Your help would be appreciated….
Bookworm on Mar 03 2011 at 4:59 pm | Filed under: Conservative Travel
As you all know, I’m going to blog come Hell or high water . . . but it would still be very nice to earn some money for all the effort I expend. I’ve now had a small money-making opportunity come my way.
A friend of mine works for an internet travel site. (It’s called UpTake, and you should check it out, since it has a pretty cool interface if you’re looking for lodging, food and activities.) Her company is always looking for ways to enhance its web presence, and one of the ideas my friend came up with was starting a Facebook page dedicated to “conservative travel.”
The Facebook posts (both short and long) would be about travel destinations that might interest people who identify themselves as conservatives. This means people who prefer Independence Hall to Woodstock, and Bastogne (where the Battle of the Bulge was fought) to Stonewall (where the battle for gay rights began). There’s nothing wrong with Woodstock or Stonewall; they’re just probably not Top 10 travel destinations for Conservatives, Libertarians, and Tea Partiers. In addition, my friend would periodically post relevant links leading to her own company’s website.
My job, for which I’ll get paid a slightly more than nominal amount, is to provide content. That means three short facebook posts a day, plus one longer “note” per week. Your help would be appreciated in two ways:
First, if you have a Facebook account, please go here and click the “like” button.
Second, if you have any travel ideas that you think would work, send them to me. This doesn’t just mean travel to American historic sites, although I’d love those too. I’m also interested in restaurants, activities, national parks, theme parks, and places abroad (such as Bastogne) that have peculiar resonance for Americans. Also, if you feel so inclined, you can tell me why you think the destination would be appropriate for people who take seriously the words to “America the Beautiful.”
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How do you want the ideas sent? Email, or are comments on this blog ok?
Whatever works for you works for me.
Not exactly “America the Beautiful” – but close.
Like you, I’ve lived in England – Wimbledon, to be precise, and it was years ago. (It was years and years and years and… how did that happen?) I’ve said that, given the state of London these days I wouldn’t visit it if it was across the street – and I meant it, too.
This does not, however, apply to Edinburgh. We go to Edinburgh often, and always in August. We do that because August in Edinburgh is Festival Month, and the city is a month-long cultural exchange, outdoor museum, and party. It is a splendid time.
But the centerpiece of it is the Tattoo. Every night for three weeks the Military Tattoo unfolds on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, high above the city. They put temporary bleachers up there (huge ones, they seat several thousand people), and then it’s an hour and half international show. Groups, some military, some not, (drill teams, bands, etc.) from all over the world perform, but the British military – and of course the Scottish regiments, and the pipes – are the heart of it. For an hour and half everybody takes pride in the military tradition and history of our oldest ally – so many of whose traditions, military and otherwise, are our own. Even those with not a drop of British, Scottish, or Irish blood are reminded of something great.
At the end, everybody stands and sings the national anthem (“God Save the Queen,” not the “Star-Spangled Banner”), this is followed by fireworks, then the flag at the Castle is lowered to the strains of “The Last Post” (British for “Taps”) and then the evening ends with a hymn – sung out loud by several thousand people – pridefully, humbly, and in public! After which the lone piper plays on the battlements over the city, and then the massed bands and pipers and other performers march off, and you go home. (You get there after midnight, too – this is Scotland in August we’re talking about, and they don’t begin until it’s dark. It’s a late-ish night.)
I was going to put a link or two here, but there are hundreds of them all over the internet, and on youtube, if you’ve never seen it. We were last there in 2009, which year ended with the hymn “Abide With Me,” sung for Henry Allingham, founding member of the RAF who passed just a few weeks before the Tattoo – at age 113. Fortuitously, the host service in 2009 was the RAF, so the last few minutes were for Henry.
It’s amazing – and even if you aren’t the least a Celt, it’ll still make you proud, patriotic, and renew your admiration not just for British kids, but also for our kids who wear the uniform.
Okay – here is a link, to the last part of the 2009 Tattoo. Didn’t know that was there, but as I said, it’s all over the place.
Book, there’s a beautiful mountain town in far western Colorado that Ayn Rand fans might want to take a look at. Ouray is an old mining town at 7,800 feet in the San Juan Mountains, bracketed by towering 1,500-foot red cliffs and home to an outstanding warm springs.
