The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => People & Places => Topic started by: jay-ell on May 19, 2008, 06:02:02 pm
-
So, we're taking a family vacation this summer. Actually, we're taking a family road trip. We're going to be visiting my family in Toledo, OH and we'll be driving from Raleigh, NC. I'm looking for fun side trips to take with my 3 year old son and my baby daughter (who will be 6 months old in July). I'm looking for recommendations for side trips in NC, VA, DC, MD, DE, NJ, WV, PA, OH, IN, KY, and TN.
Special considerations: the three year old does have some sensory issues related to autism and therefore is pretty terrified of anything too loud or too crowded. This includes (but is not limited to) kiddie rides, train whistles, and bounce houses (the whirring fans bother him). He loves animals and anything water-related.
Stuff that's already on the "potentials" list:
Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY
Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH
The National Zoo in Washington, DC (yes, we will stop and see you, Wombat, even if it means I have to be in the same room as frogs to do so.)
And we're definitely going to Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA, so I would prefer suggestions for things that are not theme parks (since we're already going to one).
I've already ruled out Hershey Park -- it seems to be geared towards older kids and adults, little P is really too young for it -- and I promised Pedro we wouldn't drag the kids along on any boring history stuff this time, so Colonial Williamsburg and most of the stuff *I* love in DC are out as well.
Not everything on the list has to be kid-oriented but it should at least be kid-friendly -- no bars, clubs, or fine dining recommendations, please.
Thanks in advance.
-
Well, you've already scooped my recommendation.
But surely there are some history things in DC that aren't boring? Like, um, er...
OK, I just had a better idea - I passed your message on to my friend who both has kids and is a travel editor. I'll let you know if she has any suggestions.
-
There's the Natural Bridge near Roanoke if you're coming up that way. There's also Lurray and Skyline caverns in the western part of VA. I would recommend the Smithsonian Naturalist Center (aka the one nobody has ever heard of) because they let kids actually touch stuff like animal skeletons and stuffed birds and whatnot, but I just checked and kids have to be 10+.
The Baltimore Aquarium is fun. There's one of those kid-friendly learnatoria right by it but I think your kids are too young for that.
-
The only state I could make recommendations in is New Jersey, and I find it hard to believe that the Garden State is a "side trip" en route from NC to Ohio, so I'll just wish you a good trip and leave it there.
-
And you know there are like a million good zoos in Ohio, right? Everyone knows Cincinnati, but I remember that Toledo was small and nice, and Cleveland had some good stuff.
You don't want to go to the Baltimore aquarium if your son has noise and crowd issues, unfortunately. You might want to try to check out Newport before you go, too. The indoor-ness of an aquarium makes the crowd issues worse than the same density of people at a zoo.
-
Thirded or fourthed for the National Zoo.
I think one of DC's undiscovered treasures is the National Arboretum. Metro-convenient it ain't, but if you're driving it's easy enough to get to.
http://www.usna.usda.gov/
-
The only state I could make recommendations in is New Jersey, and I find it hard to believe that the Garden State is a "side trip" en route from NC to Ohio, so I'll just wish you a good trip and leave it there.
Actually, Sesame Place is on the PA/NJ border, so we will be in the area. We'll be heading up 95 through Philly, most likely. So hit me with all the NJ sites you can think of. We're still at the brainstorming stage.
And you know there are like a million good zoos in Ohio, right? Everyone knows Cincinnati, but I remember that Toledo was small and nice, and Cleveland had some good stuff.
The Toledo Zoo is a given. It'm my childhood Zoo, even if they do now have an overpriced cafe in what used to be the Big Cats House. (I find that beyond gross, BTW.) It's an extremely nice zoo, and it has grown significantly in the last ten years, adding exhibits even as they improve their existing ones (e.g. the lions now have a natural habitat instead of being locked in cages). So, yes, I know about the Ohio zoos, but want to avoid letting the trip become too zoo-oriented, if there is such a thing.
