And In The Interest of Making Memories
Or making words. It’s the same thing these days.
Our No Family Holidays With Family policy is breaking new ground this Thanksgiving. I need to take a trip for book research. To smell the scents. And haunt the haunted places. And tease out sounds from almost 200 years ago. Or millennia ago.
I’ll take what I can get.
And I’ve been working on my Help! I’m Married to An Architect! board on Pinterest, torturing MTM with images from a place he’s never been.
No. That wasn’t intentional. But this destination has been a regular subconscious theme of late.
When the characters told me I needed to get on a plane, I found a way to turn our family tradition into a Deductible Event.
We wanted to go somewhere else.
Blasted characters.
We’re flying to Mexico City instead.
*image from history.com
Have you ever wound up going somewhere you never meant to be?
The Accidental Cootchie Mama 
Absolutely yes. On more than one occasion, during motorcycle trips, our destination changed due to bad weather. That’s how I made it to Niagara Falls! 🙂 I’m not sure I can say I was not meant to be there..perhaps I should call it an adventure.
Niagara Falls is always an adventure. 🙂 I love to walk along the edge of the river, high above the cliff downstream from the falls on the Canadian side. It’s so pretty to follow this mist that becomes a roar.
Oh sure. Lots of times. I’d say the least me place that I’ve been to was Phoenix AZ. Too hot. Too harsh. Too flat. Didn’t make my soul sing. But at least I understand it now, so going where I was not supposed to go taught me a few things. Like don’t go to Phoenix…
Ha. We go to Scottsdale at least once a year. I love hiking out there. We try to avoid hiking in the heat, though.
I know that Phoenix is popular, but something about it didn’t click with me. Glad that you find it fun. Everybody’s gotta have a place.
I bet that will be a fun trip. Whether you expected to travel there or not. Because I travel so little, I don’t think there is a single place I’ve ever been which I didn’t intend in some way to visit. And because I generally don’t get lost (prior to the days of GPS travel, I used maps, and keep them in the car), stumbling into a town isn’t generally a regular occurrence. The closest we could come is once trying to drive from the upstate back in the general vicinity of the Lowcountry using only the roads marked with broken lines on the map. We saw lots of very old, and some abandoned houses, and encountered a few very deep (as in 6′) ruts in the road. I’d like to try that again, but with a jeep or a Range Rover.
Do you have pictures from that trip, Cheryl? I’d love to see them.
I like the way you avoid the holidays my friend> 🙂
It’s the only way………..
Perhaps you can teach me……
I know you will make the best of wherever you travel to. You may even find that it is better than your preferred destination
I’ve been to my preferred destination, so at this point, I can’t imagine how Mexico City would top Paris. That’s where we were going.
I never meant to stay in Portland. We moved here in 1979 so I could make a living playing music. Thirty-five years later, I’m still here making a living that is writing/editing not music. Initially, it was a matter of expedience, which morphed into routine, and finally into home. I still wrestle with the concept. Daily.
MTM and I have regular fantasies of moving to Portland. It has so many of the lifestyle components we value.
It’s quirky, for sure, and the demographic is very interesting…a good mix of young and not young. And I have to say: be careful in Mexico City. It is the largest city in the world. Trust your people instincts. It can be extraordinarily wonderful. It was also be real scary.
We’re hitting very specific things whilst there, Jim, all in not-scary parts of town. Given what I need to see, we won’t have much time to wander.
I can’t imagine a place that’s bigger than Sao Paulo, and I know Mexico City is.
That’s a big change from the previously planned western part of France! Enjoy!
We’ll get there another time.
I plan where I am and am where I plan, green eggs and ham are extra.
Ha. I won’t be eating any green eggs in Mexico…………unless they’re chilaquiles verdes.
I feel like everywhere I’ve went, I was meant to be there.
That’s how Life turns out, isn’t it? 🙂
woo hoo! how great and it makes perfect sense, you need to be there. i’ve ended up places when i was lost and had some adventures because of it )
I never avoid getting lost. MTM can’t stand it, but I don’t mind.
Ha! I do it every time I go out the door. Hmm, how did I end up and X when I was going to M? 🙂
I just got in from doing that today, Penny.
Oooh Mexico City!!! It is not Paris, but it is perfect 🙂 Have fun XO
At least, the people in my head have stopped nagging me………
Yes. Asheville, NC
The place you are now. I hope we can get you back here, Jill. Very soon.
Over the course of 71 years, there are more of those places than I can count, Andra; not the least of which was Charleston, and look how that turned out — 14 years worth! 🙂
By the way, I’m still thinking about yesterday’s question….
I think John’s open-ended reframing of my question is an improvement.
Were you really here 14 years? I didn’t realize it was that long……and too long ago now. I can’t believe I’ve been here almost 24………
Drove into South Carolina on January 28th, 1996 and drove out on February 27th, 2009. I think it was the longest span of time I ever lived anywhere, not that I’d trade most of the elsewheres, but I did love Charleston. 🙂
I am going to London in a couple of weeks with my beach girlfriends. London has never been on my “bucket list”. A couple of months ago, one of the beach gals left me a voice mail stating that her daughter was spending th semester in London and would I go with her (she hates to fly). I said sure and she was shocked! Then she asked the other two beach gals and they said yes! I can’t wait to be together with these friends in a place I never thought I wanted to go! We also are all celebrating our 60th year on this earth and that’s a perfect thing to celebrate!
All I can say is I love London. Love. It. And I never expected to. My favorite thing is to climb to the tippy-top of St Paul’s Cathedral. There are higher views, but to me it’s the best view. And Tate Modern. And Aspall’s Cider. And strolling around Kensington. Or anywhere. The British Museum. You have to tell me what you do. It’s a great milestone city.
Wow! Mexico City! Sounds awesome!
Um, besides getting lost in Chicago (in a section I never meant to go), I haven’t been to too many places where I didn’t want to go or wanted to avoid. I’d like to get to Europe eventually.
I meander and wander a lot on the local level, but I’m an uneasy traveler. I usually have to get pretty psyched up…it kind of kills the spontaneity and I stick to the “plan” whatever it is. I admire the way you just pick up and go! I really do. Mexico City sounds like an adventure just waiting for you!