It is also the place that inspired Rand’s vision for John Galt’s Rocky Mountain refuge in “Atlas Shrugged,” where he and the movers and shakers of the world hid away from the rest of mankind.
In the late 1940s Rand had been traveling in the Far West with her husband, Frank O’Connor, when they decided to drive through the San Juans. Even today in the age of the Interstates, the range is remote—you really have to want to get to it. Almost 70 years ago, the San Juans might as well have been next to Shangri La on most Americans’ mental maps.
Rand had been working on an idea for a novel, tentatively called “The Strike,” in which the great minds of the world go on strike to protest the thefts of their wealth and intellectual property by collectivists and bureaucrats. In it, she will have them move to a secret mountain fastness, hiding themselves by creating some clever optical illusion that shields them from discovery by planes flying overhead.
The two are heading north along the Million Dollar Highway, a breathtaking stretch of high road named both for the mineral wealth that once traveled down it and its superlative mountain scenery, when they glimpse a marvelous small town in a narrow valley. To their disappointment, a wall of rock suddenly blocks that tantalizing view. But seconds later, the wall disappears, and as they round a curve to begin their descent into Ouray, Rand realizes in moments that she has found the place where John Galt will stop the motor of the world.
As I said, the scenery is spectacular. The Uncompaghre Canyon, which the Million Dollar Highway flanks, is one of the unsung beauties of the West. Ouray, with its lovingly maintained Victorian homes and storefronts, has some very decent restaurants, its famous hot springs, glorious seasonal waterfalls that fling themselves down the steep canyon walls in spring, and is the nexus of a network of four-wheeler dirt roads that some off-roaders say is the best in the Lower 48. (One really hairy 14-mile route road shaves 140 miles off the drive from Ouray to Telluride. It’s worth the trouble if you don’t mind wearing your brown pants on the final 4,000-foot zig-zag ascent into Telluride.)
So, Ouray’s got everything a rightwing knucklewalker could desire: the indirect pedigree from Rand, the sybaritic pleasures of a hot springs, the derring-do of Jeep rides at 13,000 feet, the gas-guzzling high-altitude drive (screw you, Greenies!), and the sense of being different by taking the road less taken.
Billy Bob says five stars. Check it out.
ascent into Telluride = descent into Telluride.
I knew that you guys would come through for me, not with the obvious stuff, but with the wonderful, obscure stuff.
Yeah – and keep going south on 550, Charles, get on down to Silverton. Amazing place, equally Galt-ish. And in Silverton you can see a historical hotel where JFK bopped Marilyn! Wow! Now if that don’t warm the cockles of your patriotic hearts… History in the making… or something…
And then, proceed on south to Durango, and swing west out to Mesa Verde, which is a whole different place since the fires a few years ago. The fires revealed all kinds of stuff – by the bushel – no one ever knew was there. If your parents dragged there twenty years ago – go again! They’ll be the next century cataloging all of it, but it’s a very different sort of thing than it really ever was.
jj, the last time I was in Mesa Verde was in 1992, so your heads up about all the new finds after the fires was wonderful to read. Thanks.
Maybe Waco, Texas.
Or Entebbe, Uganda, site of the splendid attack freeing over 100 hostages following a terrorist hijacking.
I myself dream of riding the Baghdad to Basra railroad line.
http://www.randomjottings.net/archives/003258.html
Perhaps Westminster, MD, where Whittaker Chambers wrote Witness. Though alas I’m pretty sure the Chambers family’s little farm is now gone.
http://www.randomjottings.net/archives/004073.html
Gdansk, in remembrance of Solidarity, and the Nine Days
http://www.randomjottings.net/archives/003906.html
Hiroshima, where American strength did more to advance world peace than any other moment in history. Immediately ending WWII, and putting an end to world wars, regional wars, and wars between great powers.
I haven’t been there, but the museum dedicated to the 8th Air Force, in Macon GA, is said to be very very good.
