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New England Pirate Museum, in Salem, MA. Handful of pirate statues from the 1970s with plaques containing iffy information. Town also has a Witch museum but at least that tries a little harder with light animatronics. Seaside Aquarium, Seaside, OR. Tiny building housing seals, octopuses, and other sea life. So little space felt like there was no way that is how seals are meant to live. Seattle Great Wheel, Seattle, WA.Video presentation before going on Ferris wheel was cheesy but the ride itself was ok. Park ranger buddy was amused to hear ride attendants dress as rangers as it was kinda stolen valor. Empire State Building, NYC, NY. Surprisingly great, pricey but they had tons of quality exhibits & bells & whistles as you ascend. Once at top of tower could stay as long as you want & the binoculars were included. Definite recommend. Traveling Star Trek Exhibit at WA State Fair, Puyallup, WA. Was like $15 to enter and it was 95% props from Star Trek Nemesis. Wonder if the organizers had been dumpster diving at Paramount, not terribly interesting walking around a tent looking at ensign uniforms or Reman shuttle craft models.
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Sep 24, 2023 18:30
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I went to the White Temple in Chiang Rai and it was loving dope. 10/10, would visit again. Did an out-and-back of Fuji during the off season and it was lame af. No wildlife, no foliage, just a big ol' pile of rocks. Easily the most boring of the dozen or so hikes I did in Japan. My pack of Calorie Mate popped 3/4 of the way up from the change in atmospheric pressure, that was kinda neat. The cat museum in Kuching, Malaysia was a surprising bit of kitschy fun, and the city itself is awesome. Strongly recommend. Hopefully these count, I haven't hosed with anything touristy in the US except Niagara Falls, which was okay I guess. Kinda hard to enjoy the natural beauty with the throngs of tourists and people shilling souvenirs and tours. Modal Auxiliary fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 24, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2023 18:38
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Oh yeah anywhere in the world counts. Loch Ness, Scotland. cheesy gift shop that looked like bad boardwalk quality stuffed animals. Boat ride included underwater sonar if you wanted to keep an eye on the situation which was neat, and the loch was nice to look at.
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Sep 24, 2023 18:47
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I still want to see those dinosaur statues from "The Wizard", and the world largest ball of yarn.
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Sep 24, 2023 18:51
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Hyrax Attack! posted:
If you want a view of the city, then I think Summit might be the best and the mirror rooms are neat, but yea if someone has never done Empire state building then they might as well do that once. 
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Sep 24, 2023 18:54
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When I lived in the financial district in Manhattan I used to walk across the brooklyn bridge late at night when I couldn't sleep. From what I hear now it's been taken over by e-scooters and vendors hocking cheap poo poo to tourists 
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Sep 24, 2023 18:59
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Dublin.
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Sep 24, 2023 19:12
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Trees of Mystery, Klamath, CA The redwoods are legit cool, but the real draw for middle school me was the giant Paul Bunyan statue. There's a speaker in him so an employee in the gift shop can pretend to be Paul Bunyan and talk to guests, and I was a nerdy kid who was very well-versed in my Bunyan lore so I kept asking him trivia questions that he didn't have the answers to. "Hey, what was the name of your friend who made the horseshoes for Babe the Blue Ox?" "Oh, his name was, uh, you know, his name isn't important. The important thing is that he was a good friend who was always helping me like a good friend should."
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Sep 24, 2023 19:20
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Enchanted Forest in Salem Oregon. It's pretty goofy and fun for a couple hours.   Sea Lion Caves https://www.sealioncaves.com/ Is pretty cool, you go underground and check out the sea lions.
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Sep 24, 2023 19:26
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Traveling Star Trek Exhibit at WA State Fair, Puyallup, WA. Was like $15 to enter and it was 95% props from Star Trek Nemesis. Wonder if the organizers had been dumpster diving at Paramount, not terribly interesting walking around a tent looking at ensign uniforms or Reman shuttle craft models. Yeah, it must have been more or less exactly this. There was a huge auction of Paramount's inventory for Star Trek stuff years ago, I think around the time of the first Abrams movie. I remember reading some guy in Germany? bought a ton of the really memorable costumes and props because he figured either Paramount or somebody making a fan film would come crawling and begging when they wanted to use it all again. Obviously that didn't really happen. The Nemesis stuff must have been cheap, because everybody hated that movie. I remember going to a traveling Star Trek exhibit at the Academy of Sciences in SF when I was a kid that actually was associated with Paramount and was pretty cool. The capstone was a "transporter" where you could get "beamed down to a planet..." what that meant was they had some kind of a Video Toaster setup where you stood on the transporter pad and saw yourself projected on a little TV opposite with your body covered in the transporter shimmer effect and pasted onto different planets from different episodes. There were little screensaver-like objects floating around too, and you could wave your hands to "interact" with them. Pretty slick for 1993-1994. If you're ever in LA, Hollywood Boulevard is a tourist trap of the ugliest magnitude. There must be like 15 or 20 identical gift shops all selling the same crap (Oscar statues and CA license plates with your name on them!), and they're all fronts for those "tour the houses of the stars!" bus rides. The only cool thing on the whole strip was Japan House, run by the Japanese embassy as a cultural outreach thing: https://www.japanhousela.com but it's tucked into the back corner of a big open-air mall near the Chinese theater so it's really easy to miss.
