Exploring Locally
 

So you know those people who have lived near major landmarks (the statue of liberty, mount rushmore, the space needle, whathaveyou) all their lives but have never actually been to them? Yeah, that's me. I've been within 1-2 hours of the Saint Louis Arch my whole life, but I've never actually gone to it. I've only seen it from a distance. Not only have I not been in the arch... well, I haven't really done much in any other part of Saint Louis either!

Recently my guy has been getting me to explore everything Saint Louis has to offer. I was always under the impression it had barely anything worth seeing, but it turns out there are so many cool places to go! I've been to museums, restaurants, old movie theatres, parks full of modern art sculptures... Okay, it turns out Saint Louis is amazing.

So have any of you found any neat places in your own "backyard"? Do you take day trips to nearby cities? Share your pictures and stories, I wanna see 'em!

Space needle... isn't really all that exciting...
One day I want to go up it and see what all the hype is about.

Near where I live we have Geek Taverns that are definitely worth visiting though. One of which is called the AFK Tavern.

As for exploring... a new friend I made has been getting me out of my shell to do lots of exploring :) and eventually perhaps I'll ride the Ferris Wheel I never knew existed in Seattle...

This area also has the largest building by volume in the world, the Boeing Airplane Factory. After some research even kings and other such royalty have visited this place o.o
Getting exclusive access because family works there can be a blast. :3

I don't think I've ever seen the Hollywood sign up close. The closest I've been was probably from the freeway or something..

@ Poet: Haha, I'm with you on the Space Needle. I went to Seattle about 2 weeks ago and was gonna go see the Space Needle until I saw a huge line to go in. At that point I figured a drive-by would be sufficient. [mrgreen]

@ Risque - There is just a restaurant up there... and it costs a fortune to eat there... and so I'm told the food is awful.

I really enjoyed my experience in the Space Needle. [lol] For sure the food is overpriced, but I enjoyed the experience. [yes]

By far, I think the most intriguing thing around here is the Sabancı Merkez Camii, the mosque here and the biggest in Turkey.

Here's the wiki for it because really I can't say much more than it can: Click
And there are really plenty of pictures online which better show the place. [lol]
But it's really neat to visit at least once, and even without stopping, the exterior is an awesome sight in itself.

Those giant pillars make me nervous...

There are a lot of cool things in Washington state that I never properly explored while I was there. I had no idea until this last summer that the Olympic National Park was considered a World Heritage site. My boyfriend wanted to go so we checked out Hurricane Ridge, but we didn't have time to see the rainforests or the beaches. I've actually been in most of the touristy places in Seattle, like the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, the Pacific Science Center, Pike Place Market, etc. But I didn't really pay attention to them as "special" until I moved away. When I came back to visit this summer I took pictures with the gum wall and the Fremont Troll. [lol]

There's honestly not much in my current city that's a good tourist site though. [sweat] Sendai was completely flattened by bombs during WWII so few old building remain. The "castle" is just a stone base and a statue, there's nothing else to see there besides a good view of the city skyline. For me, the local things I haven't explored are more basic touristy things: never done pachinko; never been to a maid cafe, cat cafe, or any other special themed cafe for that matter; never played a UFO catcher game; never eaten fugu (puffer fish); never watched sumo; and many other stereotypical "must-do" things in Japan.

Longbeach during the kite festival ferra is definitely worth going to. I loved that place, so much fun ^^

I've actually been to a great deal of the tourist traps in Colorado. It was also mostly my doing--aka I bugged my parents till they took me to them.

I've seen/hiked Mesa Verde, and I've been on the Durango Silverton train which is gorgeous. I've been in and around the Royal Gorge, been up Trail Ridge, been on the top of Pikes Peak, been through the Garden of the Gods multiple times...I'm sure there's more that I've simply forgotten.

One thing that some people in my state are weird about is that I've met people who've lived here their whole lives (or at least for several years) who have never bothered to go to the mountains. When I meet those people I always ask them what the hell is wrong with them--they never have a good answer.

Lived in Sydney and currently in Dubai. Actually been to all the tourism spots since I tend to have relatives over from overseas and take them there.
Here's a picture I took of the Burj al-Arab.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...n/IMGP5831.jpg

I can see the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, as well on some days (depends on pollution).

For a while I was taking photos of random street art that I see around the suburban areas, and of buildings and stuff...I'll consider posting some of those.

I'd love to see them, Ling!

The best "street art" I saw was some tic tac toe on a train...

Melbourne has AMAZING street art/graffiti!
Where I live though, a few artists get around with cute paste-ups.

That mosque looks so cool Iku!

I'm right smack in the middle of New York City and Boston where I am, really. And trust me, there are tons of things I've never seen in either city....Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island? Yah no. I know........it's kinda pathetic. I don't know if those can be considered *local*, but it's close enough to do day trips and and out, of course. That and if I want to get to the other side of my state, it's all of an hours drive.

There's one place I love that, while it's over the board of Connecticut in New York state, I still consider it local since it's in that 1 hour drive radius. I go there quite often, and it's just so nice. The Chuang Yen Monastery in Lake Carmel, Ny. The main building houses the largest indoor Buddha in America, surrounded by an amphitheater with 10,000 Buddha statues.




There's also a huge koi pond, and libraries to explore. On Saturdays and Sundays, they serve a vegetarian lunch to the public from noon til 1pm for a small donation to the monastery. They'll even have a treat like bubble tea for desert sometimes. It's lovely to go there, have a meal with the nuns and monks, then explore the grounds.

Visitor Info

That place looks absolutely gorgeous, Woody!

Last night the boyfriend and I went on a date to this big... trampoline... place. Essentially it's a huge warehouse-type building with these big free-standing rooms that are just tons of interconnected trampolines. Even the walls are trampolines. You can just bounce around and literally bounce off the walls. [lol] They have some trampoline rooms dedicated to trampoline dodgeball, which is where we spent most of the night. I've gotta say, after spending an hour bouncing around like that, normal ground feels disappointingly solid.

I'll yoink some photos from their facebook page to give you all a better idea of what I'm talking about.


I didn't really realize until I got there that I had never been on a trampoline before. So no crazy flips for me. But it was still loads of fun! But crazy tiring. As soon as the boyfriend and I got home, we ate, and then we were done. I slept so deeply. [lol]

[drool] I want to go there!

That looks really fun! :D I'd loved to do something like that.

It was crazy fun and I'd love to go back a million times. That being said, I am still sore. [lol] My poor boyfriend, he played much harder than I did. At the end of each round I'd look at him and he'd be drenched in sweat. [lol] After sitting at his desk at work all day yesterday, he said it took him about 7 seconds just to stand up because his muscles had stiffened up so badly. BUT WE'RE GOING BACK SOON, WE HAVE TO, I NEED IT! I DON'T CARE THAT I WON'T BE ABLE TO MOVE FOR DAYS AFTER! [lol]

How much does it cost for how long?

Wow! That looks amazing fun Cherry!! I know my legs would be jelly after that.

Poet - I think it was 15/hr. Plus you have to buy some special socks with rubber grips on the bottom so you don't slip all over the place, but you only have to buy those once and they're $3. So kind of expensive, but it makes sense for how unusual it is.

Woody - Weirdly, it's my back that's been in the most pain, possibly from the dodgeball throwing. My legs were stiff, but they never had the pulled muscle pain that my back's got right now.

Ooh... sounds fun... and cheap for the amount of fun you get omg!

They use the same kind of socks at hospitals to keep patients from slipping actually.

Probably not neon orange, though. [lol] (They're visible in the last photo I shared - not sure why everyone is wearing shoes in the others)