A non-US site, which I visited about 9 years ago. In southern France, there is a region of very rough terrain known as the Vercors. In 1944, a decision was made to transform resistance activities in this area from hit-and-run to stand-and-fight, and the Free Republic of Vercors was declared. This was motivated in part by a desire to draw off German troops that could otherwise have been sent to reinforce those fighting against the Normandy invasion.
Adequate support was not provided, and the uprising was suppressed with great brutality.
A failed attempt, but one which should not be forgotten. An interesting place to visit.
Just for great scenery, not much patriotism involved I suppose (though Teddy Roosevelt thought it was extraordinary), and right in your own state is Shasta, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful peaks on the planet. It’s about the size of the Matterhorn, stands off by itself as all volcanos do, rising out of the northern California wilderness. Memorably described as, “lonely as God, white as a winter moon,” which you might think would be kind of tough to live up to – but Shasta does.
it’s in the midst of the Shasta wilderness, which includes the Shasta Lakes, the Castle Crags, et al – and the whole area is very wild, very beautiful, yet there is an amazing variety of things to do.
And the mountain itself just drowns your senses. What makes it quite special is that route 5 runs nearly right to it, it’s just about the only mountain in the world of its size a major highway goes right by. (Okay, rte 70 in Colorado does too, but when you’re in the Vail Pass you’re at 10,000 feet, so the 14,000 foot mountain doesn’t really look like all that much. It looks 4,000 feet tall. Shasta has nearly 13,000 of its 14,000 feet rising up above you – you see its full height, and it’s HUGE!) And you can drive practically right up to it.
The town of Mt. Shasta is of course a bit of a tourist trap, but it’s a picturesque one, and somewhat New Age-y. This is not a huge surprise, the mountain has always been regarded as holy going back as far as anybody can go, the Indians thought it so thousands of years ago. Dawn services at Easter, all that sort of stuff. And hiking, climbing, fishing, water-skiing, camping, boating, rafting – all that stuff. An amazing wild corner, in the same state as LA. Incredible.
BW and all,
I have a half-dozen spots off the top of my head; here goes:
The Liberty Memorial and Museum in Kansas City, MO. The Memorial is the US National Memorial for WWI; it is the only national war memorial not located on the Mall in DC. The museum underwent renovation a few years ago and is amazing. I can also brag that several items at the museum were donated by family members. While in KC you can also visit Crown Center, home of Hallmark; the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum; the Truman Presidential Library; the Negro Baseball League Museum; and the restored Union Station Museum.
The Frontier Museum at Fort Leavenworth, KS and the Fort itself. Not a “fun” tour, but educational. The Museum preserves relics and materials from the days when Fort Leavenworth was the jump-off point to the West. While in the area, visit Atchison, KS, home of Amelia Earhart, with its guided tour and several museums, including the Rail Museum and the Smallest Presidential Museum (you have to visit the site in Atchison to understand the humor). And only thirty miles further up the road you can visit St. Joseph, MO, home to the Jesse James Museum and several memorials to the Western trails that began there and the Pony Express.
St. Louis has the Gateway Arch and museums, along with great Blues and Jazz clubs. Not the most “conservative”, but definitely not scrimping on the honest part of history.
Down near Joplin, MO, is the Precious Moments Chapel and Museum. I’ve been, and was impressed by the dedication and determination of the artist and his family. If you are a Christian looking for something family-friendly and out of the way, this is the place.
Ft. Bragg, NC, hosts several museums dedicated to the soldiers of the Airborne brotherhood. The historic post and its history are worth the time to visit; on this note, most US military posts have at least one museum (Ft. Sill has a fine one on the history of Artillery) dedicated to their particular focus.
Laclede, MO, home of General of the Armies John J. “Black Jack” Pershing. ’nuff said.
Anyhow, those are the first ones to come to mind, hope it helps.
SSG Dave
“A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.” – General of the Armies John J. Pershing
“A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.” – General of the Armies John J. Pershing
In terms of utilizing human resources efficiently, even idiots can be used to great advantage by the wise. Even the Soviets figured out a way to make idiots useful.
I’ve never managed to get organized enough to do the whole thing, but the Natchez Trace – which started out as a ridge line trail used by prehistoric animals connecting salt licks, then became a main route used by Indians to connect the rivers, and these days is an amazing 440 mile parkway – is a ride through beautiful country, and may be the ultimate in scenic byways. It is of course all mapped out by the park Service, and well supplied with places to stay while you drive through thousands of years of history. I’ve done segments. You could spend weeks dong the whole thing.
