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Post by Nancy on Apr 6, 2017 15:08:12 GMT
If I were visiting your area and asked you to show me the sites, where would you take me? Could be a famous landmark, or somewhere that's special to you - your choice. Add pictures if available!
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Post by alaina on Apr 7, 2017 1:32:32 GMT
Ooh, I did this several years ago when a friend on the Thunderbirds group I was on took 6 months off and traveled all over the world, mostly staying with other TB lovers. I was her first stop! We'd go to Philly first - the birthplace of American independence! The National Constitution Center takes a whole day all by itself. Then the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I've been there a zillion times and I still get chills every time I go. You feel like you're back in 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Then to the Art Museum because everyone wants to run the Rocky steps.  After that you get a Philly cheesesteak and a Philly soft pretezel, with mustard please! You earned it. In Delaware, we'd go to Winterthur, one of the duPont estates; Hagley Museum (the original duPont gunpowder mills); Nemours Mansion and Gardens (yet another duPont estate); Dover Air Force Base, which has the Air Mobility Command Museum the coolest museum of vintage military aircraft; and Brandywine Creek State park for the awesome walking trails. Of course if you come the weekend after Halloween, we'd have to go to the Punkin' Chunkin'! Then a weekend at the Jersey shore. I know I live in Delaware but I prefer Jersey beaches. Brigantine or Cape May. I have no idea how to add pictures so... Google Images is your friend!  |
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Post by JD on Apr 7, 2017 2:13:32 GMT
Nancy, I truly don't know where I'd take you! When Dawn was here we went to Mount Hood and to the Oregon coast. When Alaina and Rokia were here, we went to Multnomah Falls and ... the Oregon coast.  But I don't have marvelous historical sites like Alaina does. |
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Post by Rokia on Apr 7, 2017 2:21:24 GMT
I would take you to the National Quilt Museum, the city River Wall ( It has murals painted on it)' over to Patti's 1880s Settlement, around Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, over to Sikeston, Mo to go to Lambert's, Home of the throwed roll, and down to the Discovery Center in Union City, Tennessee... Finally, we would tool two hous southeast to Nashville, Tenn and spend a few days hitting the hightlights...
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Post by Austin on Apr 7, 2017 22:07:58 GMT
Fun topic! Day one: Kenai Fjords National Park - this is about an hour's drive away from me and has some of North America's most impressive glaciers, fjords, and maritime ecosystems. You'd be able to see whales, otters, sea lions, wild mountain sheep, moose, possibly bear, as well as a variety of shore birds and migrating birds. (My favorite: the sandhill crane!) Depending on your desire, we could take a 6 hour cruise (with steak dinner!) or I might try to push you into kayaking or stand up paddle boarding. We'd probably spend the night camping somewhere around Seward.   Day 2: Kachemak Bay. Also an hour's drive from me (in the opposite direction) is the quaint and eccentric city of Homer, Alaska & Kachemak Bay. We'd probably hire a water taxi across the bay and spend a day hiking around exploring all the inlets, tide pools (with tons of marine life like sea stars, urchins, etc.), and forests. We would definitely make our way into Seldovia (pic #1, below), a small town of about 200 people which, like much of Alaska, isn't connected to the road system: you either hire a plane or take the ferry.   Day 3: Talkeetna / Denali We'd drive about 4 hours north of Anchorage up to Talkeetna (pic #1, below -- that's me, eating ice cream!), also a fun little town, and maybe swing into the brewery there. The next morning, we'd charter a flightseeing tour to take in the best of Denali National Park. You can't drive through the park, but you can take a bus tour --- but IMHO, the best way to see it is by plane! Pic #2 is me in a plane doing exactly that, and pic #3 is a stock photo of what you would see.    Day 4: We'd take a commercial flight up to Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow. This city is the commercial and service center of the North Slope, a vast area of northern Alaska. We'd catch the bus out to the northernmost point in the United States, Point Barrow, and then explore the town. It's quite a different experience and would help you understand what village life in Alaska is like. Pics below, in order: 1) Me with two Barrow elders (a staged photo! ) 2) a polar bear on the beach at Point Barrow 3) Downtown Utqiagvik, and 4) City Hall     |
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Post by JD on Apr 8, 2017 0:35:17 GMT
Wow, I think Austin wins the Tour Guide contest, hands down! Who else can provide a polar bear!?
