Memorable/awesome moments.
 

What are peoples most memorable, unforgettable or "wow factor" moments whilst on holiday. I have many, here are just a few;-
Stepping out of the lift at the top of the Empire State Building at night. WOW!
Sailing to the edge of Niagara Falls on "Maid of the Mist"
Sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon with a Native American Indian after just having lunch cooked by his mother.
More sedate memories;-
Standing on the pier at Naples beach Florida watching pelicans diving for fish.
Seeing a baby bear crossing the road in the Smokey Mountains.
Sitting in Bayside Miami in glorious sunshine,listening to a Latin/American band and watching the ships sail by. Magic!

My most memorable, believe it or not was riding across the seven mile bridge towards Key West Florida on a motorcycle. Riding through the Swiss Alps (in a car)! Looking out of the airplane window while we were landing the first time I went to Europe. Laying on the beaches of the Mediterranean. Sitting on the back porch of my supervisor's beach house on Sunset Beach, NC. Wow! I all of a sudden I wish I wasn't at work!!! Have a good day.
Audrey in NC

Flying out of Anchorage on a clear day and looking out the window and see the "flow" of the glaciers in the mountains below.

I have found nothing in the U.S. that compares to being in the coppala of St. Peter's Cathedral in Vatican City when the choir was singing. Just thinking about it still gives me chills.
I will admit that seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time was definitely a major WOW.

-Seeing Machu Picchu for the first time...after a grueling 4-day hike.

-Climbing a mountain by elephant in Thailand...and seeing, in the distance, the silhouette of three elephants crossing a mountain ridge

-Swimming into a grotto in Crete, and with the way the sun came through the entrance, the inside glowed purple and blue and green.

The first view of blue-green Havasu Falls, after a long, hot 9 mile hike to get there!

The Grand Canyon from the back of a mule

The art in the Metropolitan, Prado, Louvre and Marmottan Museums

Going to the Sun Road and Avalanche Lake in Glacier NP

First view of Yosemite Valley

My first Class IV white water rapid

Chair lift assited mountain biking in Colorado - Whee!!

All for different reasons and in totally different eras:

Just looking up and seeing the Colosseum in Rome for the first time.

Coming across the border through Checkpoint Charlie and seeing color again after trapsing through the DDR and seeing little but grey for days - also seeing /reading all the inscriptions and drawings on the Berlin Wall the day after.

Seeing each of my grandchildren born- all different- all individual, and especially getting to hold the smallest when he was a few minutes old (he was just 4 lbs/ purple with screaming) but he was BEAUTIFUL to me.

Hiking up (Alps) to the church carved out of the mountain wall and seeing the stone basin that was my dad's baptism fount in 1919(Idar-Oberstein, Germany)
when it was already many, many centeries old.

Seeing the sky turn green and then within less than 90 seconds seeing a tornado come through my yard, pick up the shed/bikes and picnic table, and throw them all into the next yard- while I carried a 2 year old and 1 year old under each arm and huddled in the alcove of my porch trying to open the back door and avoid pieces of my porch at the same time.

Just this last month, seeing two whales and a pod of dolphin while coming into Ft. Lauderdale airport (approached from the ocean side and I hear this is quite unusual).

This last was totally unexpected and a couple of us on my side of the plane could hardly talk. One lady just kept saying "whale, whale" over and over again.

Too many natural wonders and beauties to remember them all. I'm so lucky.

What a wonderful memory about your dad, JJ5.

For me -
My first time crossing the Sea of the Moon (between Tahiti and Moorea). Not a cloud in the sky, crystal clear blue water, dolphin and flying fish swimming/jumping on either side of the bow.

First view of Bora Bora from the air. I couldn't breathe.

Conversation that led to friendship with the proprietor of a youth hostel in Cassis, France.

Hiking in the hills above Grindelwald.

A picnic on the hillside at Cascade Head, Oregon.

- Looking at the Grand Canyon and marveling at the colors changing right before your very eyes.

- Walking into the restaurant at the Princeville hotel in Kauai and seeing Bali Hai for the first time. I actually was breathless when I saw it.

Watching the sun come up and go down in Monuement Valley. Having a beer on top of a mountain in the Austrian Alps on a warm, cloudless day. Having a picnic lunch at Point Sublime in the Grand Canyon. Walking in Charleston with my wife on a perfect spring night. Seeing both bear and moose on my first fly-in fishing trip in Canada.

