graveyard for a back yard: ravishing. Then we moved to another house on another hill, this time on a street called Cherry Lane and in fact it was lined with pink-bloomed cherry trees. Some of my fondest memories are of living on that street, of practicing piano beside a picture window overlooking Mount Hood. It isn't that way any more because of endless development and a pollution-altered climate.

Though not in the US (as Canadians will be quick to remind you), I love Vancouver and Victoria for similar reasons: They appeal to my overcast sensibility.

I'd like to spend more time in the South generally. I love women from there. And I mourn the death of manners.

 

[chadbang]

Fantasic suggestions, all. You also seem to have picked up (except Southcentral when it's on fire, thanks) on the kind of vibe I'm seeking. Vermont, now that's a place I haven't seen since I was 8 years old. Well worth visiting. Maine has also always intrigued me. Harbor Springs MI also sounds VERY intriguing. I will be saving this thread to as a reference.

Quote:

San Francisco is everyone's idea of a beautiful city. But it can also look cruel, cluttered and shallow. Hills tilt in ways that seem unkind to me. They barely tolerate their houses.

Scrypt, you're a poet!

What a wonderful description (It also EXACTLY captures the feeling I had of that city!).

 

[JMedeiros]

Flagstaff, AZ
Bangor, ME
Anchorage, AK

 

[wallijonn]

coming from NYC, i suggested small towns. for sheer beauty, visit Zion National Park. I think it's called Springdale. again, a small town. Santa Cruz was the largest "city" I listed. And Sedonna is a nice place to visit, but it's been heavily developed in the past few years, so traffic can be a bear. You might like Santa FE, NM, but I found the streets to be too small, and no parking anywhere.

JMedeiros,

Flagstaff may have changed since you last saw it. Once they put up that 1000 room Hotel things just don't look right. The olde part of town is nice, but the rest I didn't care for. Now if you take the old road from Flagstaff to Sedonna, well that's a different story. Too bad that the ski season, in Flagstaff, is a bust. I also heard that radioactive waste is being stored at Mt. Humphrey. Go up the road to Kaibab National Forest, on route 180 and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

If you ever want to be reminded of Vermont or New Hampshire, seek out Monarchy Pass, Colorado. It seems like a hundred miles of unbroken tree lines. Ski country. VERY small cow town (Gunnison). You'd better be a farmer or cowboy, though. And of course Montana has some really beautiful countryside.

And of course there's the Million Mile Trail in Colorado. Just don't settle in Telluride. Too much lead dust. The natives are contentious when it's not tourist season.

 

[radrd]

On a sunny day, Seattle is damn beautiful IMO. Probably not "the most beautiful," but beautiful nonetheless.