What local attractions near you are worth seeing? About This Page:

[AKLRULZ]

We all live all over the place so I'm curious to know - when traveling through YOUR part of the world, what are the do not misses?!?

Here in Richmond, VA we are close to Virginia Beach, but a better choice is Sandbridge, VA for a little seclusion. We are near Williamsburg, VA with all of the historic sites of the 1800's and the College of William and Mary. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, also, which is themed to Europe and has 4 of the best roller coasters I've been on. Jamestown is also close, which as you know was the first settlement. We're also close to the mountains and lots of Caverns. Monticello is close by in Charlottesville, which is Thomas Jefferson's home estate. A little north of Richmond is Paramount's Kings Dominion, another fun theme park jammed packed with rides. Further north is Frederickburg - lots of Civil War battle sites to visit here. And even further north - about 2 hours - is our Nation's Capital with all of the monuments, museums and memorials - and one of the best zoos around. So much to do here in Virginia and Richmond is central to it all which is why it's such a great place to live!

Tell us about where you live!

[ 03-30-2002, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Dadtojbj ]

[disneyknut]

Cool Topic Steve...
In Pittsburgh we've got a lot of different & fun things to do...
The main one is probably Kennywood Park right here in West Mifflin. It was named one of the 10 favorite amusement parks. It is home to Phantoms Revenge.. a wild roller coaster. ( of course I've never been on it) DS #1 ( 9YO) is planning on riding it this year ( probably at the Pgh meet)
A really cool area in Pittsburgh is South Side & what is known as "the strip district". In downtown South side there are tons of little shops some very unique. You meet a lot of interesting people in the South Side. South side is also home to the incline..It is a sort of trolley car ( Kruggie & Tikibird.. help me out here, I'm not doing too good describing this) that goes up a mountain.. I've lived in Pittsburgh all of my life & I've never been on the inlcline. We also have the Gateway Clipper fleet of boats in the South Side.
The "Strip" is a world all it's own with eclectic shops.. & home of the famous "Wholey's fish market" & Primanti brothers Pub" You haven't eaten until you've had a Primanti brothers sandwich.. Beef steak with cole slaw & french fries piled high all together on 2 peices of thick bread. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]
Okay, other attractions not too far away are Conneaut Lake Park ( about 1-1/2 hrs from Pittsburgh), Pymatuning lake, Linesville home of the Spillway where you feed bread to large carp. ( you gotta see this to believe it)
I'm sure Tikibird & Kruggie can fill you in on more great Pittsburgh attractions

[sammycat699]

Steve,
I love your area. I want to go back to Williamsburg. We've been to Kings Dominion twice.

I my area is Corning, NY home of pyrex. They have a great museum. Check out www.cmog.org. Elmira, NY is a little ways from Corning. They have a National Cemetary and had a Civial War prison camp. They also have a site elmiraprisoncamp.com. Both of these cities are about 1 hr from me. Watkins Glen raceway is 1 1/2 hrs away. The finger lakes all are with driving distance. About 1 hr south is Williamsport and the Little League Worlds Series. We have started to watch a game on ESPN and have gotten to the ball park before the game ended. Penn State is about 2 hrs away. For those that follow the Sports Car Club of America road races there is one in my town the first weekend in June.(Susquehanna Trail Pro Rally)
Lancaster Co and Gettsyburg are a little are about 4 hrs away. A good place for a weekend getaway.

[MrsM]

The top attraction in my area in the summer is Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, an amusement & water park. It's only about 15 minutes away but I haven't been there in about 10 years! We also have the Crayola Factory which I've also never been to!

In August we have Musikfest nearby which is a 10 day festival with lots of local & national artists, crafts, foods, etc. - guess what, never been there! Isn't it funny how sometimes you'll travel to see things in other areas, but never take the time for those things in your own backyard!

