Gary and I narrowed down vacation choices tonight.
Quebec City. Pros: inexpensive. Cons: not enough there to keep us for a week, I think.
Hawaii - the Big Island. Pros: lava! Hattie! Cons: been there (Maui).
A Mediterranean cruise. Gary pulled this out of nowhere. Pros: we could spend a few days in Venice before. Cons: expensive.
The cities below were met with Gary's scorn and were deleted from the list.
Tokyo. "No! It's dirty and crowded and too expensive." I began to explain that the Japanese are supposedly a nation of germophobes and I can't picture them tolerating dirt, but the goal was to strike choices off the list.
Ireland. We're city folk, not country folk, and the focus in Ireland does seem to be on the landscape.
Buenos Aires. I believe they are truly toting Argentine pesos about in wheelbarrows, but it's a false economy to go to a cheap city you were never interested in visiting. It's the tuna fish coupon of travel.
Tofino Canada. The week we plan to go is in June, and Gary got the idea that June is spring break in Tofino. It sounded to me like the Relais & Chateaux concierge would chase any spring breakers off our beach, but again, the goal was to delete.
Now, according to a budget travel article I read on stalking natural disasters, where we should be going right now is Sicily, in the hopes that Etna scares tourists off. Ghoulish but appealing.
As for Ireland - there are lots of great cities there. Small compared to American cities, but full of wonderful stuff. Galway - lots of great pubs with great music. (Wait - that's everywhere.) Dublin - Cosmopolitan, believe it or not. Athenry. And there's a town just south of Cork where people come from France just to have dinner.
Still Aetna sounds interesting.
Posted by: Becs | March 07, 2013 at 04:18 AM
Morocco.
Posted by: ~~Silk | March 07, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Silk is right. As usual. :)
Posted by: Becs | March 08, 2013 at 09:48 AM
Becs - I wonder if they'd be small compared to Chicago. That seems like a well-sized city - not to big, not too small.
~~Silk - are you trying to kill me? The heat! The heat!
(Now that I read a little more, it depends what side of the mountains you are on. One side has the Sahara and the other is "Mediterranian" in climate.)
Posted by: TheQueen | March 09, 2013 at 12:15 AM
No, these are small cities, much smaller than Chicago, but they're very compact.
What about Rome, or have you been there?
Why not Paris again? No way you could have seen everything there in a week or two.
Posted by: Becs | March 09, 2013 at 06:22 AM
Becs - my god, he participated today and had us going to Australia."Wallabies! I think wallabies are invading the shopping malls. Wallabies are everywhere there!"
Posted by: TheQueen | March 10, 2013 at 03:19 AM
Big Island has no cities. I don't know about the cost but you might look up the cruise on The Pride of America,the ship that goes around the islands. People I've talked to say it's really fun.
Posted by: hattie | March 10, 2013 at 03:53 AM
I commented a while ago, but it's gone. I suggested Istanbul (the place to go at the moment) or Sydney or Melbourne - the last is interesting and cultural and lively, and also cold in July/August, so you could escape the St Louis heat.
Posted by: Big Dot | March 10, 2013 at 04:10 AM
Hattie - Gary sounded very interested in the cruise. The next step is to look at cruisecritic, which will not be nice (because review sites rarely are), and he will be off that idea and on to another,
Big Dot - Istanbul has 80 percent humidity? Australia sounds much better, but was nixed just yesterday (by Gary) because of the airfare expense.
Posted by: TheQueen | March 10, 2013 at 11:42 PM
I really think you would love it.
Posted by: Hattie | March 11, 2013 at 02:31 AM
I've been on the Hawaii cruise (different ship, very casual dining etc. but likely the same itinerary). It was great, especially if you sign up for some of the tours. You travel at night, and when you wake up you're at a different island. You get a good taste of all the islands. We sometimes had two or three days at the same island. Relaxing. I very highly recommend it, especially if you get a balcony room.
Posted by: ~~Silk | March 11, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Hattie - We are now at the decision-making stage in which Gary reads all the bad reviews. Some people are just so demanding. "The towels were all different sizes." Sheesh,
~~Silk - Oh, Gary has already insisted if we go there will be a balcony on the highest deck possible.
Posted by: TheQueen | March 12, 2013 at 12:51 AM