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Post by Joyce on Apr 8, 2017 3:06:55 GMT
I guess I would take you to The Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village. I love history and this place is pretty awesome. It should be done in two days to give it justice. I actually haven't been to either in several years but I'd like to take my daughter Mary there this summer. The museum is fantastic and the village is full of historic buildings that have been moved there including Thomas Edison's workshop. They also have working shops where you can watch glass blowing and blacksmithing being done right in front of you. Awesome place. www.thehenryford.org/visit/ |
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Post by Rokia on Apr 8, 2017 4:16:22 GMT
Count me in on Austin and Joyce's trips! And the historian buff in me wants badly to go on Alaina's tour! JD was an awesome tour guide of her area of Oregon! What a fabulous trip that was. |
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Post by fflurcadwgawn on Apr 8, 2017 12:23:26 GMT
Ideally you would come here in the summer.
Brief schedule:
Day 1: Visiting Jamestown, New York and everything Lucille Ball! We'd have lunch downtown at the Tropicana Room and visit the Desilu Studios. Then we'd go mural hopping and we'll visit Celeron Park, in the suburb where Lucille Ball was born. Also on the visit would be the Robert H.
Jackson Center, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, and the local Audubon, where I trail guide occasionally.
Day 2: Taking in a lecture or concert at Chautauqua Institution with a stop at one of its many restaurants for food.
Day 3: Driving three hours north to Niagara Falls!
Day 4: Back to Jamestown and some time at the archaeology dig in town that is studying the local governor's mansion that was built in 1865. This year we're going after the servant's quarters! I'm the resident textile expert.
Day 5: Figure 8 Chautauqua Lake. This is a tour guide book that a good friend of mine co-authored. We can add in stuff like visiting the original site of the Brotherhood of Beneficents and John Humphrey Noyes's attempt at a utopian community in Kiantone during the Second Great Awakening.
Day 6: New York Amish Trail hopping! Conewango Valley, New York is home to the oldest and largest Old Order Amish community in the state. Recently Cattaraugus County created a tour initiative with a map that labels all the businesses, both Amish and English, along the trail. There are yarn and alpaca shops, toy shops, a cheese factory, machine shops, candy shops, all kinds of places to visit.
Day 7: Cemetery tours! I'm managing one of the first centralized organizations for cemetery preservation in the entire state this year and there are some amazing cemeteries in this area that really need help. Some have insane stories about being haunted, but equally some need the attention and have been heavily neglected over the years. This initiative will help bring awareness to the situation through public education programming like cemetery tours.
Day 8 & 9: Seneca Nation Powwow.
Day 11: Trail riding or hiking in Little Valley, NY to relax.
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Post by PaulinaAnn on Apr 8, 2017 18:34:42 GMT
I'm afraid my area doesn't have a lot of exciting things to show off. However, Raleigh, NC, isn't far away and there are all sorts of museums there although I haven't taken in very many of them since I was in school.
I might take you to the Outer Banks of NC and start up at Corolla village and work our way down.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse (Corolla)
Then we'd travel down to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother's Memorial.
Wright Brothers
Then we'd head down to Nags Head and cross over the sound onto Manteo and take in Fort Raleigh and the site of the Lost Colony and perhaps take in the outdoor drama of the same name.
Fort Raleigh
Then we'd go back over to Nags Head and head further south and check out the Bodie (pronounced Body) Island lighthouse. It is located in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. 
National Seashore
Then a nice LONG drive down to Cape Hatteras to climb the tallest lighthouse in the US: Cape Hatteras. 
Then we'll take the ferry over to Ocracoke Island where we'll camp just across the dunes from the ocean.
On Ocracoke, we can kayak and bicycle. We can also take a private hired boat over to Portsmouth village on the other side of the inlet. The village is deserted but preserved and part of the National Seashore for Cape Lookout I think. When we went over to the beach there, we were literally the only ones on the beach, which was pretty cool. Ocracoke was also the home of the notorious pirate Blackbeard! There's a small museum there with artifacts.
To continue down to the lower Banks, you either need a permit to off-road and have a vehicle on Portsmouth Island or take the main ferry back to the mainland and travel inland for awhile. I haven't been to the lighthouse on the Cape Lookout National Seashore. So maybe we stop there or just travel down to Wilmington, NC and visit the Battleship North Carolina. But we might just stick to the upper half of the Outer Banks. I would take you to the mountains, but that is a further drive, but well worth it.