Thirded or fourthed for the National Zoo.
I think one of DC's undiscovered treasures is the National Arboretum. Metro-convenient it ain't, but if you're driving it's easy enough to get to.
http://www.usna.usda.gov/
We did the Arboretum a few trips ago, and it is lovely. I don't know how much time we want to spend in DC, but I'll put it on the list.
Hrmph! Just remember, if you accidentally make a 3000 mile wrong left turn onto Interstate 40 then Limmo and I can help you.
Otherwise, my answer stays the same as his.
You know, the interstate works both ways. If you ever decide to come into civilized company, let me know and I'll make some recommendations for you guys. :-*
-
Well, the advice of my travel editor friend with children was mostly "When kids are that little, going any place special is just totally wasted on them. They should rent a house on a lake and sit there for two weeks."
But we both thought of Chincoteague as a possibility. You know, with the wild ponies? It's probably pretty peaceful if you don't go when the pony swim is happening. I have actually never been there but it has been recommended to me more than once, at least twice by people who took children with them. (I've never gone because the thrill of wild ponies didn't sound like it would counteract the lack of a wide selection of restaurants.)
She also begs you to reconsider Cedar Point if noise and crowds are a problem.
-
Cedar Point is on the list only in the event that my brother wants to take his kids and meet us there. I don't relish the idea of paying $45 each for us to take the boy to Camp Snoopy.
My best friend has a family reunion every year in Chincoteague. I'll ask her about it, thanks for the suggestion.
-
I also asked her about Cort's suggestion of the caves and she says she took her oldest son to Luray when he was 3 and he thought it was cool. I would have thought that three was too young to get what was interesting about a cave, but at Luray they have this rock pipe organ that she mentioned - I guess that made an impression on him at the time although of course he doesn't remember it now.
She also says that actually the same son loved Hershey Park when he was 2, and that it's not nearly as crazy as Cedar Point.
By the way, are you sure you want to rule out bars and clubs? I was reading lately about a club in DC that has a regular event where you bring your little kids along.
-
The Newport aquarium is supposed to be very good. My kids have been, I haven't.
Mammoth Cave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_cave)wouldn't be terribly far off your route, although your kids might be too young to appreciate it. I highly recommend visiting sometime, as it is a natural wonder almost on the scale of the Grand Canyon (not nearly as spectacular, but 367 miles of interconnected cave passages is pretty darn impressive...)
Also, the Natural Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Bridge_State_Park_%28Kentucky%29) / Red River Gorge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Gorge) area is beautiful and has several beautiful stone arches. Most require some hiking, but the biggest ("Natural Bridge") is pretty easily accessible. Also, there's a chairlift.
Driving through the hoss country around Lexington can be fun -- it's very pretty. Some hoss farms offer tours, but I'm not sure which.
Just south of Lexington, near Harrodsburg, there's the wonderful restored community of Shakertown -- one of the largest Shaker settlements anywhere (and founded in part by a couple of my ancestors (or distant cousins, at least)). Harrodsburg also has Old Fort Harrod, the site of the earliest settlement in Kentucky. It's an old log fort with a bunch of log houses and some re-enactors. Fort Boonesboro is also very similar and is right off of I-75, so that might be more convenient if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Just a few thoughts...
-
The Natural Bridge State Resort in KY sounds right up our alley. We were thinking of taking the kids on a hiking trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains some other time, but seeing the NBSR would allow us to do it on this trip (instead of a short weekend jaunt) and would help break up the return trip a little. It's on the list, thanks.
The other natural bridge in VA that Cort was talking about -- what's that like? I'm dubious about the caves, because they seem, well, boring to me. But I might just be uninformed, seeing as how I've never spelunked. Not even a little bit.
P.S. If anyone wants to see what we're considering laid out on a map, check out the Google Map (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=l&near=&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112592110552881700300.00044d989c8ecd17f50b5&ll=35.825608,-78.799438&spn=0.169804,0.32135&z=12) I made.
