Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    Special places with any small child, especially my oldest when he
    was 3...the Audobon farm in Lincoln Mass.
    
    Special places with any good friend/child/SO an amusment park.
    
    Bonnie

    My favorite place to take someone special is Rockport, MA.
    I just love walking past and through the shops and galleries.
    
    Especially on a brisk autumn day.
    
    --- jerry

    In the summer, when my husband and I have a chance, we go to any
    small restaurant in the neighbourhood: the requirements are that
    it has a terrace, few tables, a view on the lake or on a park, and
    either Nouvelle Cuisine (if we are in funds) or Italian Cooking
    (when we are not, i.e. most of the time!). Sometimes we take the
    children, but we really love it when there are just the two of us.
    
    Joana

    My special place has become Boston...  just walking the tourist
    traps....
    
    Start with the Pru, then through the Gardens and Commons, onto
    Fanueil Hall, then the aquarium, running through the North End (or
    Harvard, somewhere for dinner, then a hop on the T (first one since 
    the ride to the Pru or Harvard)....
    
    There is something to be said with just walking all that distance
    about having a chance to talk, to people watch, street vendor watch,
    and just plain tiring yourself out so that you know you'll fall
    asleep that evening....

    Gale

    Nothing will ever compare in my book with a walk around Walden Pond
    in the evening.  Or a swim on a weekend day, although it gets so
    crowded between June and August it usually isn't worth it. Bring
    your spouse, friends, kids, SO, whatever... never met someone who
    doesn't like Walden Pond.
    
    Diana
      !

    sometimes an unplanned excursion to anywhere (a bookstore, a town i
    enjoy, an art museum, the town forest) is enough -- the mixture of
    spontaneity and the right company are all i need. 
    
    for more planned excursions, i love going to the seaside, especially on
    "off" days, and walking for miles. 
    
    on the other end of the spectrum, someday i'd like to go to paris
    with a lover and stay for a few weeks.
    
    *sigh*. 
    e

    
    	While not dependant on others, I get out into the wilds every
    	chance I get. There is nothing better in this world than watching
    	nature in all it's beauty. There are miles and miles or old
    	dirt forrest roads where you don't see another human all day!!!
    
    	G_B

    My favorite special place for a special occasion is Manhattan.
    Midtown, in a fancy hotel just south of central park.  With
    or without the kids.
    
    Start out with coffee and croissants or brioches in the room while
    reading the Times.  Take a walk down Fifth Avenue.  Drop in on FAO
    Schwartz (kids are a great excuse there).  Take the kids to see
    the dinosaur skeletons, then have a late lunch in the new dining
    room at the museum.  If just us, wind our way up the Guggenheim.
    Have quick dinner with play or opera afterwards, then sit in the
    bar over brandy watching celebrities try to walk out without
    paying their bill.  Or make dinner an event to linger over,
    chamagne and pheasant with vegetable caviar and orange sauce, take
    three hours until the coffee comes.  Or go cheap and spend the
    afternoon with a sketch pad above the merry-go-round in Central
    Park, or just walk around watching the people. 
    
    And here I am, and it's raining in Nashua . . . sigh.

    --bonnie 

    	
    	One of the nicest things to do with a special person around
    	here is to drive up through the Rocky Mountains all day (up
    	towards Breckenridge or Vail is a nice drive from here ...)
    
    	For a few days during the fall, the Aspen trees "turn" (and
    	the landscape becomes the most beautiful color gold all along
    	the mountain roads.)
    
    	Am going up through the mountains with someone special in a
    	couple of weeks (and will definitely go back when the Aspens
    	"turn" this year...)  I can tell when it starts because the
    	Aspen trees on my street start doing it at the same time...
    	
    	As pretty as it is to see several Aspens turn on a residential
    	street, I'm looking forward to seeing whole forests do the same
    	things up in the mountains aways...  A truly gorgeous sight!

    Hikes along the Quabbin Reservoir in central Mass. Whether in the
    park area off rte. 9 or on the rest of the shore, always nice.
    Great view from the tower.
    
