Prettiest place you've ever visited: Probably the ocean voyage to Victoria, BC. The islands, so pristine, and covered in impossibly green forests, the water so blue/gray and clean. The sky, perfect blue, with crystal silver sunlight illuminating the puffy white rainclouds.
Ugliest place you've ever visited: Skid Row, Los Angeles. Or the industrial area of Spokane, Washington. Stark, gray, hot, and mean.
Funnest place you've ever visited: Disneyland!!! I used to go multiple times a year as an older teen. You walk through the gates, and instantly, you're in another world. The rides are so fun and fantastic. It really is the happiest place on earth.
Scariest place you've ever visited: Outside the Houston, TX Greyhound terminal, with my grandmother at night. I discovered how much of a New Yorker she was, when she scared off a gang of thugs trying to steal our purses, simply by talking tough and intimidating them.
Most boring place you've ever visited: West Seattle. A friend and I stayed in a house with a bunch of hipsters. I had absolutely NOTHING in common with them, and they talked about vacant things. And they were all on anorexic style diets, so there was like no food in the house, except beer, so I was constantly, unbelievably hungry all the time. They all were in bands, but really crappy, hipster bands, that they were constantly self-promoting. They all had problems with eye rolling, because I just wasn't as cool as them, I guess. The old house was on a hill, and so I couldn't go anywhere. The most exciting place we visited was Jiffy Lube. And that tells you something.
Most urban place you've ever visited: Houston, TX. I hate that place. Nothing but crime and grime and endless concrete. It's worse than Los Angeles.
Most secluded place you've ever visited: I was honored to be invited to a secret, sacred canyon on an Indian reservation in Eastern Montana.
Best restaurant you've ever visited: A Mexican restaurant in my home town. I grew up one hour from Mexico, so there was incredibly fresh and delicious Mexican food.
Worst restaurant you've ever visited: A 50s diner in my home town. Everything tasted like canned green beans.
Best body of water you've ever visited: The Gulf of Mexico. A place with clear, aquamarine blue water, and pure, soft, white sand beaches. There is wildlife in the water, sometimes, and the water is warm. The only drawback is the crowds of tourists. It seemed they were everywhere.
Worst body of water you've ever visited: Probably a half-dried up pond in a wildlife refuge I visited as a child. We were supposed to be observing wildlife. It was hot, stinky, and bare, and I got bit up by gnats and mosquitos.
Place you visited that you thought you would hate, but actually loved: The Chocolate Mountains of Arizona. I thought that area would be dry, gray, and desolate. But the mountains are so beautiful, and they loom in the distance, the colors of Hershey bars. It's a wonderful place.
Most shockingly amazing place you've visited: An Indian village in New Mexico. The houses were all simple adobe. Plastered the colors of the peach and red earth. They looked like the Pueblos you learn about in school. Little children came out to smile and wave at me, a stranger. Close by, the mountains were bare of vegetation, revealing painted pastel colors of the earth. Purple, red, yellow, and even blue soil, in layers down into the rich red/ orange/ and peach of the valley floor. I wish I could have stayed there forever. Every fiber inside of me begs to go back.
Earliest travel memory you have: I have a very vague and scary memory of being sent away to my Grandparents in Southern California, 600 miles away, when my mother and sister caught Rubella in the early eighties. My father was very stern with me and I didn't understand why. My sister died while we were driving down.
Most recent travel destination: Visiting my daughter's future college town. It is a fun, safe little college town, surrounded by forest and farmland. Just a lovely place.
Amount of US states that you have visited: Thirteen, maybe fourteen- Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. And I barely remember visiting Utah with my father, as a young child. I hated it. All I remember is it was hot, bright, desolate, yellow, and dry.
Favorite US state you have visited: Montana. I absolutely love it there. The vistas, open land, big sky, the mountains so steep. The deep forests, the open prairies, that go on for hundreds of miles. The mining towns. The Reservations. The cities. The farm towns. The people are earnest and honest with you. There's a certain friendly, "that's just how it is, but we'll get through it together", attitude that people from the Mountain West have, and I am so attracted to it.
Worst US state you have visited: Mississippi. It was a beautiful place, and the people were so friendly and curious about me. But I saw such abject poverty there, that I've never seen before. Whole families living in little plywood sheds. People in tattered clothing. Very skinny women and children.
Amount of foreign nations you have visited: Two- Mexico and Canada.
Favorite foreign nation you have visited: Canada was pretty, but I would have to say Baja, Mexico. Imagine driving up into the mountains, and seeing children tending horses or cows outside their tin-roofed adobe homes. Then descending into an oasis valley, and pausing in your car, to allow an old man to herd his flock of sheep across the road. You'd better have good suspension, because you'll have to ford a few creeks in the process. The people are friendly and welcoming. It was my first place I ever tended goats. It is such a pretty place.
Least favorite foreign nation you have visited: That's really hard, because I loved both. But I guess, if I have to pick one, Mexico. There's a lot of poverty there and horrific child abuse. Lots of litter along the desert highways, but the vistas were worth it.
Next place you would like to travel to: Southern Oregon, to the mountains near Crater Lake. I'd like to explore the Rogue Wilderness.
