Forever the drama student

A recap of our trip to Banff co-authored by my luteal phase

What are your top three favorite cities in the world? That’s the question my husband asked me as we were sitting at a picnic table in Banff on Saturday morning, eating two very ‘meh’ donuts from an absolutely sweltering bakery and sipping two above-average iced coffees that were probably worth the 20 minutes I stood in line to get them. I didn’t hesitate before I responded with London as my number one, obviously, which has stayed forever in my top position since I studied abroad there in 2009.

Compared to a lot of people I know, I haven’t actually been a lot of places. London twice. Italy once. Palm Springs more times than I can accurately count. This weekend I got to add Banff to the list, which was a lovely trip for my mom’s 70th birthday, despite the smoke from nearby wildfires nearly hiding the mountains from view. We went canoeing in the shockingly teal-colored water of Lake Moraine—I was the passenger princess stuck in the middle, so naturally I took photos instead of paddling—and then hiked up to a lookout that was difficult enough that my parents had to turn back before we got there.

It was a fantastic trip, but I have to admit I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Banff. Mountains and lakes don’t really do it for me and never have. I did my undergrad in Denver and then got the fuck out of there pretty much immediately. I’d followed my sister (who owns a pair of “hiking poles” if that tells you anything) to Colorado and almost transferred after my first year. I can see with my eyeballs that Banff is absolutely gorgeous and yet it does nothing for me personally. People can be the same way, like how I feel about Jason Momoa. You know what I mean?

I thought about Paul’s question for a long time. There are so many places I’d like to revisit, and so many more I’d like to visit for the first time, but the problem is always A. Time, and B. Money. Where would you go if you had an unlimited amount of each?