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Sep 24, 2023 19:50
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I've done a fair amount of storm chasing, which involves a lot of down time in the big, empty Plains states. You get plenty of chances to see all the  The Largest Ball of Twine (in Cawker City  ) Carhenge  The geographic center of the lower 48 states, complete with plaque and tiny chapel  The last one is actually the best, because it has its own outdoor chickens you can hang out with 
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Sep 24, 2023 19:56
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Like 15 years ago I visited the somewhat-Christmas themed casino in Christmas, Michigan (on Candy Cane Lane, no less) at 9:30 in the morning on a Wednesday. I had no idea how to gamble, so I asked the cage cashier for $50 in nickels for the nickel slots. Got em in a big ol’ bucket and had a fine time plugging nickel after nickel into the slot machine. Shocked I wasn’t robbed, but the christmas spirit must’ve been truly alive in that horrible place.
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Sep 24, 2023 20:29
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Captain Hygiene posted:
I wonder if there is some kind of officiating body that determines this, like what if there is a challenger to the Cawker City twine ball. guinness book?
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Sep 24, 2023 20:34
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The House on The Rock in Wisconsin is basically some architect's failed attempt to one-up Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater that someone later dumped a warehouse full of junk on, but it's pretty drat rad
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Sep 24, 2023 20:44
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Stonehenge is kind of underwhelming. It's a pretty long trip from London to go see it too. At least I've seen it first hand I guess, but I cold have done something else with that day.
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Sep 24, 2023 20:44
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Gatlinburg, TN. All of it.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:09
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AKA Pseudonym posted:Stonehenge is kind of underwhelming. It's a pretty long trip from London to go see it too. At least I've seen it first hand I guess, but I cold have done something else with that day. it takes a day to see Stonehenge The Trinity Site, White Sands, and Carlsbad Caverns, all of which are awesome
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Sep 24, 2023 21:17
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 In the centre is John Brown's grave, in which his body lies a-moldering. On the right is the ski jump tower for the Lake Placid winter Olympics. Which is a bit weird.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:19
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istewart posted:Yeah, it must have been more or less exactly this. There was a huge auction of Paramount's inventory for Star Trek stuff years ago, I think around the time of the first Abrams movie. I remember reading some guy in Germany? bought a ton of the really memorable costumes and props because he figured either Paramount or somebody making a fan film would come crawling and begging when they wanted to use it all again. Obviously that didn't really happen. The Nemesis stuff must have been cheap, because everybody hated that movie. Oh nice, yeah I later went to a Trek exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture and it was drastically better. Was included in general admission & the exhibits had a lot more care & interesting stuff, like you could crawl through a Jefferies tube. They also had a “fight the Borg” interactive phaser game & I had a chuckle when I learned you could aim the phaser at the floor & the game would still count it as a hit. Space Needle, Seattle, WA. Overpriced with limited view & crappy gift shop. Dunno if it’s gotten better as that was like 25 years ago. On the plus side there was a kickass arcade nearby so wasn’t a total loss.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:26
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Grey Cat posted:Enchanted Forest in Salem Oregon. It's pretty goofy and fun for a couple hours. Want to walk through here on mushrooms so all the buildings look straight
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Sep 24, 2023 21:29
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i was going to say op's mom, but that's a lie. the line was too long so i left just as a viking cruise tour bus pulled up.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:32
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The Integratron https://www.integratron.com/ I have this amazing long story from my trip there, but, for another time.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:35
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Captain Hygiene posted:I've done a fair amount of storm chasing, which involves a lot of down time in the big, empty Plains states. You get plenty of chances to see all the You saw a plinth in middle america, and then a chicken? Must have traveled alot
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Sep 24, 2023 21:41
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Xanadu THE HOME OF TOMORROW in Florida. Decades later, I met someone who lived near there and they said that it closed and crackheads used to squat there.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:46
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my Mother lives around 2 miles from the wonder that is King Arthurs Labyrinth https://www.kingarthurslabyrinth.co.uk/ it consists of a series of mediocre mannequin vignettes of scenes from the legends of King Arthur, all situated in various lower level chambers of an abandoned slate mine in mid Wales. When you visit you ride on a boar down a perfectly straight passage, then get given a guided tour by a local bloke dressed as a druid who takes you between the scenes, where a recorded version of the appropriate legend then plays for 5-10 minutes, with changes in lighting and possibly some really basic animatronics (I don't remember). In heavy rain it closes because that level of the mines completely fills with water. All the lighting and figures are waterproof for this reason as they become completely submerged 
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Sep 24, 2023 21:50
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NC Wyeth Death Cult posted:Xanadu THE HOME OF TOMORROW in Florida. Decades later, I met someone who lived near there and they said that it closed and crackheads used to squat there. I was gonna make the same joke that Rick and Morty made 10 years ago, but I don't have the energy for it
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Sep 24, 2023 21:51
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I. M. Gei posted:Gatlinburg, TN. The World’s Largest Knife store rules but that might be in Seviersville. But I loved every tacky, trashy thing there from the Shoney’s buffet breakfast to getting my picture taken with both the General Lee and the Bandit 1.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:52
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Szyznyk posted:The World’s Largest Knife store rules but that might be in Seviersville. But I loved every tacky, trashy thing there from the Shoney’s buffet breakfast to getting my picture taken with both the General Lee and the Bandit 1. what is bandit 1?
