Hrm. There's a few. One of my all time favorites is a place with no name. I was in Alaska and there were a couple churches a friend and I were visiting. The one I'm thinking of is "way way WAY out there," as opposed to the one way out there or way way out there, so when you say way way WAY out there, anyone who had been there knew the one.
What made it really stand out was that first of all, it was way way WAY out there with nothing at all around. The church was a tiny bit of nothing, a one room deal, a couple dried whole salmon hanging out, but the inside was painted with glitter to give it SOMETHING. Most of the people who attended had no possessions to speak of and some came from way way way WAY out to go (those who had been ostracized by their native group for a time for something they did that broke the rules...out there you can be judged by regular courts or tribal ones) and there in that tiny shack, the sound of "I've Got a Mansion" shook the walls, sung both in English and then in Inupiaq.
Some other things happened, but since they would be questionable under other circumstances in places with more people and more access to medical care, I won't name them, will just say that they have ways to make sure the elderly/infirm are taken care of.
It's rare to find that type of joy in a church today, no pretense or inhibitions, nobody dressed to kill...well, actually, they were dressed to kill but only if it was gonna be a bear or a moose. LOL Nobody all prettied up because it was a long way back to wherever on a snow machine and it was pretty much just an iced over path to go on until you got back to the one and only official road.
My other favorite place is probably Ashland, Oregon. It's small and quite unique, with tons of art, the Shakespeare Festival for plays, a cool little Greek restaurant that gives you about a zillion fries with feta for just a couple bucks, an amazing and ridiculously expensive restaurant that is worth every penny, another restaurant with the best lox and bagels and you can sit outside beside the creek to eat, a beautiful, well maintained nature reserve with the most adorable cinnamon bear that I probably wouldn't have had to fear if I'd followed the law and not gone past the boundaries they put warnings out about (HA!) and charming shops lining the main road with everything from hand-made jewelry and heirloom gifts to chocolates, bookstores, and organic foods.
I'd love to go back and visit a number of places I've loved. Maybe one day, and with health permitting. I still hold out hope that one day, I'll not have so many physical limitations and will be able to run around again without fear or need of help. I'd especially love to go back to Niagara Falls on the off season and find this one little place where nobody else ever seemed to be, where the waters churned like crazy and there was really nothing else around, which is probably why nobody else bothered. It was beautiful though. I'd also love to go to the part of Canada where and when the monarch butterfly migration deal takes place. That I haven't seen. Again...one day!
