Be a tourist in your own town

[Pags]

Owlwsing came across these On-Demand specials on cable - about Radio City Music Hall which is a world famous theatre in the center of Manhattan. They cover the history of the theatre, to the various performances, and now they are showcasing the multiple Rockettes Christmas dance routines. The kids are going nuts about having seen this show, and wanting to go back.

 

But it got me to thinking about how fortunate I feel to live an hour away from Manhattan and all the amazing things it has to offer. After having the kids, I've learned to look at places like the city and the smaller towns where I live through new eyes. There are some incredible parks, trails, historical sites, etc.

 

I'm sure there are amazing things to see and do and appreciate which are a stone's throw away from where you sit at this very moment - but take them for granted because they've always been there. Go appreciate these places as though you were looking at them through new eyes. Go act like a tourist in the places where you live.

 

So - everyone describe one great place to see that is closeby to where you live.

 

[MULTIPLIED REACTION]

This is about all there is to go see. It's about 8 miles from where i live, in Cornish, NH. It's the longest 2 span covered bridge in the United States.

 

 

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g318/celestialrose/P7250189.jpg

[-D-RocK-]

Hmmmm........a hundred million acres of wilderness?

[liquidcrystalcompass]

QUOTE (MULTIPLIED REACTION @ Dec 11 2008, 07:48 PM)

This is about all there is to go see. It's about 8 miles from where i live, in Cornish, NH. It's the longest 2 span covered bridge in the United States. http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g318/celestialrose/P7250189.jpg

You live in a beautiful place.

[blonde77th]

QUOTE (liquidcrystalcompass @ Dec 11 2008, 07:53 PM)

QUOTE (MULTIPLIED REACTION @ Dec 11 2008, 07:48 PM) This is about all there is to go see. It's about 8 miles from where i live, in Cornish, NH. It's the longest 2 span covered bridge in the United States.       http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g318/celestialrose/P7250189.jpg You live in a beautiful place. That is very Beautiful!!

[Pags]

QUOTE (blonde77th @ Dec 11 2008, 08:40 PM)

QUOTE (liquidcrystalcompass @ Dec 11 2008, 07:53 PM) QUOTE (MULTIPLIED REACTION @ Dec 11 2008, 07:48 PM) This is about all there is to go see. It's about 8 miles from where i live, in Cornish, NH. It's the longest 2 span covered bridge in the United States.       http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g318/celestialrose/P7250189.jpg You live in a beautiful place. That is very Beautiful!! Agreed - what a great picture, and you nailed exactly what I wanted this thread to be.

[Pags]

QUOTE (-D-RocK- @ Dec 11 2008, 07:50 PM)

Hmmmm........a hundred million acres of wilderness?

Who are you asking? You're the one who lives there and you don't know?

[PhilCastro]

This is a great idea for a thread!

 

I live about 10 minutes from Downtown Rochester NY and yet I hardly ever go into the city. I'm sure there is something nice to look at there... maybe this will give me an excuse to get of my lazy butt and check it out!

[Mandalorian Hunter]

I do this all the time. In my town, Tenby, we're literally living with history. The main shopping area of the town is within the old castle walls which is really quite nice. We have Norman fortifications on Castle Hill, and a museum up there as well, which can help to direct people. This is just my town though.

 

Within a 15 minute drive we have three magnificent castle ruins; Manorbier, Pembroke and Carew. Pembrokeshire has been quite an important county ever since the Norman times and the tourist spots show that.

 

In my opinion, the jewel in the crown for me being a tourist at home is the Coastal path walk. Most of the county is only bordered by the sea, and there is an official path which takes you round most of the county to some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. http://www.pcnpa.org.uk/website/default.asp?sid=16&LangID=1 - That's the website link for the coastal path but the site doesn't do it justice, so I might just post a few pictures I've taken on previous walks, if you don't mind, pags.

[-D-RocK-]

QUOTE (Pags @ Dec 11 2008, 07:58 PM)

QUOTE (-D-RocK- @ Dec 11 2008, 07:50 PM) Hmmmm........a hundred million acres of wilderness? Who are you asking? You're the one who lives there and you don't know? Wasn't asking.........wrong inflection I suppose.     There's some interesting stuff up here. It'd be better if I could post pictures, which I can't do right now.