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2285/
For a place to go exhale, and decompress, lie on the beach, and do it submerged up to your eyeballs in history – St. Augustine, in Florida. It’s the oldest city in the US. Ponce de Leon sailed to the New World with Columbus, and came back several times on his own thereafter. He went in search – according to legend – of the Fountain of Youth. In 1513 he waded ashore at St. Augustine and was greeted by the Timucuan Indians, all of whom, even the women, were straighter and taller than he and his men, and they were led by a chief who happened to be nearly seven feet tall. He and his men were the usual fourteenth century European runts, and it’s easy to imagine that as they stood there looking up at these comparative giants every man was thinking: “this has gotta be the place!”
Being good Catholic lads, the first thing they did was bring a little table ashore and stand in the sand while a Mass was said. The site today is marked by a 180 foot stainless steel cross, visible thirty miles out to sea. They built a little church, which got blown apart by a hurricane, and was rebuilt to very much the same dimensions (tiny) and stands today, and there is also on the site a much larger modern church. A couple of miles away in the center of downtown is the cathedral that’s home to the oldest parish in the country – St. Augustine was and remains a Catholic city here ion the good old secular US, and there are several other sites throughout it, including monasteries and convents – most of which you will not find unless you know where to look.
Across the Bridge of Lions on Anastasia Island you will find St. Augustine Beach were A1-A swings southward – go straight and you will find an undeveloped beach across the lagoon from the lighthouse. An undeveloped – and undevelopable, strip of sugar-sand beach seven miles long. No houses, no concessions, no nothing. White sand, blue water – it’s all a nature preserve, and part of the Florida State Park system. Every morning a couple of kids in a pick-up truck – who are city employees – back the truck out to whichever part of the beach (usually close to the little parking lot) they’re planning to declare as the beach today, turn the bed of the truck toward the water, and erect a little lifeguard stand in the pick-up’s bed. They set out litle flags fifty yards or so apart – that’s the patrolled beqach for the day. You’ll be rescued by them there. (You can pop into the water anywhere along the seven mile strip, but you’re own your own outside the marked “beach.”)
A fast history: Pedro Menendez de Aviles started it in 1565, Francis Drake sacked and burned it in 1586; in 1607 the English colony was established in Jamestown; Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos in 1672; in 1702 the English tried to invade again and the entire population of the town took refuge in the Castillo while the town was burned to the ground – again; in the 1740s Oglethorpe of England led five separate attacks (a tough decade) on St. Augustine, all five were repelled; in 1763 the Treaty of Paris gave St. Augustine to England in return for returning Havana to Spain; in 1776 St. Augustine remained loyal to the crown and the Castillo became jail for – I think it was several – Signers of the Declaration of Independence; 1783 Florida was restored to Spain; 1819 Spain ceded Florida to the US; 1821 it became a territory; 1861 Florida joined the Confederacy and St. Augustine was occupied for the duration by Union troops stationed at the Castillo; 1876 the chiefs of the Plains Indians who were captured were brought to the Castillo and imprisoned there; along in there somewhere I no longer remember St. Augustine – the obvious choice – declined to be the capitol of Florida (smart, if you ask me); in 1924 by presidential proclamation the Castillo, city gates, and Fort Matanzas (a satellite fort at the southern end of Matanzas Inlet to guard the southern approach to the city) were all made national monuments, today they all belong to the National Park Service.
I was first there when I was seven years old. Stayed in a motel where I’ve stayed thirty times since – the same family owns it. The grandchildren of the owners I first stayed with as a kid are running it now. I go back to St. Augustine often because it’s the only place in my life that has not changed. Practically nothing has been razed to build something new. The biggest landowner in St. Augustine is probably the Catholic Church (though they’re mostly invisible, as I said above.) Next would probably be the Florida State Park System. Third is probably the military – it’s headquarters and living quarters for a lot of the ranking officers of the Florida National Guard, and there is a National Cemetery they administer – all this is right int he middle of town. The fourth biggest owner has to be the National Park Service. So there isn’t much opportunity for change – it stays as it was. A place where people go water-skiing on their lunch hour.