    Dana
    

    My favorite place to go is Provincetown, Mass.  I love browsing
    in all the shops, especially the antique jewelry stores, and art
    galleries, and then going to one of the beaches on the National
    Sea Shore such as Race Point or Sunken Meadow.  Two other favorite
    spots on Cape Cod are Great Island in Wellfleet, and the John Wing
    Trail in Brewster.
    
    My second favorite is Boston.  I love Quincy Mkt., Newbury St.,
    Charles St., Downtown Crossing, Copley Place, the Museum of Fine
    Art, eating at Durgin Park, catching movies at Nickolodeon (that
    never seem to make it to Boston or Framingham), and also Havard
    Sq. in Cambridge.
    
    I also love Newport, R.I., (the shops, the restaurants, the yachts,
    the mansions and especially the Cliff Walk), and Rockport, Mass.,
    for the shops and the ocean.
    
    I especially enjoy going to the Topsfield Antique Show which is
    held in June and in August.
    
    I also like walking in Prescott Park by the river in Portsmouth,
    N.H., and looking at all the beautiful flowers they have planted
    there.
    
    Lorna
    

    ooops!  I meant to say the movies at the Nickolodeon never make
    it to *Worcester* and Framingham!
    

- Hanksville, Vermont where our camp is...there's a nice big rock down
  the brook a ways overlooking a "black hole", with a couple waterfalls
  right there...a great place to veg out or catch some rays...

- the Carribean where the water is that pretty blue-green color

    Provincetown, MA
    
    Newport, R.I.
    
    Mount Desert Island, Maine
    
    and closer to home:
    
    (Boston) Shopping on Newbury Street and having Afternoon Tea at
    the Ritz
    
    --DE
    

My sweetie and have gone to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
and had some really special, memorable times.  We scramble up one
of the rocks to our favorite "perch."  It's a really comfy spot
for both of us to sit back.  Facing west, we watch the sun set,
changing the color of the valleys and the sky.  When the sun
finally goes down behind the mountains and it starts to get
chilly, we scramble back down.  It's a wonderful spot for
quiet times.  

RE: .5

>    There is something to be said with just walking all that distance
>    about having a chance to talk, to people watch, street vendor watch,
>    and just plain tiring yourself out so that you know you'll fall
>        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>    asleep that evening....
>    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    
    Does that bother your SO?  It always bothered me but I am trying
    to find out ways to change my own behaviour.
    
    - Vikas

    
    	In New England:
    
    	A deserted beach during the "off" season.  Herring Cove, Truro,
    	Orleans on the Cape;  Ogunquit, Maine, or anywhere else where
    	one can walk and talk, or walk and listen, and feel simultaneously
    	the power and peace of the ocean.
    
    	
    	In Colorado:
    
    	Sunnyside Knoll cabins near Estes Park for Christmas.  Snow
    	outside falling silently on the pine trees;  inside, a fire
    	in the fireplace, a bottle of wine, some soft music . . .

    
    

    Anywhere where there are no lights, no clouds, and a clear view
    of the sky at night.
    
    Yosemite
    
    Backpacking in the Emmigrant Wilderness which borders Yosemite on
    the north.  The peaks, granite, lakes, views, streams and solitude
    are magnificent.
    
    San Francisco
       The English Tea Shoppe for tea and crumpets.
       Exploring the Sutro Baths "ruins".
       Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park for a picnic and a boat ride.
       Polly Ann Ice Cream for rose, vegetable, cheese, or normal ice
       cream.
       Ghirardelli Square to just wander around.
    
    Wine tasting in Napa Valley, or even Gilroy
    
    And I could go on, and on, and on, and ...

    Mt. Katahdin in Maine -- the northern terminus of the Appalachian
    Trail
    
    I remember being a kid and standing at Chimney Pond, halfway up the
    mountain with 2000' gray-green-blue rock walls rising sharply above me
    on 3 sides and being unable to speak for the beauty of it all.  <Sigh> 
                               
    It's hard to get enough time off for a good climb anymore...          

    My parents camp on Lakewood near Skowhegan, Maine.  
    
    It is situated
    such that I can look down the entire length of the lake and off
    into the mountains to the west.   Especially at sunset.  During
    the evening you can see the duck families traveling to their feeding
    areas and watch the loons as they dive for their meal.  
    
