“Choose my bluest tape and unlock my car
An honest tune with a lingering lead has taken me this far” – Houser/Bell
Here’s a run down of the places (other than home) where I spent at least one night in 2013:
- Smithtown, NY
- Marco Island, FL
- Seattle, WA*
- Brownsville, OR*
- Takhlakh Lake, WA
- Yakima, WA
- Abbotsford, BC
- Lake Country, BC
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Baker City, OR
- Garibaldi, OR
The year in travel was highlighted by an extraordinary summer vacation in Lake Country, BC. The area is described as Canada’s Napa for its bountiful wineries. It’s much more than wine though, it’s lake living at its finest. So, if you want to compare Okanagan to a place in California, think Tahoe, but with outstanding wine.
Seattle loomed large in 2013 too. I visited the Emerald City four times, including for my birthday last April, for Ryan’s birthday and for Dan and Val’s wedding in July.
Baker City is a place I can’t wait to return to — there’s something powerfully alluring about NE Oregon. For it is tempting to believe that all the last great American places are taken, but NE Oregon and the Wallowa Mountains in particular are not Aspenized in the least.