[Chrissi]

MrsM - I didn't realize how close you live to Sue (rescuesk) and I! I graduated from Easton High School! And spent many Fridays at highschool nights at Dorney and Wildwater. It's still a favorite park of mine, but I just don't understand why they didn't move the skilift from kiddie land to that gigantic hill in the middle of the park when they took it down several years ago. I hate hiking up that hill in my old age (to put that in perspective, I graduated in '97!).

So anyways, I got sidetracked...Where was I? Oh, yeah. The Poconos. DH talked me into moving up here out of the Lehigh Valley (MrsM named many of the wonderful attractions there.). Nearby, there are still lots of things to see and do that don't involve skiing. There's a natural "amusement" park with lots of walking and hiking trails that many people have heard of, Bushkill Falls. A beautiful place to hike in the summer, but come back in the fall and it's like an Autumn Wonderland. The trees are blazing with color. It still takes my breath away sometimes.

For more insight into how we're trying to preserve our mountain surroundings and local watershed check out PEEC the Pocono Environmental Education Center.

I'd say the best time of year to come see the Poconos is October. There are are all sorts of Festivals through early autumn. There's Jazz Fest in Delaware Water Gap, The Great Pocono Wing Off (A Hot Wing Festival) and the Garlic Festival in Municipal Square in Downtown Stroudsburg, and the Jam on the Mountain (usually a three day music festival at one of the ski resorts). September and October are also great times to see the river by boat or by car. Rte 611 runs along the Delaware River for miles and there are lookouts the whole way down to nearly Philly, which is just about an hour and a half drive from Stroudsburg! (Check out Indian Head Lookout sometime.) In fact, the word "Pocono" supposedly means "Water between two mountains (or rocks).

Near by, you can visit 2 different Outdoor World Resorts. Although Timothy Lake's Outdoor World is my favorite because of its indoor waterpark. Shawnee Inn and Ski Resort hosts the Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival.

DH wanted me to add his $0.02 worth, too. He says there's also Knoebel's Amusement Park in Elysburg (about a 2 hour drive from here), Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary - one of the best places on the east coast to view the migratory patterns of predatory birds (i.e. eagles, hawks, etc.), The Appalachain Trail runs through Delaware Water Gap (great for serious hikers), and Scranton is home to the coal and train Museum - Steamtown National Park (about an hour from here), there are more national/state parks than you can shake a stick at, and for you NASCAR fans - the speedway that drives like a road course, the 2.5 mile Pocono International Raceway - the track with the longest straightaway in NASCAR Winston Cup Racing!

Check out This Week in the Poconos for some great links to Pocono Shopping and Attractions.

Hmm...Well I think I hit all the local sites, but I know I'm missing some of the surrounding sites. Maybe I'll let Sue fill in some of those. Sue...

[ 04-02-2002, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: Beaner ]

[DebiDebiDebi]

Ther is NOTHING...ABSOUTELY NOTHING...

[MrsM]

Beaner, I can see Hawk Mountain from my house! And we go to Knoebel's every summer. My DH actually worked at Dorney when we were in school, which I think explains why we don't go there!

And Sammycat, I was born in Ithaca and most of my family still lives in that area. We spent a few days in your area (Corning, Cooperstown & Oneanta) last summer. It was a nice trip!

[PS - I LUV WDW]

I'll take the first try for the New Englanders (I'm sure others will have places that I miss). First of course would be Boston. The Freedom trail gives you a great tour of all of the historic places. Then there is Fanueil Market place with stores, shopping kiosks, and food! The North End for a great taste of Italy.

Then you can head south to the Cape (Cape Cod for you out-of-towners). Lots of beautiful beaches and quaint towns, especially for antiqueers. No particular attraction just location, location, location [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Sue W]

Steve - this is a great topic!

I live just outside of Buffalo and have lived here all my life.(stop snickering now please!)

Actually, there is a ton of interesting things to do here.

#1 is that wew are about 25 minutes south of Niagara Falls. That is worth the price of the trip itself.

Buffalo is home to a number of wondeful architectural sites if you are into that aspect of travel. We have a beautiful Art Deco City Hall.

