lizilex's VirtualTourist Home Page

Places I have lived...

Malibu, California - the first 18 years. Malibu was very different then!

Palo Alto, California - the college years. College really *is* wasted on the young!

Los Angeles, California - the ghastly summer jobs.

Vienna, Austria - the junior year abroad. Great travels.

Seattle, Washington - the adult years (well, reasonably adult).

Deer Harbor, Washington - the *mature* adult years.

Tucson, Arizona - escaping the Washington winters!

I was a year old the first time I flew - back to a tiny town in rural Michigan to visit my paternal grandfather. My father was a school teacher, so we travelled summers starting with road trips from California to Michigan. In those days before air conditioning, we’d leave Malibu at midnight and my parents would drive all night to get through the desert before the heat of the day. After my grandfather died, we traipsed up and down the West Coast.

My first international trip was to Baja California when I was about ten. I immediately fell in love with Mexico -- the people, the colors, the smells, the language, the food. I still love Mexico.

In my early teens my father took a sabbatical and we went to Europe for fifteen months. I was sure my life was ruined because I would miss ninth grade. I got over that fast as soon as we got to Europe. We visited every country in Western Europe, plus quite a few in Eastern Europe, as well as Morocco and Turkey. We were in Athens the day of the military coup; confined to hotel for days. On the return trip, I visited New York City and Canada for the first time. I feel very fortunate to have had this life-changing experience.

Your basic suburban high school was a bit of an adjustment, to put it mildly! The following summer was the mandatory “looking at colleges” trip. Saw the rest of the United States: Texas, the South, the East Coast and New England. Favorites: New Orleans, New York, New England. I’ve now been to every state in the United States except Florida and Hawaii.

Graduated from high school in 1970 and that summer saw British Columbia and Alaska for the first time. Still two of my favorite places in the world.

Spent my junior year of college in Vienna. Travelled a lot weekends and breaks. Mostly to Italy, but also Hungary, Romania, Germany and Switzerland.

The first Christmas after I graduated, I spent a month in Mexico. Mexico City, Oaxaca, Tehauntepec, and the Yucatan. Returned with my husband several times in the 1980’s and saw Guadalajara, the colonial silver cities, Michoacan, Zihuatanejo.

We’ve also made several trips to Europe and road trips through the US. We’re looking forward to another road trip this fall.

Now that we have a dog again, we are doing mostly North American travels. Trips I hope to make in the future include:

The Queen Charlotte Islands (British Columbia)

Drive up through the Yukon to Alaska, take the Alaska Ferry back down.

Trans-Canada driving trip back a different route, either through Canada or the US, or a combination

Bryce, Zion, and Arches National Parks - this one I hope to do this year.