Niagara Falls
Distinctly underwhelming from the US side. Ought to be seen from the Cdn side.
Funny you should say that. I’m on an airplane now. And did indeed deal with the overcrowded first class lounge this morning.
There are now 3 tiers of “first class” lounges at airports. The true “first first class” lounge, the “anybody with an expensive credit card” middle manager’s lounge, and the “Anybody with 50 bucks to spend to get a couple ‘free’ cheap beers and some snax” lounge for the proles.
Yeah, those are nice too. In my experience you can only use them if your not flying domestically. I suppose you can pay. Donno.
I’ve got two, and I’m going to post them separately.
I went to see the famous Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants (“The Glass Flowers”) at Harvard University. I don’t know what I expected, but they look EXACTLY like the flowers and plants they represent. I understand that they represent an astonishing level of artisanship and achievement, I really do. But it’s sort of like having someone make a glass book that looks exactly like a used book to sit on your coffee table, or a glass copy of a pencil. It’s just hard to build up any whelm.
My wife’s family has a meme for being underwhelmed.
My wife is the child of Greek-Cypriot immigrants who were active members of the Orthodox Church. When she got engaged (late husband), they wanted her to get married in their local church. She wanted to get married in a beautiful old Connecticut mansion that was often rented out as a venue for special events. I’ve seen it myself since then…inspiring staircases, warm paneling, beautiful wood details, lovely ballroom, etc.
So she took her father to see it before the ceremony, expecting him to be impressed. His first words upon walking in:
“This isn’t fancy! It’s just wood!”
Ooh, I have another one to add: Beef.
Especially steak, but also just any sort of undifferentiated cattle-flesh.
I’ve had only maybe 2-3 steaks in my life, in supposedly fancy places (not that I can tell), and each time was more disgusting than the last. I just don’t understand the appeal… gooey globs of sliced cow parts, with a texture more like wet bread than actual meat. Just… why?
I’ve also had the misfortune of trying “kobe beef” in Japan, where they brought out smaller-than-usual steaks and made us cook it ourselves. Once it was “ready”, the server insisted I try a taste. I did, rejected it, cooked the remainder to extra-well-done and then made an OK fried rice out of it. Still wasn’t great.
By contrast, I’ve never met a chicken dish I didn’t like. I’d also take a Filet o’ Fish over The World’s Bestest Burger™ any day.
I know, I know… uncultured heathen and all that. Maybe it’s genetic? Maybe I’m just broken.
Ken’s Steakhouse restaurant in Framingham MA. Ken’s Steakhouse dressings are ubiquitous around here, don’t know but maybe all over the country. So one day wife and I were in Boston wanted to get something to eat on the way home, had heard of the restaurant and figured we’d give it a try. Didn’t have high expectations but underwhelmed was the right word for that experience. Coulda done as well at a place like Applebee’s for less money. Edible food but nothing special at all.
We have a local attraction in Watts Ca. Watts Towers, when I was a kid my Dad took me there and they were huge and made a huge impression on me for years to come. 30 years later I took my kids back to see them and they looked like they had shrunken. I had spent my life in the trades so the workmanship of the old man while still admirable but no longer wondrous. I wish I had never gone back. My first protest was here with my mother and father. They wanted to tear them down. They pulled on them with a crane and the cable broke. The city stopped when that happened and decided they were not a hazrd and were granted permits. This is my 12 yr old version of the story.
My memory of Lisbon is that there was something astonishing and wonderful around every corner, to the extent that, approaching a corner, I would genuinely get breathless with anticipation. YMMV I guess.
But I’ve been way too positive about European tourist sites. Here’s a couple of underwhelmers.
Colmar. The thing everybody knows (uh, well, many people know) about Colmar is Little Venice. The wiki has a photo of it. Everything you see about Colmar has a photo of it.,..fabulous canals lined with beautiful houses… except nah, there’s only one canal. One short stretch of canal, to be precise, so that even out of season every viewpoint is heaving. It’s like when you see a trailer of a movie, and subsequently realize that everything good about the movie was in the trailer.
