I've been to a lot of places in the world in my 28 years of life; I consider myself very fortunate to have visited almost all the 50 states of the US (including Alaska and Hawaii), both America's neighbors, stopped by in England (at the airport), visited Germany, Poland, Greece, Turkey, and definitely stopped by my birthland of China, Japan, etc. There's been a lot of great sites with great scenery (Nagame) in all those areas, and it's actually one of the reasons I go on vacation: travel far and wide to find new places with new views, change my perspective. So many different colors in those various "nagames" including the blue skies and blue waters of the Bosphorous Strait in Turkey, the white buildings lining the hills of the Greek isles's Santorini Island (I had a fun time last summer!), the orange and red hues of the autumn leaves in Kyoto, to the icy white glaciers of Alaska, to the luscious greens surrounding Vancouver's excellent Stanley Island, to the endless brown sands of the Phoenix desert (actually, not much to see there, don't have to go all the way to Phoenix to see those).
If you want a snowy ski paradise, Park City, Utah is the place to be. The site (along with neighboring Salt Lake City) of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, it's perfect for all kinds of winter sports like sledding, bobsledding, luge, etc. (those things go fast!) but especially for skiing, it's a skiier's paradise. The mountains were almost made for going down a mountain at a high rate of speed. And everyone there's friendly: it's like the luxurious vacation spot for city slickers. There's little visibility and usually wind (or worse, snow) blowing in one's face, but when you're up in one of those mountains in Park City, Utah, you feel like you're in a white winter, mountainous wonderland. Excellent snapshot.
However, sometimes what they say is true: the best places are sometimes in your own backyard. Well, especially if that backyard happens to be in Los Angeles, CA. I thought I'd been to almost all the places in L.A., but boy was I mistaken: just in the last few months I've been to some awesome new places in LA (less heralded but definitely worth seeing after your top choices of Getty Center, Disneyland, Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier, etc.) including the glorious coastal drive in Palos Verdes: the cliffs there and shores lapping against the rocks remind me of Big Sur or other mountain-drop-off ocean areas, and there's a new lookout spot every half-mile or so. Sunset is especially wondrous (here on the West Coast where our coasts all face towards the west, we give more attention to sunsets) due to the vastness of the coastline. Lots of possibilities, looking out into the ocean as the sun sets and the night settles in (I don't know how many times that sentence has been written about sunsets in the history of time, but it's probably enough to make it a cliche).
Also notable is Muholland Drive (I know, right, how have I not visited these places!) especially Runyon Canyon Park, where the top of the hill goes down towards the city almost like the iconic view of Rio Di Janierio (if only there was something as majestic as the Christ the Redeemer statute up at the top of Runyon Canyon). It's unique because it has so many hills surrounding it that look like multiple peaks, and it's closer to the surrounding areas of Hollywood and WeHo than the neighboring Hollywood sign/ Grifftih observatory hills that I go to. Driving down Muholland Drive also is a reminder that L.A. isn't just cities and fame and beaches, there's a quite mountain village in there cutting right through the heart of the city and somehow in 20 minutes one winds up in Brentwood near UCLA (site of the OJ Simpson chase).
And finally, Venice canals! Houses, an artificial river running through, and bridges! And it's not in Vegas! Open to the public! Sometimes one just needs to give the eyes some new stimulus and to feel part of the world and not just someone staring into a computer screen or Iphone screen all the time. These places do just that. Enjoy the views. (Nagames)
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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