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Post by snowprincess on Apr 8, 2017 21:55:07 GMT
Ooh, I did this several years ago when a friend on the Thunderbirds group I was on took 6 months off and traveled all over the world, mostly staying with other TB lovers. I was her first stop! We'd go to Philly first - the birthplace of American independence! The National Constitution Center takes a whole day all by itself. Then the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I've been there a zillion times and I still get chills every time I go. You feel like you're back in 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Then to the Art Museum because everyone wants to run the Rocky steps. After that you get a Philly cheesesteak and a Philly soft pretezel, with mustard please! You earned it. In Delaware, we'd go to Winterthur, one of the duPont estates; Hagley Museum (the original duPont gunpowder mills); Nemours Mansion and Gardens (yet another duPont estate); Dover Air Force Base, which has the Air Mobility Command Museum the coolest museum of vintage military aircraft; and Brandywine Creek State park for the awesome walking trails. Of course if you come the weekend after Halloween, we'd have to go to the Punkin' Chunkin'! Then a weekend at the Jersey shore. I know I live in Delaware but I prefer Jersey beaches. Brigantine or Cape May. I have no idea how to add pictures so... Google Images is your friend! Don't forget Old New Castle!!! I love eating at Jessop's Tavern on Delaware Street. SO yummy. Best sweet potato fries anywhere. And, of course, they need to eat at the Pit. I crave their milkshakes. Notice how all my Delaware hometown hot spots have to do with food???  |
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Post by alaina on Apr 9, 2017 19:41:37 GMT
Ooh, I did this several years ago when a friend on the Thunderbirds group I was on took 6 months off and traveled all over the world, mostly staying with other TB lovers. I was her first stop! We'd go to Philly first - the birthplace of American independence! The National Constitution Center takes a whole day all by itself. Then the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I've been there a zillion times and I still get chills every time I go. You feel like you're back in 1776 when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. Then to the Art Museum because everyone wants to run the Rocky steps. After that you get a Philly cheesesteak and a Philly soft pretezel, with mustard please! You earned it. In Delaware, we'd go to Winterthur, one of the duPont estates; Hagley Museum (the original duPont gunpowder mills); Nemours Mansion and Gardens (yet another duPont estate); Dover Air Force Base, which has the Air Mobility Command Museum the coolest museum of vintage military aircraft; and Brandywine Creek State park for the awesome walking trails. Of course if you come the weekend after Halloween, we'd have to go to the Punkin' Chunkin'! Then a weekend at the Jersey shore. I know I live in Delaware but I prefer Jersey beaches. Brigantine or Cape May. I have no idea how to add pictures so... Google Images is your friend! Don't forget Old New Castle!!! I love eating at Jessop's Tavern on Delaware Street. SO yummy. Best sweet potato fries anywhere. And, of course, they need to eat at the Pit. I crave their milkshakes. Notice how all my Delaware hometown hot spots have to do with food??? OMG! How did I forget the Pit??? Shame on me! |
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Post by alaina on Apr 9, 2017 19:48:48 GMT
JD was an awesome tour guide! Multnomah Falls was amazing - JD and I hiked to the top. The Oregon coast was gorgeous - so different than what we're used to here on the east coast. We actually went to several different stops on the Oregon coast, went to a light house and another place on the coast that I can't recall the name of but I got a couple of Christmas ornaments in the gift shop there. They grace my Christmas tree every year. And we went to that British tea room for lunch - it was delicious! Paulina - oh my gosh! I took your 'tour' about 25 years ago! LOL! ALL of it!! But it was very quick. We were on our way to Asheville, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC and just made very quick stops at most of the locations on your tour. It stuck with me though - all of it is beautiful! Ever since then I have wanted to go back to Ocracoke for a longer visit; just haven't made it yet. Austin, I would LOVE to do your tour - in the summer!  |
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Post by Austin on Apr 9, 2017 21:07:59 GMT
Oh cool. Alaina, I grew up about 45 minutes from Asheville. I love it over there. Beautiful country. |
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Post by Robina on Apr 12, 2017 1:24:28 GMT
I could show you polar bears as well, although we'd have to go up to Churchill to see them in the wild.
Here in Winnipeg, there's the Manitoba Museum, the Museum of Human Rights and Lower Fort Garry. There's a wide variety of restaurants and I have several favourites, Homer's for Greek food, The Clay Oven for Indian.