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Sep 24, 2023 21:53
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those two giant dinosaurs off the right of the 10 near palm springs in ca. to be fair i lived near by. and the drive through red wood in the red wood national forest in humbolt. rip big tree. i also lived near by but when i went it was on a vacation and it was fun when youre 6 snergle fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Sep 24, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2023 21:55
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Grey Cat posted:Enchanted Forest in Salem Oregon. It's pretty goofy and fun for a couple hours. Similar to my last story, when I went here I also asked the Abe Lincoln impersonator trivia questions about Lincoln.
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Sep 24, 2023 21:56
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Grey Cat posted:Enchanted Forest in Salem Oregon. It's pretty goofy and fun for a couple hours. going here is a rite of passage for gradeschool kids in oregon
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Sep 24, 2023 21:59
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I went to this place back when it was open in the 90s. Possibly more than once. Now there's a loving Mysteries of the Abandoned segment about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Town_Village
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Sep 24, 2023 22:01
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Henry Lee Mucus posted:Like 15 years ago I visited the somewhat-Christmas themed casino in Christmas, Michigan (on Candy Cane Lane, no less) at 9:30 in the morning on a Wednesday. I had no idea how to gamble, so I asked the cage cashier for $50 in nickels for the nickel slots. Got em in a big ol’ bucket and had a fine time plugging nickel after nickel into the slot machine. Shocked I wasn’t robbed, but the christmas spirit must’ve been truly alive in that horrible place. At first glance I thought this was a Bass Pro Shops. I guess maybe the green steel peaked roof is just a standard in Midwestern architecture now. This reminds me of the Chicken Ranch Casino in Jamestown, CA that they paid the DJ from the local classic rock station in the valley to hype on the radio. I wondered what the hell it could be, and looking it up on Yelp told me that it's just a big prefab steel building full of slot machines. I can imagine few things more depressing. Jamestown itself is a typical tourist trap of the Sierra Nevada, one long main street full of old buildings that are mostly antique shops. They want you to think you're buying some kind of artifacts from the old west, but mostly it's just somebody else's junk sold at a markup. Nearby is Columbia, which is set up as a historic park where you can pan for gold and such: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=552 I remember going on a field trip there in maybe 5th grade? Another similar tourist trap I remember from childhood is Oatman, AZ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oatman,_Arizona Similar story, main drag full of olde-timey buildings that are mostly ripoff antique/gift shops. They keep mules in the middle of the street so you can pet them. One of the antique shops had a tarantula in a glass case in the middle of the store that was scrambling to get out; I have no idea how they thought that would draw customers.
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Sep 24, 2023 22:11
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Oh yeah anywhere in the world counts. If anyone's doing it from Fort Augustus the town is terrible tourist trash but the hostel there, Morags lodge, has a super nice atmosphere. Had a great evening chatting to a guy who sold dumb fake tartan stuff to Americans who explained to me that all scottish clan colours is basically a fantasy made up by a scammer. There's also an ok restaurant called the Boathouse which overlooks the Loch but is always pretty empty because it's hidden behind a big gated hotel. The food is kinda crap but better than some of the other places in town.
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Sep 24, 2023 22:16
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I saw the dinosaur at WALL DRUG in Wall, SD. The buffet was decent. I should’ve bought some cowboy boots.
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Sep 24, 2023 22:19
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Crazyweasel posted:I saw the dinosaur at WALL DRUG in Wall, SD. The buffet was decent. I should’ve bought some cowboy boots. I went there once. Ate buffalo meat
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Sep 24, 2023 22:25
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I've been to South of the Border, a tourist trap full of Mexican stereotypes, located along I-95 just as you cross from North Carolina to South Carolina. It's pretty dumb, and they used to have like, hundreds of stupid billboards along I-95 up and down the east coast advertising the place. https://www.sobpedro.com/ Obviously the hundreds of billboards were intriguing to a small child going on a family trip to Florida.
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Sep 24, 2023 22:27
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HJE-Cobra posted:I've been to South of the Border, a tourist trap full of Mexican stereotypes, located along I-95 just as you cross from North Carolina to South Carolina. It's pretty dumb, and they used to have like, hundreds of stupid billboards along I-95 up and down the east coast advertising the place. They got rid of the billboards??
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Sep 24, 2023 22:28
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redshirt posted:They got rid of the billboards?? They've fallen on hard times lately I think, and had to massively reduce their number of billboards. I think there's still some though.
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Sep 24, 2023 22:29
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i got lost for like 45 minutes in a ron jon surf shop while i was tripping off acid it was terrible
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