Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is supposed to be CHARACTERS I'D LIKE TO GO ON VACATION WITH. But I couldn't come up with anything creative or clever for that one. So I changed it up a little. Here's my list of 10 Vacations I'd Love to Take (and the book I'd bring along to read while on them).

1. I'd really love to go to Easter Island one day and see the Moai statues there. You have to fly there from Chile, so, of course, I'd also want to spend an extra week exploring parts of that country. And the perfect book to bring along on this trip:  The Moai Murders by Lyn Hamilton. 

2.  Death Valley is another place I'd really like to visit someday--see those rocks that seemingly move by themselves. I've heard it's very beautiful there. And the book I would take with me:  Wanderer of the Wasteland by Zane Grey.  (Because it's set in Death Valley, of course.) 

3.  There are some cool Dude Ranches in Wyoming and Colorado that have Girls' Only weeks where I could spend a week with my two sisters and cute niece just hanging out and riding horses. I would totally love to do that!  And of course, the perfect book to take along would be a cowboy romance like The Rough Rider by Maisey Yates.

4. I've never been to Yosemite National Park but I'd love to take a trip up there, stopping to see the Redwoods along the way.  And I would definitely bring along Trapped in Yosemite by Dana Mentink as my vacation read. 

5. For me, no vacation list is complete without Paris! It's such a beautiful and fun city. I've been there once, but I'd love to go back, revisit my favorite museums, buy some yummy crepes from the street vendors, stroll along the Seine and read a good book or two. Like The Paris Deception by Bryn Turnbull.

6. Who doesn't want to go to Hay-On-Wye--that town full of bookstores in Wales--at least once in their life? I'd love to spend an entire month in England exploring all those castles in Wales, visiting all the Jane Austen sights from Lyme Regis to Bath, checking out Highgate Cemetery in London, and dropping down to Cornwall to explore the towns and beaches there. And Sixpence House by Paul Collins would be a great book to bring along. (Though if I were gone for a month I'd have to bring a lot more books with me than just one!) 

7.  Venice, Florence, and Verona, Italy are all places I've always wanted to travel to...All of Italy really. And I've read A LOT of books set there, so it was a bit of a challenge to find a new book that I would want to take with me. I finally settled on John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels.

8. I am a birder and I love to go birdwatching. And ever since 2011 I've kept a life list of all the different birds I've seen. (It's currently at 207.) And I've always wanted to go birding in Texas because they get so many migrating birds and birds that don't come to Utah. I'd especially love to go to High Island during peak spring migration. And I can't think of a better book to bring with me on this trip than Chasing Birds Across Texas by Mark T. Adams.

9. A tour of Morocco is another trip I'd love to take someday. There are so many cool sights to see in that country: from the marketplace maze in the heart of Marrakech, to the ancient Roman ruins at Volubilis, to the city of Tangiers, not to mention Fez and Casablanca. I'd love to see it all! And In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah would be the perfect bookish companion.  

10.  And just for laughs, I've always wanted to check out Roswell, New Mexico. They have a UFO festival in the summer that I think would be a blast. And while I'm down that way, I'd also stop by Santa Fe, and then make a side trip back to Chaco Canyon, which is one of my all-time favorite places. And The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis seems like the perfect book for this trip. 

So there you have it... 10 vacations I'd love to take someday. 

Happy traveling..and happy reading along the way!