Thursday Thirteen #5 — 13 Favorite Cities

Welcome back to Thursday 13. This week I am sharing 13 favorite cities, why I like them, and a photo for your viewing pleasure whether you’ll be reminicing or discovering a new city. For a list of the other participants, be sure to visit thursdaythirteen.com.  The photos are from Flickr’s public files.  If you right click and select properties, a window listing my caption and giving credit to the photographer will pop up.

These are in alphabetical order.

1. Ashland, Oregon

It has lots of charm and a small town atmosphere. It is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

2. Atlanta, Georgia

I love the history, architecture, contrasts.

3. Honolulu/Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii

The ocean is warm from underwater volcanoes and there is natural beauty everywhere.

4. Los Gatos, California

The cats are at the gate of a private home, but it is a popular landmark, the high school mascot and used for the town logos.

5. Malibu, California

Malibu is beautiful year round, but always dangerous with fires in summer and fall and mud and rock slides in winter and spring.

6. Menton, France

You can see here the church tower of St. Michael’s. It is full of artwork, but the church is very dark so it is difficult to see. There are stairs everywhere. The ones leading to the church and plaza were handset by the Romans with mosaic-like designs.

7. Oatman, Arizona

Named after the Oatman family massacred by the Indians in 1851. Two daughters were taken captive, their faces were tattooed and one died of starvation while she was an Indian slave. The other was sold back to the whites after five years as a slave and reunited with her brother who had been clubbed and left for dead. The ghost town has a few tourist shops and wild burros from the days of the gold rush.

8. Palo Alto, California

This is Stanford University with the Memorial Church at the Center.

9. Paris, France

I love it’s beauty, architecture, culture and all the wonderful lights. A view of the Eiffel Tower over the Seine river at dusk.

10. Rimini, Italy

These little pedal boats are all over the beach and there are little changing cabins which you can rent. Sandcastles are also quite popular at this beach.

11. San Francisco, California

I too left my heart in San Francisco. It is surrounded by ocean on three sides and it never freezes, but you will find fog year round. Each neighborhood has its own very distinct character.

12. Saratoga, California

This is Villa Montalvo, originally built as the governor’s mansion, but is now a park and cultural center with artists in residence. It is often used for weddings, concerts and plays. It has great hiking trails through chaparrals.

13. Sausalito, California

Sausalito is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Most of the houses sit on the mountainside and some residents live on houseboats. Flowers thrive throughout the town with the beneficial ocean air.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my short tour around the world. I am participating in National Blog Post Month so throughout November I will be posting daily and I’m looking forward to your visits.

===============================================================

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.