The Guaranty Buiding downtown is on the National Register and was built by Louis Sullivan. we aslo have a number of Frank Lloyd Wright built homes including the Darwin Martin House which is undergoing restoration.

http://www.darwinmartinhouse.org/

We also have a city park system that was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/7172/index.htm

We have the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, one of the only places besides Washington and New York where a president took the oath of office.

http://www.nps.gov/thri/

Forest Lawn Cemetary is a place where many famous people in our past are buried - Millard Fillmore,(president) is just one.

Delawre Avenue was once a street where the rich lived, but now many of the mansions can still be seen although few of them are residences.

There are also the Buffalo Zoo (designed by Olmstead) Historical Society, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

We won't mention Buffalo sports teams or the white stuff that falls from the sky.

[ 03-30-2002, 09:32 PM: Message edited by: Sue W ]

[rescuesk]

Cool topic!

Chrissi hit alot of the great sites. We live in a real "tourist" area, but there are so many wonderful things to see and do. Let's see...
Last year we took a canal ride on the Lehigh Canal. They do wine and cheese and dinner cruises!
A shameless plug for Camelbeach Water Park (my summer job [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] )who will be putting in one of those "whirl" slide rides this year.
American Candle for the truly dedicated shopper.
Quiet Valley Living Museum is a farm set in the 1800's. They do the Farm Aminal frolic in the spring, tours in the summer, the Harvest Festival in the Fall and the Christmas tour in the Winter.
Tons of Halloween festivals, Haunted Hayride in Chestnuthill Park in the West End is one I can think of.
West of us is Bloomsburg, home of the fair and lots and lots of great fair food. Also the West End fair in our own county, and east of us is the New Jersey State Fair in Sussex County.

The Poconos are at there finest in the autumn. There is nothing better than a walk in the woods with a crystal clear blue sky, brilliant autumn leaves, the smell of wood smoke in the air, just cold enough to make you really love that coffee or hot cocoa when you get back home.

We definitely need to have a mimi-passporter meet in the Poconos! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Sue

[sammycat699]

When I posted early I completely forgot (must be old age) that Mansfield University of Paclaim to fame is the home of the first night football game. It is reinacted each fall during Mansfield's (the town) 1890's weekend.

[patty c.]

This is a fun topic, and congratulations on this new venture, Steve, you'll do GREAT and get some interesting conversations going, I'm sure.

Omaha has the most incredible zoo in the country. (See Family Fun Magazine's ratings!) It includes an incredible multi-story indoor rain forrest, the world's largest Indoor desert under a geodesic dome, and a 70' underwater walk-through tunnel through a salt-water tank with lots of sharks. http://www.omahazoo.com/

We also are home to the College World Series the first week of June (Kevin Costner comes - and that's reason enough for me).

If you come in the fall you must go to a Husker football game - or at least be in Lincoln during a game.

And of course, call me!

[Chrissi]

Sue we've been trying to do that mini-meet for how long now and something always comes up. We'll work on that when you get back from the World. Have a great time! This time tomorrow you should be hugging a giant mouse! (That sounded better before it was in type. Hmm...)

[All Ears]

I live very central to two major cities -- Detroit and Cleveland.
In Toledo, we have an awesome zoo -- 1 of the best I have ever been to, a tremendous art museum (with free admission, even!), and a great Science museum for children (COSI).
We are also only 1 hour from Cedar Point, America's Roller Coast! Home of more fast and furious roller coasters than any other park in the WORLD! Very fun!
Grat topic.
Michelle [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[AKLRULZ]

Patsy! I grew up in Omaha, NE and BOY do I remember going to the Zoo there! Thanks for bringing back a great memory! Where you there in the late 70's when they had Kasey the Gorilla! We were TERRIFIED of him as kids! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] HA! And I remember going to the college world series, too! Wow!

And Michelle, we went to Cedar Point in July 2000 and rode EVERY coaster about a jillion times along with all the other rides - and how about that Power Tower!?! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] SUPER park!

What neat posts!

[ 03-31-2002, 08:23 PM: Message edited by: Dadtojbj ]