Tonight I am suffering from the sort of carlag that comes from driving a total of 22 hours across two days. My calves feel like lumps of coal and my brain feels like mush. I am thinking about making ramen noodles. I might fall asleep first.
My journey to San Francisco this weekend marked the first time I visited the Bay Area. I enjoyed its gorgeous water, rolling hills, and classy bohemian vibe. It was a city I had high on my list to visit. Now that it’s been scratched off I am asking myself which American cities that I have never visited do I most want to experience.
This is tough. To date, I’ve visited New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Boston, Seattle, Las Vegas, Memphis, Dallas, Houston, and Austin, just to name a few. Plus, I’ve lived in New Orleans and Portland.
Where should I go next? Should I slip a blindfold on and point at the map? Or should I look both ways before I cross the country again? Here’s my list of possible cities next in line for a visit.
10. Seaside Heights, New Jersey
I recently quit my Jersey Shore addiction. I think it happened after Snooki got knocked up and Pauly D went on tour with Britney Spears. The thrill is gone but I would not mind taking a trip to the Jersey Shore as an archaeological exploration trip into one of our nation’s biggest cultural voids and one of my former biggest reality TV pleasures.
9. Santa Fe, New Mexico
I had fighting words for New Mexico in my Top 10 places I would not want to live list. My friend Tracy disagreed with me, citing Santa Fe’s charm as a reason to give New Mexico a chance. Well, if I am in the southwest anytime soon, I might just have to check Sante Fe out. If Santa Fe disappoints, there’s always Roswell and its UFOs less than 200 miles away.
8. Boise, Idaho
Blue turf and potatoes. Maybe I could eat Idaho potatoes on Smurf Turf. That could be fun. Boise also has a burgeoning musical scene that I am fond of. Still, it’s seven hours away from Portland. The distance makes me think, “Do I really want to go to Idaho that bad?” Maybe, yes, no.
7. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
My undying worship of all things Kevin Durant makes a trip to Oklahoma City during the NBA season seem like an OK venture (no pun intended). Then again, I hear the words “Oklahoma City” in my head and I wonder if I am insane for even considering a place that I know for basketball and bombings in my Top 10 places to go.
6. Louisville, Kentucky
Technically, I might have been to Louisville at some point during my youth. But, seeing how as I don’t recall, I am adding the land of Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp to my list. Louisville seems sort of southern, sort of metropolitan, sort of fun, sort of rugged. Check this out: Just learned on Wikipedia that Louisiville’s population exploded from 256,000 in 2000 to 741,000 in 2010. Must be something about the place.
5. Denver, Colorado
I’ve always had a nonsensical soft spot for Denver – the Mile High City. I say nonsensical because I know next to nothing about Denver or Colorado and yet I am intrigued enough by the city’s altitude to want to visit. At this moment, I can’t think of any instances where I heard a person rave about Denver or tell me I must go to Denver. Is it a best kept secret or does it suck? I need to investigate.
4. Athens, Georgia
Like a weirder, smaller, more arts-friendly Atlanta. I have had Athens on the brain for quite some time, but it is super duper far away from the Pacific Northwest. One day, I’ll make it back to the Southeast. Did I mention it has lots of live music and that Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum once called it home? It must be the mecca for amazing.
3. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The birthplace of MotownPhilly and Philly cheese steaks. Oh, and Ben Franklin once roamed the city’s turf. I really want to catch an Eagles game just to see if their fans are as heartless as they seem. Plus, it’s only 90 miles from New York City. Next time I am in the Big Apple this is happening.
2. Baltimore, Maryland
I feel like I know this city and yet I have never visited. David Simon’s classic TV show The Wire and his true crime book Homicide offered insight into a deeply corrupted city, and yet made it seem fascinating. A city that can produce bands like Animal Collective and Beach House must have some type of artistic core too.
1. Detroit, Michigan
Maybe it’s the lack of sleep or the carlag or the need for food but Detroit feels like the city I need to check out next. I want to know about its recovery or lack thereof. I want to see the engine that once drove America. I want to see the places that inspired Sufjan Stevens’ instant classic album, Michigan. There’s something romantic, in my mind at least, about Detroit. Maybe I am attracted to decaying industries. If Detroit fails to leave a mark – good or bad – there is always Chicago less than five hours away.
So what’s the city or cities you most want to visit? Tell me!
Hi Ray!
You’ve listed a really interesting compilation of destinations! haha Guess when you’ve been to as many places as you have you start to delve deeper. 
I want to visit a few of those places myself…but I think you’re on your own in the Seaside Heights department….Archaeological digg or not, haha. (Of course now I’ve probably jinxed it and banished my future self there for a promo.)
This is my mini blog post in response to your request for the cities we want to visit!
Check it out!
5./6. Santa Fe, NM & Baltimore, MD!: I too want to check out these cities. The few times I’ve driven through NM proved to be desolate and disappointing for me as well, even though I had always imagined the state to be a wonderful blend of Mexican and American culture coupled with a wild-west persona and the beauty of the desert. Then I hit Arizona, and discovered that I was actually imagining the wrong state. But I’ve heard good things about Santa Fe too, and photos of the city on Google Images seem to rep everything I had previously expected out of that state. As for Baltimore–The Wire and the gritty realness it depicts, the temperate climate of the state, Baltimore’s seaside location and stories from my Father about his old high school friend that lives in and operates his art gallery out of a Mooselodge there (who once stated that I’d turned into a traveling Laura Croft) have helped pique my interest in the city. I imagine they have a sweet urban art scene. Plus yay for Beach House!
4. Memphis, TN (Graceland)!: Blues, Brews, and BBQs, obviously! And of course the King lived there, and Dr King fought and struggled there. But mostly, I have this wholehearted belief in the lyrics from Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and “for reasons I can’t explain there’s a part of me that wants to see Graceland….maybe I’ve a reason to believe that we will all be received in Graceland.”
3. Savannah, GA! This place conjures images of live oaks heavy with spanish moss, plantation homes with staggering pillars and endless, sun-drenched porches, fireflies flickering in the heat of night., and an unhurried, tranquil people, that take life as it comes. I only know one person from Savannah, so that last bit may be more romanticism and imagination that reality, but if she were the city’s ambassador, then I expect everyone I meet there to be the chillest, most relaxed Georgians that exist. I also dig that Savannah is haunted, historical, and on the coast.
2. Sedona, AZ! I have had my fill of National Geographic spreads of Sedona in the springtime and I say, enough already, I need to see it in person. Glorious sunsets, rainbow-colored rock, the stark contrast of rough and monochromatic desert sands to the brilliance of this landscape abloom have been burned into my mind’s eye and I need to go there, but only between late April and early June.
1. San Diego, CA! (and all beach side towns and cities south of Los Angeles) : Southern California has been the subject of so many of my daydreams and fantasies that I am now worried that when I finally get there, my actual experience will fall short of all my wild expectations, haha. I blame this on enduring a childhood in Syracuse, NY, which has more gray days than Seattle and an actual movie based on how much snowfall occurs there every year. Sooo, this coupled with the knowledge that San Diego has the most sunshine-filled days of any city, plus my love for beach-pop, and well…the beach, makes me want to go to San Diego, BAD. BTW–Did you know that John and Michelle Phillips wrote ” California Dreamin’ ” while living in New York? True storryyy!
Loved this comment, Kerry! Could tell you put a lot of thought into it. Great writing too.
I thought about listing San Diego but I opted not to for no good reason. I hear the weather is uniformly gorgeous there. Kinda like Portland. Or not.