[Pags]

QUOTE (Mandalorian Hunter @ Dec 11 2008, 09:16 PM)

I do this all the time. In my town, Tenby, we're literally living with history. The main shopping area of the town is within the old castle walls which is really quite nice. We have Norman fortifications on Castle Hill, and a museum up there as well, which can help to direct people. This is just my town though. Within a 15 minute drive we have three magnificent castle ruins; Manorbier, Pembroke and Carew. Pembrokeshire has been quite an important county ever since the Norman times and the tourist spots show that. In my opinion, the jewel in the crown for me being a tourist at home is the Coastal path walk. Most of the county is only bordered by the sea, and there is an official path which takes you round most of the county to some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. http://www.pcnpa.org.uk/website/default.asp?sid=16&LangID=1 - That's the website link for the coastal path but the site doesn't do it justice, so I might just post a few pictures I've taken on previous walks, if you don't mind, pags.

Very, VERY cool!

 

The oldest stuctures in the US are only a few hundred years old and we think that's ancient.

 

To go shopping within castle walls would be amazing.

 

 

[Janie]

VERY cool idea for a thread Pags. Very cool! I don't travel much so I love to hear about places where others live and visit. (I'm rare in that I dig looking at peoples vacation pictures.)

 

I don't even know where to begin for Seattle. I love living here. It is so beautiful. The city (and surrounding cities) have a lot to offer. There are always festivals going on, the scenery can't be beat (we're in-between the ocean and the mountains) and the weather is the best. You can go out year-round.

 

I'd love to see this thread stay around. I'll try not to turn it into the Seattle thread. I'm heading out next week to take some pictures out and about town. I'll share some here.

 

Again, good idea Pags!

[circumstantial tree]

QUOTE (Janie @ Dec 12 2008, 09:01 AM)

VERY cool idea for a thread Pags. Very cool! I don't travel much so I love to hear about places where others live and visit. (I'm rare in that I dig looking at peoples vacation pictures.) I don't even know where to begin for Seattle. I love living here. It is so beautiful. The city (and surrounding cities) have a lot to offer. There are always festivals going on, the scenery can't be beat (we're in-between the ocean and the mountains) and the weather is the best. You can go out year-round. I'd love to see this thread stay around. I'll try not to turn it into the Seattle thread. I'm heading out next week to take some pictures out and about town. I'll share some here. Again, good idea Pags!

I concur with your thread. It's absolutely beautiful there. I connected with Seattle right away.

[iluvgeddy05]

Downtown Albany has some cool spots and it's definitely gotten some better attractions within the last 10 years or so I would say.

 

 

I'm also 2 hours from NYC, a little over an hour from the Adirondak Mtns and 3 hours to the Fingerlakes. I really love NYS

[Mara]

The Georgia Aquarium

Kennesaw National Battlefield Park/Kennesaw Mountain. Very pretty, lots of neat hiking trails/running paths. I walk the dogs there a lot, as it's near my home.

There's a ton of Civil War stuff to see around here if that sort of thing interests you (I was bombarded by it thanks to a couple of history teachers and am sick to the teeth of it even now. Folks in Georgia tend to forget that . . .um, we LOST. But I digress).

 

Etowah Indian Mounds

Marietta Square

 

 

[Jaye]

The only good thing about Warrington is Sankey Valley Park

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/Jett_Moonwing/DSCF0004.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/Jett_Moonwing/2FarAway1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v250/Jett_Moonwing/21HarmonyAlways1.jpg

[Jaye]

I bet Fridge could write an essay in this topic

[Natch]

I live almost exactly halfway between NYC and Philly, so there are lots of historic and interesting places to visit. More locally, however, there are a couple of places I like to visit with the kids.

 

One is the Monmouth Battlefield in Freehold, NJ. It was the site of a key battle during the American Revolution. Each year, on the last weekend in June, they re-enact the battle. It's a great place to take the kids.

 

For a little history on the battle:

 

Battle of Monmouth

 

I also like to take the kids to a little park nearby called Allaire Village. It's a 19th century industrial village that has been preserved almost in it's original state. They have various events throughout the year, including a ride on a steam engine train with Santa.