In the summer, there's the Bridge Drive Inn (BDI) for fabulous ice cream. At the beginning of August there is Folklorama which has pavilions put on by the various cultural groups in the city, and there's Islendingadagurinn (Icelandic Fest) just north of the city. There's also Rainbow Stage - Canada's largest and longest-running outdoor theatre,
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Post by skyhappysal on Apr 12, 2017 5:08:50 GMT
I could show you polar bears as well, although we'd have to go up to Churchill to see them in the wild. Here in Winnipeg, there's the Manitoba Museum, the Museum of Human Rights and Lower Fort Garry. There's a wide variety of restaurants and I have several favourites, Homer's for Greek food, The Clay Oven for Indian. In the summer, there's the Bridge Drive Inn (BDI) for fabulous ice cream. At the beginning of August there is Folklorama which has pavilions put on by the various cultural groups in the city, and there's Islendingadagurinn (Icelandic Fest) just north of the city. There's also Rainbow Stage - Canada's largest and longest-running outdoor theatre, It's been a long time since I've been to Winnipeg, but I've been a few times because I had family living there. I was lucky enough to be there on the first ever Earth Day celebration. It was at the Forks. It was hosted by different First Nations tribes and was absolutely spectacular. |
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Post by Robina on Apr 12, 2017 14:30:06 GMT
It's been a long time since I've been to Winnipeg, but I've been a few times because I had family living there. I was lucky enough to be there on the first ever Earth Day celebration. It was at the Forks. It was hosted by different First Nations tribes and was absolutely spectacular. I have family in Whitby/Oshawa and I try to get there every three years or so at least. |
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Post by Austin on Apr 12, 2017 17:40:55 GMT
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Post by leyapearl on Apr 14, 2017 20:05:52 GMT
Locally, The Emily Dickinson Museum, then the museums at Smith, Amherst, and Mount Holyoke colleges as well as the greenhouses at Smith and MH. Moving out a bit, Boston -- the Freedom Trail, the Aquarium, Chinatown, and the Common for a ride on the Swan Boats.
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Post by Rokia on Apr 17, 2017 16:02:25 GMT
That's it, I'm coming for a visit people! The History buff in me cries out for it!
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Post by Robina on Apr 17, 2017 18:35:45 GMT
You'd be very welcome here, or we could, as Austin suggested, all meet up in Toronto.
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Post by fflurcadwgawn on Apr 17, 2017 20:00:00 GMT
Chautauqua Instituition and Lucy Fest are only 5 hours or so from Toronto if anyone is a fan of Lucille Ball. |
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Post by Stormwatcher on May 2, 2017 6:24:02 GMT
Well, for the first day I would take you into D.C. We would go to the museums on the mall- Air and Space, Natural History, American History, the art museum. Then on day 2 we'd go see all the monuments- Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, The Wall, the Kennedy Center and Roosevelt Island. For day 3, we'd go to Great Falls national park and climb-walk around for a couple hours. Might see some kayakers and canoeists shooting the rapids, if we were lucky. Then, if you still had any energy, we'd take the 3-hour drive to the Shenandoah mountains, Skyline Drive and Luray caverns. That'd be days 4 and 5, we'd probably have to stay overnight at Big Meadows. And after all that you'd probably need another vacation. And so might I, actually! |
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Post by JD on May 2, 2017 15:18:30 GMT
Well, for the first day I would take you into D.C. We would go to the museums on the mall- Air and Space, Natural History, American History, the art museum. Then on day 2 we'd go see all the monuments- Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, The Wall, the Kennedy Center and Roosevelt Island. For day 3, we'd go to Great Falls national park and climb-walk around for a couple hours. Might see some kayakers and canoeists shooting the rapids, if we were lucky. Then, if you still had any energy, we'd take the 3-hour drive to the Shenandoah mountains, Skyline Drive and Luray caverns. That'd be days 4 and 5, we'd probably have to stay overnight at Big Meadows. And after all that you'd probably need another vacation. And so might I, actually! I want longer to go to the museums! One day isn't enough for all that! |
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Post by leyapearl on May 2, 2017 15:47:14 GMT
Well, for the first day I would take you into D.C. We would go to the museums on the mall- Air and Space, Natural History, American History, the art museum. Then on day 2 we'd go see all the monuments- Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, The Wall, the Kennedy Center and Roosevelt Island. This is useful stuff as I am taking my son to DC this summer for vacation! |
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