That’s not quite fair - away from the tiny canal, a lot of Colmar is very attractive. If you were driving through Alsace, knew nothing about it and just happened to stop by, you would be impressed and charmed. But it’s all been colossally oversold, which is deeply annoying.
And…Knossos. The problem here is that there isn’t that much of it left (compared to, say Efes/Ephesus), what there is isn’t that interesting, and in any case what you see is substantially an “interpretation” of the site by Archaeologist Arthur Evans.
While Evans’ discoveries were undoubtedly significant, they were not without controversy. His decision to reconstruct parts of the Palace of Knossos using concrete was met with criticism, with some accusing him of being overly imaginative and not entirely accurate.
If you have the choice, go to Efes instead.
j
I’d go back to Lisbon just to hit up the ginjinha stands again.
Oh yeah, and that!
(For those who don’t know, it’s a sweet liqueur made from sour cherries, and sold in a cup made of chocolate. You drink the liqueur and then eat the cup.)
j
Singapore.
Been there twice. I’m not a foodie, and I hate shopping, so there was zero appeal for me. On each visit, I was counting down the hours until the return flight.
Regarding art: Whistler’s Mother (Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1). Had never really seen the interest in it. Saw in on tour at NAG in 1994. Even by my low expectations it significantly underwhelmed. I’ve seen some of his other work that’s really good. Why this piece gets the attention is beyond me.
Anything by Klee or Rothko. Note that I’m not against modern/abstract stuff. Some of Pollock’s stuff just draws me in.
This was during the heyday of both bands, in the early 1980s.
Ah, gotcha 
.
Yeah. My exact thoughts.
I’d never heard of this and had to google. Looks gross.
About half of 'Murrica lives for toxic sweetness. But FWIW I’m w you. So gross.
Despite having lived for 20 years about 100 miles from Springfield IL, wiki’s claimed ground zero for this horror, I’d not known of them before tonight.
@Jophiel you should be ashamed for spreading news of this abomination far and wide. 
Agreed. I don’t go into the Quarter much any more, but back in the day Royal street was fun. Bourbon street is to be avoided. That said, get out of the FQ and head uptown. There are some fun stores on Magazine St. St. Charles has nice old homes. The N.O. zoo is quite nice. Like any place, the headline location is a small part of what is interesting.
I can guess why he was underwhelmed. Friends of mine got married in a tiny jewel box of a Greek Orthodox church. It was seriously impressive. Gold icons with colorful enamels and jewels covering just about every vertical surface. Gorgeous.
That Connecticut mansion sounds like old money reserve that’s not intended to impress the same way.
I haven’t been to NO since 1984 (?). It was Mardi Gras, and I had a blast. The friend who’d invited me had relatives in the area, and a cousin lived in a shot-gun house on Ursulines, so we had a free place to stay. They had cars, so we had transportation. On Fat Tuesday, itself, an aunt and uncle lived on Bourbon Street so we had somewhere we could pee without having to buy drinks. They also made a gigantic pot of chili, so if we wanted to eat cheap/free, we could.
There were a couple of times I thought I might be crushed in the crowds, but I survived. Seeing Al Hirt’s band marching through those crowds was an awesome sight.
We had a crawfish boil at her dad’s family’s house outside the city that was not just an experience, but tasty! We drove around Pontchatrain. We got propositioned which made us all laugh hysterically. The beignets and chicory coffee were quite good (although the ones I had a Disneyland when they still had them were surprisingly the best I’ve had) at Cafe du Monde. There were a lot of interesting , unique shops, too. Not a lot of the commercialization @LSLGuy has described back then, either.
So, I had a ball. Sad to hear it’s gone downhill.
I had traveled to Springfield a few years ago with a friend for a reunion and we saw these advertised. Thought we would connect with some local specialties.
Underwhelmed indeed.