-
I went to the bridge once and there was like one other car there. I remember there being a little wax museum nearby but other than that it's pretty hazy.
Oh, and the Skyline Drive is really pretty and has lots of good hiking and picnic areas.
But you probably want to come up 95 and for some reason I keep suggesting stuff that's on 81. Uh, I think there's some hideously boring civil war stuff off of 95. If crippling lameness is your thing.
-
Well, usually I am really into crippling lameness but I promised Pedro we'd do some fun stuff this time.
-
Uh, I think there's some hideously boring civil war stuff off of 95. If crippling lameness is your thing.
Hey, sounds to me like a great time to teach your kids about the War before carpetbagger history teachers get a hold of them.
have I ever told you guys about the time my high-school girlfriend asked me, "just to make sure," whether the Union or the Confederates won the Civil War?
-
The Natural Bridge State Resort in KY sounds right up our alley. We were thinking of taking the kids on a hiking trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains some other time, but seeing the NBSR would allow us to do it on this trip (instead of a short weekend jaunt) and would help break up the return trip a little. It's on the list, thanks.
Great! If that's the sort of thing you're looking for, it's a great place to hike. The actual Natural Bridge trail from the lodge to the bridge is about 3/4 of mile, sort of challenging, but well worth it. It's about 45 mins - an hour off of I-75. The Nada Tunnel (http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone/districts/cumberland/nada_tunnel.shtml) is pretty cool to drive through too.
-
jack hanna's world-famous columbus zoo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Zoo_and_Aquarium) - my childhood zoo, i'm a native columbusite (shut up that's what people from columbus are called)
and i just learned that seaworld ohio closed due to mass consolidation in the theme park industry :(
if your brother and his kids don't live near toledo (i'm guessing they do) consider kings island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Island), about halfway between dayton and cincinatti. home to my favorite roller coaster of all time, the beast: the longest (formerly the fastest and tallest) wooden roller coaster in the world (two chain hills! 45mph! white-knuckle thrills!). though they also had some lame video-screen/wobbly-chair days of thunder ride when i last visited.
have tons o' fun!
-
I'm dubious about the caves, because they seem, well, boring to me. But I might just be uninformed, seeing as how I've never spelunked. Not even a little bit.
We're not talking about spelunking (which, by the way, is called 'caving' by those who actually do it, who are somehow annoyed by the term 'spelunking'). We're talking about caves that have paths and electric lighting and tour guides and parking lots and admission fees. If you've never been to one, you should do it at least once. Not only are the cave formations interesting but the whole idea of putting paths and lighting and tour guides in a cave is a curious phenonmenon.
There are tons of them in the areas you have laid out. Some are pretty fancy tourist stops and some are little mom and pop operations. If you just wanted to stop at the easiest one there's probably one right on your route somewhere - isn't there one at Natural Bridge? Mammoth Cave is probably too big a deal if you're not sure you're interested.
-
What wombat said. I haven't been to the caves at Natural Bridge but I have been to Lurray and Skyline caverns. Lurray is way more popular, mostly due to advertising and the fact that they also have a hedge maze. I prefer Skyline though. It's less crowded and you get an actual guide throughout. At Lurray they encourage you to just wander through on your own with guides set up at certain attractions such as the pipe organ and the formation that looks like sunny-side up eggs. Skyline also has one dead stalagmite that you're allowed to touch.
No matter which you go to bring a jacket. No matter what the outside temperature is it's always 58F inside the caverns.
-
What wombat said. I haven't been to the caves at Natural Bridge but I have been to Lurray and Skyline caverns. Lurray is way more popular, mostly due to advertising and the fact that they also have a hedge maze. I prefer Skyline though. It's less crowded and you get an actual guide throughout. At Lurray they encourage you to just wander through on your own with guides set up at certain attractions such as the pipe organ and the formation that looks like sunny-side up eggs. Skyline also has one dead stalagmite that you're allowed to touch.
