This installment is the last of 12 in our Great Cities of North America — so this is our last “bests” contest (but see accompanying box on our upcoming reader survey for another contest to win).
What’s your favorite travel experience in Seattle? Tell us your “personal best(s)” in 50 words or less, and you and a traveling companion can win round-trip tickets back to Seattle, courtesy of Frontier Airlines.
If you haven’t been to Seattle, you still can enter — just tell us what you’d like to see or do there if you ever get a chance to visit.
You can enter by mail (Seattle Bests, c/o Travel, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611) or by checking in on the Internet (chicagotribune.com/go/cities). But don’t delay. To be eligible for the prize drawing, your entry must be received by March 20. The winning entry will be printed on April 9 (though the winner will be notified in advance).
For complete rules, see the ad on Page 26.
The winner of last month’s contest — on your Los Angeles bests — is Marie Lorden of Chicago. Her entry, chosen in a random drawing (and exactly 50 words long):
“Attending St. Jude’s fundraiser, I sat near George Burns, Carol Channing, Milton Berle and Audrey Meadows. When Carol Channing passed, I asked to take her picture…and she said NO! She then took the camera, handed it to someone, threw her arms around me and said, `Now, take the picture.'”
Lorden wins two round-trip tickets to Los Angeles, also from Frontier Airlines.
Some more excerpts from other reader favorites:
“Visiting L.A. in 1960, my family and I were walking by the cottages at the Beverly Hills Hotel. A car pulled up, Elizabeth Taylor, carrying a St. Bernard puppy, alighted. We struck up a conversation, sat on the lawn, played with the puppy. I had met a real movie star!”
— Gwen W. Nelson, Whitehall, Mich.
“After a visit to Sharm al-Sheikh at the Red Sea, I realized how much faster Moses would have made his crossing on my Universal Studio tour.”
— Solomon Epstein, Chicago
“Several years ago my wife and I flew to L.A., toured Universal Studios, the Walk of Fame and watched Michigan win the Rose Bowl. The game was excellent, the weather was great. The only thing that would have been better was if we could have followed our luggage. It went to Hawaii.”
— James Sineni, Chicago
“Definitely Watts Tower. There, in the middle of this otherwise rather depressed neighborhood, lies this beautiful, glittering testimonial to the quirky passions that drive people….Outsider art at its finest.”
— Nancy Landre, Waukegan
“I remember going down to Sunset Strip and then going to Mann’s Chinese Theater to see all the footprints in the sidewalk. Also, L.A. sunsets are otherworldly — it’s all that haze!”
— Greg Moehn, Chicago
“Departing from Wisconsin in November and January and landing in L.A. is life-changing.”
— Mary Liebetrau, West Bend, Wis.
“My favorite memory of going to Los Angeles was going to the `Tonight Show’ and hearing the jokes that they cannot say on television.”
— Susan Galvin, Chicago
“My favorite experience was at the Griffith Observatory. Looking out over this immense mass of lights that stretches as far as the eye can see, I enjoyed the peacefulness of being removed from the hectic lifestyle of L.A.”
— Shaun O’Donnell, Pittsburgh
“My hotel had a complimentary shuttle to a shopping center. Imagine my surprise when the shuttle turned out to be a stretch limo. Only in L.A.”
— Douglas Cowart, Chicago
“I attended a gourmet dinner in the chapel at Hollywood-Forever Cemetery followed by a nocturnal tour of the mausoleum and park. Very non-traditional and fun. Only in L.A.”
— Gail Powers, Homewood
“My friends and I decided to go to the beach, which was at the bottom of a steep cliff. As we got closer it looked like the people had white marks where their suits should have been. When we arrived we found ourselves at a nude beach.”
— Deeann Keener, Lockport
“I don’t drive, so the few times I’ve been to L.A., I’ve been at the mercy of friends who are `too cool’ to be touristy. Help! I want to be a tourist in Hollywood!”
— Michael Hemmes, Chicago
“Surviving the traffic.”
— Albert J. Iammartino, Oak Park
“The airport — I never have made it out of LAX.”
— Chris Conner, Lake Bluff
