What's the most beautiful thing you've seen?

[Driftwood]

I honestly don't know which sunrise is more special.
I love watching it come up over the Atlantic.
I love watching it come up over the Appalachian Mountains with a foggy field and pond in the foreground.
I've seen it come up over the Alps, the Rockies, the desert, the Pacific, swamps, lakes, the Caribbean, Lake Michigan, the Las Vegas Strip, the Panama Canal, city skylines, dumpsters, and any number of places I can't recall.
No matter what, the sunrise is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Sunsets have nothing on sunrise.
Tomorrow's with be spectacular. The next day's will be better than that.

 

[MileHigh]

Don't have kids, so will defer to those who do. But ... there's nothing like being in a total solar eclipse.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Don't have kids, so will defer to those who do. But ... there's nothing like being in a total solar eclipse.

Been there, done that. Always figured I would be off work and see it from my back yard. Alas, I had to work and was the shift boss actually, but my whole crew got to see totality from our front lot.

 

[MileHigh]

Been there, done that. Always figured I would be off work and see it from my back yard. Alas, I had to work and was the shift boss actually, but my whole crew got to see totality from our front lot.


View attachment 20891

The difference between partial and total is out of this world.

Was planning Spain for 2027 with my best friend and her husband and still might try. We did two of them and she captured some incredible shots in Wyoming (2017) and Texas (2024). A total solar eclipse is other-wordly.

 

[MileHigh]

 

[Here me roar]

I think it's impossible to just say one thing was the most beautiful. I've been thinking about this and cannot articulate enough of them. But I will say this, I flew to Ohio last year to see the total solar eclipse and it was one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. It was beautiful.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Most beautiful, I don't know.

I remember being a 15 year old Boy Scout. We did a week long summer camp on Blackbeard's Island, off the Georgia coast. It's near Jeckyl Island and St Simons, east of Brunswick. Sapelo Island sits east of Brunswick, and Blackbeard's is a barrier island just east of Sapelo. All there is east of the shore of Blackbeard's is thousands of miles of Atlantic Ocean.

The island is a National Wildlife refuge. No one lives there except a park ranger. Totally primitive. The Atlantic beach is pristine white sand, very wide and hard when the tide is out. It's a gorgeous, peaceful place.

I remember walking that beach just after dawn. Sunrise. The sound of those waves that hadn't been stopped for three thousand miles till they beat on that beach. The light. The smells.

It's one of the most memorable places I've ever been, just that little slice of time.

With any luck it still looks very much the same. They can't build condos on it.

 

[WolvEagle]

1. Echoing from a comment above: At my wedding, seeing my wife and father-in-law through the stained glass at the back of the church, then them turning the corner.
2. Watching the birth of our son.
3. Watching the birth of our daughter.
4. Meeting my granddaughter - she was on the warming table and looked at me. When I first held her, she wrapped her hand around my finger.

 

[dixiehack]

I’m leaving kids out of this or else it would take up everything.

View attachment 20892

I was blessed to see totality for the 2017 eclipse. The diamond ring effect and then that pure white light peeking out from behind the moon is the closest I’ve come to seeing heaven. Awe-inspiring in the most literal sense.

Christmas 2020 I spent by myself in an AirBNB during an aborted ski trip to West Virginia. (I’d already had my time with the kids after my parents came down with Covid last minute.) The next day I hit the backroads across the state line to Blacksburg.

US 460 hugs the banks of the New River through much of Giles County, Va. Driving along that two-lane stretch with the river laid out flat and broad on one side and the Appalachian Mountains towering above the other while undisturbed snow covers much of the scenery, interrupted only by a couple of tiny towns … man. I’m more of a beach person than mountains but that was impossibly beautiful at a moment I really needed beautiful.

 

[Huggy]

Lake Louise, Alberta

The highlands in Scotland

Coming up the stairs at Rokin Metro station in August and being deposited in Amsterdam city centre.

 

[WriteThinking]

I've not posted already on this thread because I can hardly choose. I've seen so many beautiful places, and it's difficult to pick just one as the best, when they are all different, and beautiful in various ways.

And the sentiments you feel among family/friends in those special moments? Well, those are in a category of their own.

If I had to pick a place (or two), though, I'd still go with these:

For a city: Edinburgh, Scotland -- it has everything, old, modern, architecturally interesting and beautiful, cobblestone in some places, wide, clean, modern roads in others, walk-able city and friendly population; lively-busy, but doesn't feel crowded/uncomfortable or noisy...just a wonderful place.

For different, quietly, hauntingly wild, almost otherworldly natural scenery: Antarctica. On the ocean, you'll feel like you're on another planet.

 

[Songbird]

The highlands in Scotland

There's a great scene in Coppola's first (and best) movie about the Scottish highlands.



Find and watch it.

 

[BTExpress]

Lake Louise, Alberta

The highlands in Scotland

Coming up the stairs at Rokin Metro station in August and being deposited in Amsterdam city centre.

Well, if we're going to bring metro stations into the discussion . . .

 

[Huggy]

The Antwerp train station was pretty cool too.

 

[Gym Beam]

Well, if we're going to bring metro stations into the discussion . . .

Комсомо́льская is definitely easy on the eyes. Many beautiful metro stops in Moscow, at least there were 40 years ago!

 

[dixiehack]

All Saints Chapel at Sewanee may have started me on the road to becoming mainline Protestant.

 

[Here me roar]

The Antwerp train station was pretty cool too.

Yes it is

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I've not posted already on this thread because I can hardly choose. I've seen so many beautiful places, and it's difficult to pick just one as they best, when they are all different, and beautiful in various ways.

And the sentiments you feel among family/friends in those special moments? Well, those are in a category of their own.

If I had to pick a place (or two), though, I'd still go with these:

For a city: Edinburgh, Scotland -- it has everything, old, modern, architecturally interesting and beautiful, cobblestone in some places, wide, clean, modern roads in others, walk-able city and friendly population; lively-busy, but doesn't feel crowded/uncomfortable or noisy...just a wonderful place.

For different, quietly, hauntingly wild, almost otherworldly natural scenery: Antarctica. On the ocean, you'll feel like you're on another planet.

Did you spit on the Heart of Midlothian for luck?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Always liked downtown Pittsburgh just popping as you exit the Fort Pitt Tunnel.

Plus there's this one scene in The Devil's Advocate ...

 

[WriteThinking]

Did you spit on the Heart of Midlothian for luck?

I did not.

It just didn't seem right to me, although it once certainly would've been so.

Seriously, I love everything about Edinburgh, and can't see spitting on anything. I've even given thought, occasionally, to moving there, or certainly, to somewhere in Scotland. It might be my favorite place in the world that I've seen so far.