There is a large historical district, which is awash in archeological digs of various kinds, but it’s also quite old. The old houses are filled with shops and restaurants now, and it’s a major tourist draw – you walk, the streets are original width, no cars – and because it’s also a college town (Henry Flagler’s incredible Ponce de Leon Hotel has been Flagler College since the sixties) there is a lot of life – it isn’t sleepy though it is the most relaxing place I know.
Again, it’s all over the internet, no need for a link.
I went and looked because it nagged me – the stainless steel cross at Nombre de Dios,Ponce de Leon’s chaplain’s (Fr. Grajales) mission stands 204 feet, not 180. And Nombre de Dios is, inevitably of course, the oldest mission in the country, too.
I’d recommend any military funeral at any national cemetery as a memorable event.
We have the SeaBees Museum locally in Port Hueneme, Ca , and they have a brand new building for all their stuff. It was supposed to be open in December of ’10, but I don’t think it’s actually open yet – which must be a bit of an embarrassment. It was probably a civilian contract, however.
And then take 15 minutes on an active military installation at 5PM for the lowering of the flag. Cars still stop, drivers exit and if in uniform, salute. It’s actually kind of funny to watch civilians experiencing it for the first time – they don’t know what the heck is going on – or why everybody’s stopping in the middle of the street. I don’t know that it’s the practice on every installation any more – but I know it’s the practice on some. Vandenberg is one where it’s observed. I don’t know about Hueneme – I’ve never been there at 5. (just a note – most installations work 7-3 work hours, so 5 PM is not usually a rush hour)
There are some good “in the belly of the beast” sites in or near San Francisco. One is the WWII aircraft carrier Hornet, now permanently anchored in Alameda. The link is http://www.uss-hornet.org/history/wwii/
Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont is an enjoyable blast from the past, a Victorian-era farmhouse and outbuildings carefully restored and tended. http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood
The Niles Canyon Railway takes riders through an unexpectedly pristine canyon between Fremont and the somewhat inland town of Sunol. Your choice to ride under the nekkid sky in open-air cars or duck into an enclosed passenger car. http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood Niles was the home of a thriving movie industry in the teens, including films starring Charlie Chaplin. Southern California, with its drier climate and greater range of landscapes eventually won the intra-California battle for film capital rights.
In Fresno, Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere spent years digging an elaborate underground warren of rooms and passageways, many of them opening out to below-ground-level courtyards, gardens and patios—all to shield and shade himself from the area’s blazing summer heat. His immigrant can-do-ness impressed his neighbors and was a great example of how America inspires people who make hard journeys to come here. Google Forestiere Underground Gardens for several useful links.
An incredible treasure trove of California travel ideas is at Huell Howser’s site, http://www.calgold.com/ For years, Howser, a transplanted Tennessean in love with all things Californian, has been presenting his oddball, eccentric travel show, “California’s Gold,” on public TV stations around the state. Don’t let the PBS affiliation put you off—Howser is a not very PC guy whose country openness and genuine curiosity make him very appealing. Anyway, he travels to places nobody has ever heard of (jj included!), so he could be a real good source for you.
Book, I’ll send you a little California St. walking tour that people might enjoy. It takes them from near the Embarcadero up to Nob Hill with all sorts of interesting little stops along the way.
You guys are the best. Truly.
For those interested in the history of America’s economic development, there are many interesting sites. To name a few:
–Saugus Ironworks (Massachusetts)….the first integrated ironworks in North America, circa 1646
–The former Dupont gunpowder mill (near Wilmington, DE) has been converted to an industrial museum, focused especially on the history of waterpower, with lots of working exhibits. It is adjacent to the Dupont estate, which may be visited, and not far from Longwood Gardens, so a trip there may be enjoyed even by those who have family members so benighted as to not be interested in industrial history.
–Lowell, MA has a restoration of the famous textile mills of that city, including operational power looms.
Lots more in this category.
Oh, man - I drive around a lot – would always rather drive than go any other way, you can’t see a damn thing from 38,000 feet - but there is so much out there! Hell, Charles, I doubt if I’ve heard of more than about a thousandth of it – at best.