No matter which you go to bring a jacket. No matter what the outside temperature is it's always 58F inside the caverns.
I saw the sunny-side-up egg rock formation in National Geographic World when I was in the second grade! Oh man. So cool.
Lurray sounds more up our alley, what with the lesser degree of commercialization. Hm. But I think when all is said and done we might end up going to Natural Bridge State Resort in KY because we need something else to do on that side of the trip, and there's just too damn much other stuff to do in the DC/MD/VA area.
I will put this on the map, however, and keep it in mind for a future trip. There's a good chance my brother-in-law and his new wife (who live in Baltimore) would be interested in taking this trip with us some other time if we don't make it this time around.
-
I've long had a fascination with caves. When I was a boy we had a sandstone cave of sorts in our backyard (we lived on 5 acres of undeveloped land in the hills north of Sydney) and I would build fires and imagine I was an aboriginal hunter. Anyway, my Dad is intensely claustrophobic and I've always enjoyed giving him the willies by describing my adventures in various cave-like places such as attics, sub-floors, and crawlspaces. A few years ago, I was on vacation with my college buddies (we all ended up back in the Bay Area after school) in the California gold country, and we came to a place where they had a guided cave tour. As in - real honest to God crawling through muck caves. About six of us went in for it (the others went hossback riding or something), hooked up with 3 more people and a guide, and spent about 4 hours crawling around in the belly of the Sierra Nevadas. My favourite part (and the one my Dad leaves the room for when I retell the story) is a little side chamber which has fairly stringent entrance requirements. Its about 200 feet below the surface, and you need to put your arms up, push them into a hole in the wall, exhale and slide your body through the hole about 2 feet into the chamber. The rock has been polished smooth after decades of people doing this, so its physically not difficult (provided you're of moderate proportions. Once inside, the chamber is about 4 feet in height and eight feet in diameter. The best part is once you're in, everyone turns off their light. That, my friends, is darkness. There is not a spare photon to be had.
-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHH
My stomach actually lurched while I was reading that. I am claustrophobic enough not to be able to dig around under the bed for a lost sock or go in enclosed play towers with my kid, although I have learned to do things like use gas station bathrooms and ride in elevators without getting woozy. (Well, I might get woozy in gas station bathrooms, but for different reasons.) But that story...I have literally had nightmares very similar to that.
So maybe caving isn't the best idea for a family trip? I mean, I was picturing spacious caverns with artificial lights where an adult can walk upright without stooping. If at any point I have to crawl through an opening on my hands and knees, we are going to have problems.
-
Skyline and Lurray caverns are spacious with artificial lights and railings and no stooping. The closest to his story is there's one room in Skyline where they turn off the light but they warn you first, and it's a very large room.
-
There is no crawling in a commercial tourist cave. It's not caving, it's sightseeing. That's what so odd about it and worth seeing.
Caving is a very athletic pursuit. Apparently Americans are so unfit that they complain about walking through a zoo these days, so no one would try to make a living expecting tourists to do anything remotely resembling real caving. So you have nothing to worry about.
Mammoth and some other places do offer guided caving tours into the wild parts of the cave, at least they used to, with crawling, mud,etc, but no one would let you bring a three year old, much less a baby, so it's not like you could accidentally stumble into the wrong tour.
-
Well, that's a relief, to say the least.
So, any other ideas? We've had nature and theme park suggestions, but what about all the other stuff you can do on a trip? I know I said no fine dining, but what about shopping? Anybody know a good place to check out hand-spun yarn? An incredibly ridiculous toy store? A full-size model of the U.S.S. Enterprise done entirely in Lego?
I am aware of Potomac Mills and their Lego outlet. (They also have a Games Workshop store that may interest Pedro.) We went there on our DC trip last summer, though, so I'm thinking there's not necessarily a need to stop there again.
Choop: Yes, I discovered a few years ago (to my great disappointment) that SeaWorld Ohio closed. I, too, went as a child, and probably still have my stuffed Shamu somewhere. I would adore taking the kids, but I'll have to save that for a Florida trip some time in the indeterminate future.
