It is Monday and I am blissfully NOT in the office. I am not faking an illness or strategically working from home. It’s Labor Day. Oh, how I love those three-day weekends! In a perfect world, I would have had a nice little out of town adventure to write about, but this year I decided to stay right here at home. Mostly because I need to get serious and start saving money for an upcoming big trip. Also, when you live in a great city like Los Angeles, you don’t really need to leave town to experience the beach, or nature, or culture or hiking. It is all right here in my back yard. Still, my inner gypsy did feel a little disappointed about not getting on a plane this weekend. To appease her, I’m going to focus on a little travel reminiscing for this post. I have compiled a list of the 10 most beautiful places I’ve visited to date. I’ll give you (and the gypsy) 5 today and come back on a later post for the other 5.

Please do note, I visited many of these places B.D. (or Before Digital Camera) so although I have been digging through boxes of old photos, I’ve not yet been able to make my scanner cooperate. For now, this post will be a little short on actual photos, but I’ll add them as I can.

And now, in no particular order, the first half of my top 10 Most Beautiful Places list.

1. View of Banana Beach, South Africa from the back porch of The Beach youth hostel – comfy chair, feet up, view of the ocean, sun rising and dolphins playing. Paradise!

2. Praia do Forte, Bahia, Brazil – standing in the ruins of an old church looking out over the lush green grass and deep blue water.

The beach at Praia do Forte – Bahia, Brasil

3. Koh Phi Phi, Thailand – take a little hike to the top of the island’s tallest hill for an amazing view of the island.

4. Red Sea, Egypt – from 30 meters below. The color of the water alone took my breath away. Add amazing fish, hammerhead sharks and shipwrecks – a diver’s paradise.

5. Random Plaza in Venice, Italy – after a late night of dancing some friends and I wandered the small alleyways of Venice in the wee hours of the morning. After about 30 minutes of dark narrow streets, we stumbled into a random plaza, with a small white church lit up with these amazing white lights. After wandering around in the dark for so long it was like walking into heaven.

Next Monday – numbers 6 – 10.