I loved the Little House on the Prairie books as a child, and read them to my own children. In a Navy cross country move in the summer of 1994, we spent 3 weeks driving across the country. One of my favorite events… among many, was almost accidentally found. I realized that De Smet, SD, was a short detour off our planned route. It was the home of Laura Ingalls when she married, and where her parents and sister ended their days. Every July there is a pageant that celebrates her life. It was completely family friendly, as you would expect, but not juvenile. In July of each year the pageant centers around an outdoor play put on in the evenings. When we went, there was a cow and a horse drawn buggy as part of the show. Different sets were built as three sided rooms, each was lit in turn as events in her life were depicted. After the play, all the cast members mingled with the audience and answered questions in character. Beautifully done and not slick in any way. http://www.desmetpageant.org/links.html has more information. Of course the town has more places regarding her life, for example, the surveyor’s cabin and her parents’ town home, and there is additional info about that time in America’s history, but the pageant itself is truly worth a special trip.
I know many people study the battlefield sites of the Civil War–not sure if any travel agents specialize in helping with that. We have visited a few over the years (Antietam, Manassas, Kennesaw Mountain), and they are quite interesting and evocative. Most are run by the National Park Service. Historic forts like Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia (where they imprisoned Jefferson Davis after the war) and Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, Alabama are worth visiting.
If I were able to tour the sites of the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War, that would interest me as well.
American history and conservatives seem to go together.
To pick up from Charles M’s thoughts, if you go right over the mountain from Ouray, you land in historical Durango, home of famed Western auteur Louis L’Amour. There, you can take the old narrow gauge train from Durango to Silverton along a spectacular river canyon.
In the Dearborn suburb of Detroit (yes, Detroit), you can visit the incomparable Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village is an outdoor museum created by Henry Ford and dedicated to American’s 19th Century era of innovation. Set on beautiful grounds, there you can visit Edison’s laboratory, the Wright brothers’ workshop, the log home that raised George Washington Carver (one of my personal American heroes), railroad yards, villages, old mills, a southern plantation house and much, much more…all as American originals, not reproductions.
One more…if you go to El Paso, visit southern El Paso, home of the original missions built by the Conquistadors on the Camino Real. This is where the Spanish first crossed the Rio Grande into El Norte.
The mission church is still tolling mass for the Tejano citizens and you can visit the the beautifully preserved old town.
And, if you want a truer sense of what the old West was like, take a casual stroll along the Rio Grande in El Paso, where you can listen for the whine of passing bullets from neighboring Ciudad Juarez.
Danny, I’ve never taken the train from Duango to Silverton, but I remember chatting up one of its engineers when the train made its stop in Silverton and was taking on water and return passengers.
He told me—what else is new?—that maintaining steam locomotives was about as work-intensive an activity as a mechanic could find in modern times. He also told me that there were certain locomotives that the engineers and repairmen despised because of their cantankerousness and ability to break down at the drop of a hat on the sunniest of days along the smoothest and most level of stretches.
I started cracking up because he sounded like a group of guys who’ve been stung (repeatedly) by some high-strung belle who had given them all serious doubts about women in general. He cracked up, too, when I told him that, and agreed with the image.
Our little conversation was a neat memory for me. Amid hissing steam and mountains rising several more thousand feet above a town that’s already at 9,300, I got to talk to the real thing and learn that the romance of steam trains has its bad-hair days, too.
>>there were certain locomotives that the engineers and repairmen despised because of their cantankerousness and ability to break down at the drop of a hat on the sunniest of days along the smoothest and most level of stretches.>>
Those “smoothest and most level of stretches” wouldn’t bother me so much – but we _are_ talking the Rockies here … and spectacular scenery, which usually doesn’t include the flatlands of Nebraska or Kansas. I think hearing about steam engine cantankerousness might give me pause if I were considering using one to view the spectacular scenery of Colorado and the Rockies…
In that setting, steam trains and “bad hair days” is enough to give me nightmares…!
Have heard it said – and read it, too – that steam engines are individuals. No two are alike, and treatment that suits one may not remotely suit the one made right before – or after – it. Diesels you turn on, and you go – steam engines you talk to, and coax.
