scenery

For folks who enjoy travel like my wife and I do, there are so many elements of a trip to consider during the planning process. Now that we are early in our retirement phase and also in the last half of our sixties, our priorities for travel have changed to some degree. We are still physically fit and able to get around fine; however, we no longer try to fill each hour of every day trying to hit all the museums, monuments, theatres, churches, etc. in the places we visit. We have become more selective while leaving plenty of time to relax and observe the scenery and the people. It’s a different experience than what we once had when I felt compelled to see as much as possible in the short time we had available to us. My wife has been so gracious over the years in this regard.

I don’t know how much time travelers spend thinking about their hotel rooms or other available lodging options, but in recent years we have been much more deliberate about not only where we stay but the views available to us while we are in our rooms. Perhaps one of the best examples of this new approach was our room in Paris in 2024. My wife handles virtually all our arrangements when we travel, primarily because she is quite good at it but also because she enjoys it – lucky me. She booked a room for us in Paris on an upper floor with a panoramic view of the Parisian skyline that was postcard perfect, especially at night.

We are willing to splurge for an ocean front room if at all possible when we are on the coast. Sitting on a balcony looking out over the water and hearing the constant sound of waves crashing onto the sand is about as peaceful as it gets. The same can be said for views of mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, cityscapes, and other vistas. We both like to read, and a beautiful landscape serves as the perfect backdrop for curling up with a good book or magazine. We have spent countless hours just enjoying this simple pleasure on most of our trips. Here is a small collection of views from our rooms in various locations from our travels.

In 1998, a female band called Dixie Chicks (now called The Chicks) released a song titled “Wide Open Spaces,” which stayed four weeks at the number one spot on the U.S. Country Singles Chart and landed at 41 on the U.S. Pop Singles Chart. The lyrics tap into the familiar theme of a young woman striking out on her own to find independence, freedom, adventure, and her future. The clear message is that she needs plenty of space to put all this in motion. She needs room to make mistakes and learn from them. She needs big sky to expand her vision. She needs plenty of depth, breadth, and no ceiling. The opening line of the song proclaims how this deep-seated desire is an essential part of the human spirit: “Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?”

In our travels across the country and overseas, my wife and I are usually drawn to wide open spaces. We love expansive vistas where the terrain stretches out before us for miles on end, and the view of the canopy above is unobstructed. And although these destinations are physical or geographical, they lend themselves to mental and emotional experiences that transport us far beyond the landscape alone. We like to say that these moments are good for our souls, when perhaps we are reminded of how small we are and how big the world, or even the universe, truly is.

Some of our favorite locations to see such grandeur are in the American West, but we have also witnessed breathtaking scenes in other places in the South, Northwest, Midwest, and in Europe. I have written other posts about how we value wide open spaces, but I thought it might be nice to share some images here of locations where we have felt the power and majesty of the natural world, from mountains, valleys, and deserts to shorelines, lakes, and streams, and always an abundance of big sky. After all, when it comes to appreciating the wonder of the natural world, who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?