I had one of these two days ago. I was hiking alone at 7 a.m. in west Sedona in Boynton Canyon. It was cold and misty because of all the big tree coverage in the canyon but sunny up above the ridgeline. After hiking for an hour and a half and not seeing anyone, I saw a small herd of whitetail deer grazing about 20 ft. away from me just off the trail. They did not leap away as I expected them to. I stood there for about 15 min watching them. When I hiked on a few hundred feet further, I saw a wild boar. I've seen javelinas out there many times, but this was definitely a boar. It scared me, but the boar just kept eating and did not seem interested in charging me or anything. I stayed still and then just slowly made my way down the trail (this took the most courage because it meant having my back to the boar as I walked away). Ok, so this was a pretty cool hike so far. But then about 5 min. later, I heard music. I thought "oh no, someone has a boom box", but then I realized it was drums and chanting. As I got closer, I saw it was about 20 native Americans, and they had apparently hiked to this area in the canyon w/their drums to chant. I stopped and listened to them for about 20 min. It was just amazing. Then I wondered if their chanting is what had perhaps brought out the animals I saw towards the trailline. I have heard that Boynton Canyon is very sacred to the Native Americans, but I really experienced it on that hike. Wow.

Wow, emd. I had one quite like that with a coyote last year right in my yard, but then after the eye contact he slinked off into the prairie behind me with his tail half mast. You were brave to turn your back on the boar.

-After hours of delays we finally arrived on St John USVI on a dark and rainy night. We made our way to our tent at Maho by flashlight and wondered what in the heck we'd gotten ourselves into. During the night I got up to see a full moon and discover our tent cabin overlooked the bay where beautiful sail boats were anchored.
-a perfect local town picnic day in a beautiful pine grove when our son and his friends climbed the greased pole and then swam in the river to clean up. This was a Normal Rockwell day.
-Parris Island "a long twelve weeks later" and seeing 20 lbs of new muscle on our son
-standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and watching the birds fly around below us.

Numerous sunrises and sunsets while crewing on the Tall Ship Rose as we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. (BTW, the Rose was the boat used in the film Master and Commander.)

A bit grusome, but watching a male lion pounce on and then begin to dine on a water buffalo while on safari in Kenya.

Watching as two barely dressed little kids on a potholed backroad in Kenya tried to earn money by tossing dirt in the holes as cars approached. Solidified any doubts I'd had about the "fairness" of our system and our obligation as a people.

The look on my son's face when I told him to open his eyes at the foot of Mainstreet, USA in Disneyworld.

Would't life be dull without these magic moments?I've got goose bumps reading some of them.If I had been in Boynton Canyon at that time, (emd) I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven!Here are a couple more, you could go on....and...on......
Sitting on Mallory Square Key West early evening, with a tall ship moored alongside and the Disney Cruise ship behind it.
Sailing out of Miami on a cruise ship with jet skis running alongside the ship.
Sitting on the kerbside in Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios or Epcot, waiting for the parades.(I still cry when I see Main St. USA)

-Kayaking with penguins in milford sound, nz
-Sliding inside a Fox glacier in nz
-watching a boy point at the pope from his window as he blesses the crowd
-walking through the streets of rome at night
-sunrise on coogee beach on new years, OZ
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"What are peoples most memorable, unforgettable or "wow factor" moments whilst on holiday."

1. Getting mugged my first time in L.A.
2. Mugging someone, myself, my second time in L.A.
3. Drinking too much and falling off our balcony into the Grand Canal in Venice.
4. Getting on the wrong train my first time in Europe and ending up in the Czech Republic instead of France (don't ask).
5. Being hit by an Athens bound bus while driving a VW bus on the way to Athens, being knocked into a ditch, having the Athens bus stop, the bus driver get out, take one look at our VW on it's side in the ditch, and then DENYING having hit us, get back on his bus and take off.

99.9% of my travel memories are positive but I thought these both fit the request and were more fun.

AL ((d))

Being in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona on our 1st trip there in May 2000. The sight of those dust devils moving along the desert floor and the heat...WOW!
Also on same trip, climbing the Shrine of St Joseph of the Mountains near Wickenberg, Arizona, and just gazing at the distance..such a sense of peace I can never describe and it fills me with joy just to remember it.
PS. My husband and I are from the UK and are returning to the US Southwest again in 4 weeks time.
We wish we had a lifetime to explore the USA.

Joan

Auggghhh, not another "truly unique," "unforgettable, "awesome," "breath-taking" travel experience thread!

- Arriving in Venice from the airport - across the Lagoon by water taxi (the buses were on strike!)

- The view across lake Garda (Italy) upon waking up the first day of our honeymoon

- staying in bed on a rainy Cinque Terra day the last day of our honeymoon

- Bike riding the vineyards in NOTL (Niagara on the Lake)

- The many shades of green in the countryside just outside Dublin

- The Malahide Castle, you walk forever on a wooded path, round a corner and come upon this amazing castle

- Sunrise on Horseshoe Bay (Bermuda)

- The 'scaffolding' memorials where the World Trade Center(s) once stood

- Trolley ride through New Orleans Garden District

- Sunset in Key West - from the tallest building (the Hilton? Holiday Inn?)

- The view from the continental divide - Colorado

- Cruising out of NYC, thinking there is no way the ship can clear the Veranzanno (?)bridge

- eating gelato for the first time

The list could go on. I thank you for the wonderful thread. It reminds me how fortunate I am... Trav