-
If you take 15 from VA into MD you'll pass a whole mess of antique shops (not to mention a couple wineries). There's also a small outlet mall off of 15 (about 110 stores). And weather permitting you could take the ferry over the Potomac, which is always more fun than some lame ol' bridge.
-
Depending on how you are going from NJ/Philly to Ohio, you might consider visiting the nation's oldest continuously operating farmer's market in Lancaster, PA. I bet you can score some hand-spun wool there, plus some kick-ass donuts, good bread, fresh produce, and various and sundry smoked meat products.
http://cityoflancasterpa.com/lancastercity/cwp/browse.asp?a=671&bc=0&c=42768
-
YES.
This is what I am talking about. Nice, nice.
-
There are no caves near Natural Bridge SRP. The karst topography is about 100 miles or so southwest.
As for Mammoth Cave, virtually all of the tours that are offered are downright cushy. Nothing very claustrophobic, with the possible exception of "Fat Man's Misery" which is narrow, but not otherwise overly confined. In fact, there are many very large (one might even say mammoth chambers that you walk through. The "turn off all the lights" thing did happen on every tour I've every taken, though. It is the most complete darkness you'll ever experience.
-
I know it's not on the itinerary, but if you somehow end up in Canada, you can meet me at the children's theatre where I will slip the boy into YogaKids, the papa and infant into Kindermusic, and I will get you so hammered on Canadian beer that you will not know what to do with yourself. Also nachos.
-
San Diego has a Sea World, a Legoland, and a zoo you might have heard of. It's probably only like 2500 miles out of your way, and you can drive through Vegas too!
Also: Carne Asada Fries.
-
Smells, you know, we're going to be in Toledo anyway, and the border isn't really all that far...
When I was a kid, it was easier to visit Toronto than New York, is what I'm saying. Man, do I wish we could just take a month and visit everybody (http://everybody).
I wonder if Pedro might want to try a West Coast trip sometime. He has cousins in Utah and friends in the LA area, and another good pal who works for Google. And there's always the Sci Fi Museum (http://www.empsfm.org/) in Seattle we've been meaning to go to. Maybe next year?
-
Um, that wasn't supposed to be a link. I think I hit the "URL" button instead of the "Underline" button.
Whoops.
-
I was typing one-handed while breastfeeding my infant daughter. The buttons save me a couple of otherwise laborious keystrokes. You got a problem with that?
-
Maybe not, but you just passed up a breastfeeding joke.
-
No. No, you're not.
Sigh. I guess we really don't need anyone else to keep this board running, do we?
Thirty years hence, it'll just be me and Ash, sitting at dilapidated old keyboards, talking smack.
Edit: Joke killed by Choop simulpost.
-
damn, i do hate to ruin jokes even by simulpost
-
No. No, you're not.
Sigh. I guess we really don't need anyone else to keep this board running, do we?
Thirty years hence, it'll just be me and Ash, sitting at dilapidated old keyboards, talking smack.
Edit: Joke killed by Choop simulpost.
I'll be here. I'm just undergoing a little dry spell dammit!
It doesn't help that TOUAMB is blocked at work. TOUAMB! How could they possibly have known (unless it was from my previous employment there). I mean I can get to YouTube and Fark, but they're concerned about this place.
Also, my router is fucked up in some obscure, semi-surreal way. On my computer (posting from the family box at the moment) I can read TOUAMB but not post. Also, I can't get to any site that is Yahoo related. How weird is that?
We may end up with just 4 or 5 of us oldsters, but I'm here for the duration. Now git off'n my lawn.
-
And you know there are like a million good zoos in Ohio, right? Everyone knows Cincinnati, but I remember that Toledo was small and nice, and Cleveland had some good stuff.
You don't want to go to the Baltimore aquarium if your son has noise and crowd issues, unfortunately. You might want to try to check out Newport before you go, too. The indoor-ness of an aquarium makes the crowd issues worse than the same density of people at a zoo.