 

For more on Alliare:

 

Allaire Village

[circumstantial tree]

One thing I like about Raleigh in general is that there are plenty of lakes around the city for biking, sailing, camping, etc...so natural scenery is a definite plus and it's all just outside the city.

 

One of my favorite places to visit is the North Carolina Museum of Art which is currently undergoing a huge expansion. Admission to the museum itself is free. Although you can donate if you choose to do so. Special exhibits do charge admission though.

 

The museums property has a large sculpture park in the back which also includes a walking trail and a small amphitheatre that hosts musical acts as well as films. This area is a great place to go to have a picnic and maybe play games. You can exercise and view great art.

 

Raleigh has several smaller museums like the museum of science and museum of history. There are tours in historic homes including the Governer's mansion.

 

Raleigh is situated between the coast and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Each about 2.5 to 3 hours away. It's named after Sir Walter Raleigh, the English explorer who founded the doomed Roanoke colony during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. There's a bronze statue of him in downtown.

 

Cary has a lot of parks and the Koka Booth Amphitheatre which is nestled in the woods overlooking a small lake with swans where you can see the NC Symphony play.

 

I personally like driving just outside the city and into the rural areas. There's something beautiful about seeing barns and grain silos out in large fields. It's peaceful and relaxes the mind.

[nic2112nic]

 

Thame's story is the story of England. It would seem to begin in Saxon times with a settlement down by the 'dark flowing' river from which the town takes its name. 'Old Thame' was the area know as Priestend where the road to Crendon crossed the river and the Aylesbury to Oxford road used to pass between the Church and Vicarage. Aerial photographs reveal a possible Saxon settlement by the River Thame and there have been stray finds of jewellery and pottery.

 

Thame, before the Norman conquest, was in the diocese of Dorchester and it would, therefore, seem possible Thame was converted to Christianity by missionaries from Dorchester who could have rowed up the River Thame.

 

The conquest of 1066 saw the transference of the See to Lincoln. Thame remained in the above diocese until the early nineteenth century as a 'peculiar' (a parish outside the area of the diocese proper). The church was a prebend of Lincoln and the prebend was built to house his reeve or representative. It resembled a secular manor with its great hall and chapel.

 

The church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, dates in its present form from c1240 when it was rebuilt by Bishop Grossteste of Lincoln. The church contains work from every century since. The Tudor Chancel stalls and screen; the Jacobean alter table; Lord Williams's central chancel tomb (uniquely positioned with feet towards the west); and the collection of monumental brasses (including a rare one to the first headmaster of the Grammar School) are especially noteworthy. The wealth of the church can also be gauged from the size of the neighbouring large tithe barn.

 

The original town developed around the church, but in the early thirteenth century the liberty of New Thame was 'planted' by the then Bishop of Lincoln on land formerly under plough. This can be seen by the passageways which follow the reverse 'S' curve. This is easily visible by the Old Saracen's Head in the Buttermarket.

 

The market place has the typical boat shaped appearance of a planted town with narrow entrances at both ends. The market has been held on Tuesdays since 1230, the original site being the Buttermarket and Cornmarket areas. The Buttermarket is traditionally sited on the cooler north side, the Cornmarket on the south. The area of Middle Row, which separates the two, originally consisted of booths which were taken down and put up each week.

 

They were gradually replaced by permanent structures, one of these being the Birdcage, (pictured left), which is first mentioned in the early sixteenth century as belonging to the Guild of St Christopher, although parts of the building may be older than this. It also housed the Napoleonic Wars prisoners of other rank; the officers being housed in the Spread Eagle.

 

The Bishop of Lincoln did his utmost to ensure that all travellers patronised his market by diverting the road from Aylesbury so that it passed directly through it. Some of the oldest buildings extant in Thame are, therefore, to be found in North Street and the High Street. Walker's in North Street and Lancastrian Cottage in the lower part of the High Street are early examples of prefabricated buildings in that the frames were made on the Chilterns, then brought down and assembled in situ to the individual owners' specifications.

 

The town was troubled little by the Reformation. There is, though, the unsubstantiated legend of a heretic being burned at Priest End. The major effect of the Reformation was the suppression of the Cistercian monastery at Thame Park, where it had been since the mid twelfth century after its removal from Oddington-on-Otmoor. The last abbot of Thame, Robert King, became the first Bishop of Oxford.

