10-day YOU challenge: day 6
Six Places
1. Hoyt Park in Wauwatosa, WI
I grew up less than two blocks from this park as the crow flies, but you had to go a roundabout way to get out of the cul-de-sac. It runs along the Menominee River and is a great place to go to enjoy a little bit of quiet (sort of) in the middle of the city. Its bike path is also the route to take from my parents' house to the Village, or even farther to State Fair Park. Of all the places in Wauwatosa, this might be my favorite.
2. Lawrence University, Appleton, WI
Appleton was my second home, after Wauwatosa. I spent five wonderful years at Lawrence, and came to really like Appleton -- for the most part. It has its drawbacks (crushing conservative politics and a gerrymandered campus, anyone?), but there are a lot of great things, too. The Fox River is beautiful, especially in the very early springtime, or later in the spring, when it's swollen with snowmelt and thunderstorms. The farmers' market in the summer is pretty spectacular, too, for a small city in the middle of Wisconsin.
3. High Cliff State Park, Sherwood, WI
This sort of goes with Appleton. High Cliff was one of our favorite places to go to get away from school, especially in the summer. It's a beautiful state park on the northeastern edge of Lake Winnebago, and was the destination for all three Walks of Epic Proportions -- it's 12 miles from downtown Appleton, and a group of my friends made the round-trip journey three times in five years. The wind from the lake made it great for kite-flying, and for beating the heat in the sweltering summer. Plus, the hiking (pictured) was gorgeous.
4. Kitt Peak National Observatory
In the summer of 2007, I spent a week working at KPNO as part of an undergraduate research experience, and it was SO COOL. We spent some time exploring the campus, and found out that one of our keys let us into the solar telescope (that big A-shaped one at the top). In general, I love it there, and I have wonderful memories of that time.
5. The UK
Pictured: Scotland. Although I've flown through Heathrow a couple of times, I've never actually visited the UK. The romantic part of me really wants to experience Scotland and Ireland in particular, and see if they really possess the magic that my romance novels claim they do. Plus, kilts. And I have some Scottish ancestry from 500 years ago!
6. Tokyo, Japan
Another place I really want to visit. This probably stems from my anime otaku days of yore (middle and high school) but the romance of the city (and the entire country, really) has never left me. Someday, Japan.