Reply #49: I've been many places

[hyphenate]

both in Great Britain and in the U.S. and Canada. What are you looking for? Peace? Tranquility? Social enjoyment? Solitude?

For social enjoyment, I'd say go for Hawaii. It's really nice there, though August is hot. We went in July when we went.

For peace and tranquility, I suggest both the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. They're tops for that. Grand Canyon, however, has a lot more tourists, which finally put me off it. The Canyon is absolutely gorgeous if you have never been there, though, and it's worth going at least once. We used to go at least once a year for about 5 years until it got more expensive and far more tourist trappy. Zion National Park, on the other hand, is awe-inspiring, and the amount of tourists is far less. There are many places to explore without people bothering you, and lots of wonderful things. I love Zion, and want to go again someday when I get back to the West coast.

For fun and endless entertainment, go to Vegas. If you've never been there, it's a good place to at least go to see what all the excitement is about. I haven't been there in about three years now--my brother and sister-in-law live there, though, so I have a place to stay. Right now, though, it's hotter than a furnace. It was 116 degrees there yesterday according to my SIL.

If you want to go historical, try the Atlantic seaboard, from Boston to NYC, to Philly and down to Virginia and D.C. It's all great stuff, and you get a real perspective of what the country was like in the beginning.

If you want to go abroad, I've been to Great Britain, which isn't really that big, but even in 20 days, we hardly saw enough of anything. Depending on your interests, you have enough places to hit that it turns into a whirlwind like it did for us. But if you want to "theme" your trip, you can make more specific choices along the way to planning a trip, like hitting Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor, Hadrian's Wall, the castles in Scotland, Culloden Moor, the Isle of Skye and of course, London and Loch Ness to see Nessie. :)

Hope that helps a bit!