Cleveland Zoo has an excellent indoor Rainforest and a brand new Australian Zoo with Koalas and stuff. And a cool viewing area / exhibit area of the zoo veterinarian center with viewing areas of the exam rooms. We watched a lemur have an operation last time we were there.
Join your local zoo, and if it's part of this national organization, you get in free to lots and lots of other zoos. We belonged to the Honolulu Zoo so our admission to Cleveland Zoo was free.
Also, Cleveland now has the Great Lakes Science Center. My girls were 8 and 2 and they both had a pretty good time. Lots of hands on stuff.
-
Join your local zoo, and if it's part of this national organization, you get in free to lots and lots of other zoos. We belonged to the Honolulu Zoo so our admission to Cleveland Zoo was free.
But not the San Diego Zoo! Those elitist fuckers are too full of themselves to honor any other friends-of-the-zoo cards.
-
Pfft. San Diego Zoo don't need friends. San Diego Zoo declares friends.
My sister, who was visiting this week, declared that she did not walk downhill at all while in the zoo. I don't find that to be very difficult to believe.
-
Did you know:
The only emotion people are able to feel at San Diego zoo is purest joy.
-
At SD Zoo, joy feels you!
The other day I finally looked Yakov up on youtube, and he was actually kind of funny. It was a surprise.
he made a joke about how horrible Cleveland is, and then booed and he said "oh, seriously? I'm just kidding! Every country has one city that everyone makes fun of, it's just how it is. Like, in Russia? We make fun of Cleveland."
I laughed pretty hard.
-
At SD Zoo, joy feels you!
Not to make you my nemesis or anything Ash, though the position really DOES need filling, but the SD zoo... sucks foursquare balls compared to ours. Also, ours is free.
SD zoo = Boo.
Not that I'm turning that into a chant or anything.. just sayin' is all.
-
My theory about the SD zoo is that its reputation is based mainly on the wonderful weather. Everyone who goes there remembers their visit fondly because they weren't sweating buckets or freezing to death, and were surrounded by flowers.
-
My theory about the SD zoo is that its reputation is based mainly on the wonderful weather. Everyone who goes there remembers their visit fondly because they weren't sweating buckets or freezing to death, and were surrounded by flowers.
...tempered somewhat by the memory of being crapped on by seagulls.
-
Not to make you my nemesis or anything Ash, though the position really DOES need filling, but the SD zoo... sucks foursquare balls compared to ours. Also, ours is free.
Seconded.
-
I'm no zoo conniesewer so...
What makes a zoo better than another zoo?
Physical size? Number of animals?
Gift shop selection?
-
My main zoo considerations are quality of habitat, variety of species, and education value of exhibits, in that order.
- Apes and other primates are territorial (and some are social) creatures, but that doesn't mean a colony can subsist on a quarter acre.
- I'd rather see one quality leopard exhibit than leopards, cheetahs, lions, tigers, pumas, panthers, bobcats, and lynx all in separate exhibits in the same area. I'd most like to see see all of those, but not if they suffer due to habitat restrictions.
- You can teach me as much as you want, it isn't vacation. Now, don't try and teach me 83 things about 1 species, if you want to do that call it an $ANIMALNAME Preserve. Teach me 5 things about 15 species. Teach me 1 thing about 83 species. Damn it to hell, teach me two things about anything, just take care of the fuckin animals.
-
Well if we're talking about it from the visitor side of things, for me, a zoo has to have either weird animals I haven't seen before, or my special favorite weird animals. I wouldn't cross the street to see an elephant, giraffe, bear, lion, etc. at this point.
Second, "natural" exhibits are not an excuse, people need to be able to see the animals too. You have to do both, it's a zoo, not a wildlife sanctuary.
And yeah, the gift shop. You gotta have weird animal stuff in the gift shop too. If it's all elephants and pandas you're not getting any of my money.