Amen to that, jj. My wife and I love to watch any documentary that involves stream trains, and it cracks us up how hopelessly addled and in love locomotive mechanics are with their never-satisfied iron mistresses. You will never, never, ever see any train junkie waxing ecstatic about his or her diesel engine—except maybe as a cure for insomnia.
I second Edinburgh – be sure to visit the Royal College of Surgeons (http://www.museum.rcsed.ac.uk/content/content.aspx) where my grandpa got his surgical license in 1919. Also the mountain railways of Colorado – plus the mines! My suggestions are all overseas – I’ve seen a lot more of South America and Britain than I have of the United States, which is a shame….but there you are. I really do need to rectify that. Here we go:
The American Air Museum in Britain – at Duxford. Lots of great warbirds – the originals in all their glory. Lots of “oral history” to listen to, videos to watch, and equipment to climb on and experience first-hand. It’s a WONDERFUL place that celebrates the greatness of America’s contribution to defending freedom…. http://aam.iwm.org.uk/
The Lunatic Line – Ugandan/Kenyan railroad built by the Brits at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. This is the one that the man-eating lions almost stopped and you can see the railroad car where the two lion brothers took the Great White Hunter who had come out to kill them….plus Mombasa is a GREAT tourist city. http://ogblog.net/index.php/weblog/comments/nairobi-mombasa_return_—_on_the_lunatic_line/
The Geevor Tin Mine in Cornwall, England. Underground tour, ore concentrating equipment, an unbelievable model of the mine itself, and you walk through a shaft cut by the Romans when THEY mined tin at this very site. Plus, in the surrounding area we visited the last “walking-beam” man engine that’s still operational – it was used to lower the guys over 1,000 feet down to the working levels, and to bring them back up after a shift. Hiking nearby we found a wooden cover, pushed it aside and looked down a pitch-black shaft that seemed to go forever. Dropped a stone and never heard it hit bottom. Wowsers. http://www.geevor.com/index.php?page=12
The Llangollen Canal (http://ogblog.net/index.php/weblog/C59/) and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales. You rent a canal boat (http://www.anglowelsh.co.uk/) and after 15 or 20 minutes of instruction in how to run it (that really is all that’s needed), off you go using the waterways that changed Britain. You’ll cross the river on a 200+ year old aqueduct, made of cast iron and caulked with wool felt boiled in molten sugar, that has NEVER been renovated! It’s the experience of a lifetime, at 2 miles per hour. I can’t imagine that any true conservative wouldn’t love this trip. We spent two weeks, planned to buy a boat and live on it for a couple of years, but when the granddaughters arrived, things changed rather suddenly!
The Perfect London Walk (search this at Amazon) – around Hampstead Heath and environs. Gail and I did this walk in 1997 and loved the entire day. The book helps you get there and back, tells you what to see, where you can eat lunch, and what to avoid; and you absorb the history and the joy of the place in the most delightful way. Don’t miss it.
The Iron Bridge in Shropshire on the River Severn, part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Iron_Bridge). Built in 1779, it was the first completely iron bridge ever made, and was built largely as if it were wood – with mortise and tenons, dovetails, etc. Every piece was cast in open sand molds on the riverbank, and the entire output of pig iron for a whole year was used – it also nearly bankrupted the builder. This gorge is where the Industrial Revolution began, and one could easily spend a week in the area, seeing the various sites up and down the Severn
The first link give you the bare facts. You steam locomotive buffs will love the second link!
http://www.letsgoseeit.com/index/county/kern/tehachapi/loc01/loop.htm
http://www.steamphotos.com/Railroad-Photos/Tehachapi-Loop-Photos/3405983_HwyyR#190575675_BpKDE
Hey, Book, a few more:
Philippe’s Restaurant, Los Angeles—”Home of the Original French Dip Sandwich.” The sandwich was an accident, but this place has been feeding Angelenos the best french dips on the planet since the 1920s. Sawdust floors, 15-cent coffee, hot, hot mustard (I once followed a man upstairs to see if he would survive all of the mustard I’d seen him slather on his sandwich after he ordered it—he did), and the place where I learned to eat pickled eggs. Gangbangers, the Archbishop of LA, high-ranking cops, construction workers, office workers, teens, and regular Janes and Joes all show up here.
