I forgot, it also had a Dairy Queen which was the biggest draw.
There are still a few operating camera obscuras (obscurae?)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/camera-obscura-places
There used to be one in the Pavilion at Salem Willows in Salem, Massachusetts. I’m trying to find out if any of its parts still survive.
When I went on a rare trip to El Paso a couple years back I stopped to take a break at that DQ and have a look. They don’t charge extra to look at it any more.
One that still exists in Whangārei, New Zealand is the very cool Timatatanga Hou (“new beginnings”) camera on the banks of Hātea River
And one in the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal. We thought it was fascinating.
We went there only once. My dad realized he couldn’t actually drink enough free beer to zero out the price of our combined admission. There was a boat ride and a bunch of exotic birds, but what I remember most was the hanging monorail tour of the brewery.
I saw an advventure park/arcade sort of place that advertised “the human crane experience”. I figure that means you wade into knee-deep water and then stand on one leg.
I’ve been looking for cool stuff to do in the Salem area recently.
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned Astroworld (Houston, TX). Or maybe I missed it upthread. Anyway, we used to go there quite regularly, but now it’s just a big empty space across the highway from the Astrodome and the NRG stadium complex. It’s kind of depressing for me whenever I pass through Houston.
You can also add me to the list of folks who had visited Opryland and Dogpatch USA back in the day. And my wife and I stayed in one of the cabins on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for several nights only a couple of weeks before the wild fire swept through and wiped out that area last year.
Which reminds me: Astroland in Coney Island closed down in 2008 and was replaced by Luna Park (not to be confused with the original Luna Park, which closed in 1944).
Luna Park is also in Australia, Melbourne and Sydney. I wondered if they were related and; inspired by the original US park.
I made several trips to the Pate Museum of Transportation when I was a kid. Lots of old cars and WWII to Vietnam era military aircraft, a minesweeper, a Gemini capsule, and a working periscope. Loved the place. Unfortunately after Pate died it ran into money problems and had to shut down.
The Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Portola Valley was a fantastic private collection of 200+ armored vehicles and associated hardware. I visited a couple of times before the owner died and everything was sold off. The photo below was the visitor parking area. The buildings behind it and another one across the driveway were completely jammed full of tanks and other military vehicles.
The majority of the collection was bought by the Collings Foundation and is now on display at the American Heritage Museum.
I went there both when I lived in Brooklyn and when I brought the kids in the early aughts. Of course we got dogs at Nathan’s as well.