I try to ignore the education aspects of a zoo when I am just visiting, otherwise I am critiquing everything and it turns into work, not vacation.
-
1) Free admission
2) A pro-wombat hiring policy
-
Prairie dogs!
-
If I ain't too late to the party, here's a few suggestions for the Ohio leg:
The Columbus Zoo just opened a waterpark called Zoombezi Bay. It's hell of new so you probably won't get sick from the water. Also the zoo itself is pretty good.
If you like animals but are trying not to overdo traditional zoos, I suggest a visit to The Wilds (http://www.thewilds.org/) off I-70 near Zanesville, Ohio. It's more of a conservation center than zoo and you can take a safari-style trip through it rather than stroll from one glassed-off pen to another.
If you're going up I-77 towards Canton and Cleveland, you can make a stop at Warther Carvings (http://www.warthers.com/), a museum of this old-time crazy guy's intricate carvings of trains and other stuff. They also have a knife factory on-site that makes some pretty good stuff. It's relatively quiet - not a ton of whistles or chugga-chugga, considering it's pretty much all about trains. Easy to reach from the Dover/New Philly exits. I suggest it to people all the time as an alternative to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a little farther north in Canton.
Akron is home to the Inventor's Hall of Fame, which includes a hands-on "workshop" where kids can break, build and otherwise play around with stuff in the name of inspiring creativity. Also in Akron: Swenson's. Drive up, order some cheeseburgs, and enjoy them in the comfort of your car. If you want to visit some cool architecture, Stan Hywet Hall is the former home of the Goodyear tire family. It's a gorgeous tudor-style mansion with huge gardens in several different styles.
If you're going to be closer to Cincy or Dayton on your way up and don't mind stopping at a store as a tourist attraction, Jungle Jim's International Market (http://www.junglejims.com/) is like an amusement park of food and drink. It's absolutely insane, some of the stuff they sell.
I'm sure I can think of more stuff in Ohio if you're interested. My favorite Kentucky diversions are the Corvette museum in Bowling Green and the various distilleries along the Bourbon Trail.
Memphis is probably out of the way but Graceland is cool.
Isn't there a Mr. Rogers museum or park somewhere near Pittsburgh?
-
The werther carvings are amazing. wow!
-
TN, those are great suggestions. Too bad you were about a week late with them. However, because my thesis defense was scheduled for the week of our return, the drive home was sort of rushed anyway, and we didn't stop anywhere except a Days Inn.
We do make the trip to/from Toledo a few times a year, and our nest journey is scheduled for Thanksgiving-time. Finding indoor activities to distract the kids from the 12+ hour drive is a particular challenge, and that inventor's museum sounds...just so awesome. And we do take I-77 to 80/90 so anything in the Akron/Canton/Cleveland area is right on the way.
We have been known to go I-75 through Columbus on occasion, but it doesn't save any time and it's more difficult driving. However, we might consider the Columbus Zoo as a side trip next summer. (I doubt the wather park will be much fun in November.) And I will suggest it to my brother and his family, who drive down over spring break every year.
The vacation, incidentally, was a wild success. Photos here (http://picasaweb.google.com/jldunston/SesamePlacel). (Same ones I linked to in another thread, so you can skip them if you've already seen.) We are looking forward to doing it again next year...but next time, we'll hit Sesame Place on return trip instead of the first leg. Better not to play all your aces on the first hand, you know?
Any other suggestions for next time?
I'm full of suggestions for anyone traveling through North Carolina, incidentally.
(side_show edit: fixed the link to pics)
-
I realize it's too far the wrong way, but Thanksgiving time (I think the weekend before) is for the Mickey penis Parade in downtown Chicago, a day of fun festivities on the Miracle Mile culminated by a parade featuring cool Disney floats and ending with Sorceror's Apprentice Mickey pointing his magic wand at sections of Michigan Avenue to make the Christmas lights come on. Followed by low-altitude fireworks between the big buildings over the river.
It's awesome.