Zion National Park, Utah—Some people call it “Yosemite in color.” Heartbreakingly beautiful sandstone cliffs carved by the Virgin, the Little River That Could. The story has it that Brigham Young sent Mormon settlers 300 miles south to farm Utah’s red-rcok desert. The location was so awe-inspiring that the Saints began referring to the canyon as Zion, the heavenly city. Young heard the story and came south from Salt Lake City in a dither. He stormed into the canyon, looked around, came out and made this pronoucement: “It is very beautiful, but it is not Zion.” And so, for years after, the local Mormons referred to the canyon as “Not Zion.”
Fort Hunter Liggett Army Base, Central California—You must really want to go here, but it’s worth the trip. The army base is very accessible to the public, so it’s not hard to find decent food or recreation. Highlights: One of the largest oak tree savannahs in California—a classic inland coastal range landscape. San Antonio Mission, fully restored, is an 18th-century Spanish mission that still serves local ranching families and offer retreats for anybody (doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not) seeking a quiet and simple place to go think and recreate. Whe you leave the base, head west over winding Nacimiento Rd. to Big Sur. The well-graveled road takes you up a couple of thousand feet through chaparral and some broadleaf forest, crests at a stunning view of the Pacific, then lets down, at times through some of the world’s southernmost redwood groves, to legendary Highway 1.
California Train Museum, Sacramento—One of the great NorCal day trips. The museum, beautifully laid out and impressively inventoried, is right by Old Town and stretches along the Sacramento River. Some people make a visit here a two-day affair, sleeping aboard one of the old paddle-wheelers that still ply the river, taking in grub at Old Town and then feasting on railroad memoribilia. It’s a very short taxi hop or even walk to the Capitol building, with its great park, which boasts plants from every part of the state. Sacramento is a surprisingly leafy town, perhaps one of the most inviting burgs in the country.
Bruges, Belgium. Medieval city and home to the world’s first ever stock market. This happened during the days of the Hanseatic League (14th – 16th Centuries AD), which should have been the economical model for the EU until, of course, EU bureaucrats decided to way overreach in typical bureaucrat fashion.
Fort Michilimackinack, Michigan (pronounced “mishili-makinaw”) – beautifully restored and maintained fort from the French & Indian war era at the juncture of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron – an awesomely splendid view! Stay and watch the reenactors change the guard. Drive north over the Michilimackinac Bridge and pay due homage to the Father Marquette memorial. Then, visit historical Mackinack (“Maki-naw”) Island, a museum to the gilded age, (no cars allowed) before turning south.
Facing south, drive along the waterfront of the perfectly beautiful Travers City and Bay before swinging north into Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, where they make very good and very unique white wines. Near there, spend time hiking the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and spend time on the incredible (300+ foot) dunes and sandy beeches of western Michigan, which I would rate among the world’s best kept secrets (in summer, anyhoo). This whole area is one of the world’s best kept secrets.
If you enjoy playing with machines (I do), one of the world’s only dune buggy playgrounds is to be found in the dunes near Saugatuk.
Danny,
I agree completely with the Bruges recommendation. It is beautiful, with merchant houses, canals, and art. There is an intimacy that allows you to go back in time, and there are incredible chocolate shops about every 10 feet.
Here is another fascinating place not far from Copenhagen:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/family/article7006191.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
Finally, in London, don’t miss the Cabinet War Rooms, and if you can visit Chartwell on the same visit, you’ll get a real feel for Churchill’s world. Also, read Sarum and visit Salisbury. Stonehenge is amazing, but I had a special reaction to seeing the Magna Carta at the Cathedral.
The Bayeaux tapestries are worth a visit. My husband is not normally a great fan of embroidery, but he was mightily impressed.
My advice to any visitor to Europe: Get of the tour bus and wander a bit in the areas where normal people live.
Danny, they were dreaming of counter balancing the American hyperpower. That what was what got them up in the morning.
Danny, that was place, Bruges, was noted for its cheap fish exports back in the day.