    At night if the stars are out, they are so bright and clear it looks
    like you are in outer space with them.  I'll never forget the first
    time I showed my son what a real starry sky looks like.  All he could
    say was WOW!
    
    Also at night, the loons can really be noisy, but you don't mind.  You
    just enjoy. 
    
    During the day, depending on the weather, we take walks; talk about
    everything in the universe, or nothing in the universe; sit under a
    tree and read; or just do nothing.
    
    When my wife can, she comes with me.  If not then I just go alone.  Then
    I just watch, listen to my heart slow down, and think.  My grown
    children come occasionally, but they really haven't learned the value of
    what this sort of quiet can mean yet.
                                          
    Keep this up and I'll leave right now.
    
    Mike
    

    Monhegen Island, Maine...a place that I like to think I discovered
    but in reality it is a well visited tourist spot.
    
    It has a few inns with very basic accomodations and 17 miles of
    trails with a lot of wildlife.
    
    I'll be there with friends on the 19th of August.

Two far away, very extreme Islands...

The Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island MI...  Worth renting the movie "Somewhere in
Time" just to see the Grand Hotel, and listen to the Rachmanninoff. 

Isle Royale National Wolf & Moose Wilderness preserve in the middle of Lake
Superior between MI and Canada.

Somewhat closer to MA...

Picketty Place, Greenville HN... Herb garden, luncheon, shop...  The house used
for the illustrations of "Little Red Riding Hood".

Any Renniasance festival... although they aren't quite what they used to be...

JMB 

    The rocky coast of Mount Desert Island in October
    
    The ruins of Awatovi, a pueblo on the Hopi reservation in Arizona
    
    Closer to home I have a hill that wants to be a mountain where I
    	really love to take people that I care about.
                                                                  
    So many places, so little time!!   
    			
    				Dondi

    Philadelphia- A walk down South Street, an italian restaurant or
    some Philly cheese steaks, and some frozen yogurt....
    
    Vermont- A winter weekend away, complete with fireplace, Jacuzzi,
    and champagne.  A little cross country skiing is nice too.
    
    Boston- A walk through Quincy Market on a breezy summer night. This
    one should come complete with the many delicacies available inside
    Fanuial Hall, and maybe a little shopping as well.
    
    

    Our (my fiance and I) special place is Nubble Light in Rye, NH.
    We also enjoy walking along the water at the Beach at night, we
    both just love the ocean.
    
    -Michelle-

    
    My special place is the Mt Tamalpais State Park.
    
    Just me , my mt. bike, and I. And the buzzards. 

    Montreal - cafes, bilingual, has most of the aspects i loved in
    paris and few of those i hated.

    There are many fairs and country festivals that start up this time
    of year.  The Bolton Fair is my favorite and I love just to browse
    thru all of the crafts displays and there's lots of good food to
    eat.  
    
    Later in the year I go to a pumpkin patch in Harvard and pick my
    own pumpkins.  It's a great place to go if you are in search of
    the great pumpkin.
    
    Denise

    Ann Marie seems to have noticed that I said Nubble Light is in Rye,
    NH, however, It is in York, ME.  I explained to her that my mental
    condition worsens as September draws near. (36 days and counting)
    
    Thanks Ann Marie
    
    -Michelle-
    Who_is_rapidly_becoming_a_space_cadet
    

    Sailing ... on any body of water, it doesn't matter.
    
    There's something soooo peaceful about the noise of the water rushing
    by and the wind in the sails.  And there's just enough to do to
    keep you busy, but still plenty of time to quietly talk, or just
    be quiet if the mood strikes you.
    
    Sailing is the most peaceful, relaxing thing I've ever done.
    
    							Pat

    Key West is the best!

    HI I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN TO WOMANNOTES BUT FELT I COULD SHARE MY
    FAVORITE PLACE AS ITS A LITTLE UNUSUAL MY HUSBAND AND I ON A CALM
    WARM SUMMERS EVENING HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO GO TO THE HARBOUR WHEN THE
    TRAWLERS COME IN AND WAIT FOR EVERYONE TO GO AND TURN OFF THE CAR
    LIGHTS AND DO WHAT ALL NEWLY WEDS DO ....WATCH THE RATS....