 

The Grammar School in Church Road was founded in 1559 by Lord William's of Thame who had received preferment from four of the five Tudor Monarchs, including Elizabeth I whose gaoler had been at Rycote for a time. He also refounded the jettied Almshouses on the corner of Church Road which had originally been founded by Richard Quartermain for six old men and one woman.

 

Many of the inns in the town date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some of these inns, such as the Swan, with its late sixteenth century paintings, and Nags Head, still fulfil the same function today while the Kings Head is now Rafferty Buckland, Estate Agents. The Civil War of the 1640's saw Thame as a kind of no-mans land, occupied in turn by parliamentary and royalist forces.

 

 

 

It was also a honeymoon destination for King Henry VIII.

 

I go to Lord Williams School! I LOVE this place

[Fridge]

QUOTE (Jaye @ Dec 12 2008, 03:09 PM)

I bet Fridge could write an essay in this topic

 

You're right, I most certainly could. There is a massive amount of interesting sites near where I live, but in the interests of brevity I will just post a few

 

 

Dark Lochnagar:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/Lochnagar.jpg

 

 

From the top of Mither Tap, Bennachie...it is widely believed that the famous battle of Mons Graupius fought between the Picts and the Romans occured on the plain below:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/MitherTapOfBennachie19.jpg

 

 

The historic and beautiful village of Braemar home to the annual Highland gathering:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/braemar_and_deeside_from_creag_choi.jpg

 

 

Slains Castle, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker to write Dracula

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/jan6.jpg

 

 

Craigievar castle (one of many castles here)

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/p103535-Edinburgh-Craigievar_Castle.jpg

 

 

The tiny village of pennan which those of you who have seen the film "Local Hero" will recognise

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/sco1305a.jpg

 

 

[liquidcrystalcompass]

That settles it! I've been planning on taking a vacation in late spring or early summer. I've got to check out parts of the U.K.

[Jaye]

QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 12 2008, 07:07 PM)

QUOTE (Jaye @ Dec 12 2008, 03:09 PM) I bet Fridge could write an essay in this topic   You're right, I most certainly could. There is a massive amount of interesting sites near where I live, but in the interests of brevity I will just post a few     Dark Lochnagar:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/Lochnagar.jpg     From the top of Mither Tap, Bennachie...it is widely believed that the famous battle of Mons Graupius fought between the Picts and the Romans occured on the plain below:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/MitherTapOfBennachie19.jpg     The historic and beautiful village of Braemar home to the annual Highland gathering:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/braemar_and_deeside_from_creag_choi.jpg     Slains Castle, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker to write Dracula   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/jan6.jpg     Craigievar castle (one of many castles here)   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/p103535-Edinburgh-Craigievar_Castle.jpg     The tiny village of pennan which those of you who have seen the film "Local Hero" will recognise   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/sco1305a.jpg Wow.. (I recognise the last pic, for a different reason )   This is what Heaven looks like, people

[Mandalorian Hunter]

QUOTE (Fridge @ Dec 12 2008, 07:07 PM)

QUOTE (Jaye @ Dec 12 2008, 03:09 PM) I bet Fridge could write an essay in this topic   You're right, I most certainly could. There is a massive amount of interesting sites near where I live, but in the interests of brevity I will just post a few     Dark Lochnagar:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/Lochnagar.jpg     From the top of Mither Tap, Bennachie...it is widely believed that the famous battle of Mons Graupius fought between the Picts and the Romans occured on the plain below:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/MitherTapOfBennachie19.jpg     The historic and beautiful village of Braemar home to the annual Highland gathering:   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/braemar_and_deeside_from_creag_choi.jpg     Slains Castle, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker to write Dracula   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/jan6.jpg     Craigievar castle (one of many castles here)   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/p103535-Edinburgh-Craigievar_Castle.jpg     The tiny village of pennan which those of you who have seen the film "Local Hero" will recognise   http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i27/Fridge-1967/sco1305a.jpg f**k Italy, I really need to go to Scotland sometime soon.

[RushLady]