I was fortunate to have seen the WTC, January '99 I think. Too windy to go on the roof but it was amazing seeing that view of the city. The height was impressive but the mass of the building astonished me, the size of the external “ribs.” The huge size of the floors hit me when I went inside to get half price tickets to Miss Saigon. ESB was extremely cool too and made me think of all those iron workers walking high steel with almost no safety equipment.
I first came into Perl Harbor on an aircraft carrier so the Arizona memorial hit me pretty hard.
The cathedral in Cologne Germany was overwhelming. I got lots of pictures but it isn’t possible to capture the sense of the interior space in a flat image.
The size of aircraft carriers never struck me until I flew off one and saw my thousand foot long ship as a tiny shingle in the vastness of the ocean.
I’ll agree with the sentiments of Mt. Rushmore. I just wasn’t impressed. My dad got mad at me when I said so.
I will disagree with Niagra Falls. Yes, the Canadian side is tourist trap, but I get so transfixed by those falls that I could look at them for hours.
The only person who outlasted me was my daughter. She was 18months old at the time.
Montana - it really is big sky country. I could see a rainstorm in the distance that took me over an hour of driving to get to.
The Mayan pyramid and Chitzun Itza (sp?). Not so much the pyramid, I had expected it to be magnificent, but the architectural tricks involved. If you stand with the pyriamid and a temple forming a 90 degree angle and clap at the pyramid, the echo sounds like a bird chirp, if you clap at the temple, the echo sounds like a rattlesnake.
Lake Louise, Alberta is too beautiful for me to describe. Everything I had heard about it doesn’t do justice to it. It is no wonder that it is a popular destination for couples on their honeymoon.
The Spiral Tunnels on CP Rail’s main line east of Field, BC are truly one of the Seven Wonders of the Railroad World. The line loops back upon itself twice in an effort to gain elevation. It is possible to see portions of the same freight train on three distinct levels.
The Canadian Rockies are awe inspiring. They make our Glacier National Park look flat in comparison.
I was surprised when I visited Oregon. We followed the Columbia River east from Portland. In reading about Lewis and Clarke’s journey, I had always imagined the area along the Columbia River to be lush and green. It is thus only near the coast. Once you get inland, the landscape turns into a dry, scrubby wasteland.
Dealy Plaza - I also came away much less impressed with Lee Harvey Oswald’s shooting skills.
Lake Superior. All the stories about iron boats and storms left me expecting the place to be perpetually gray and dreary. But we arrived at the shore (in Michigan’s UP) on a bright sunny day in July, and I was just stunned at how beautiful and blue and clear the lake was.
Parts of Amsterdam were shabbier than I was expecting.
I was awestruck on my first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies near Banff. Books and movies didn’t prepare me for the experience.
Sutter’s Mill gold discovery site in California. There is a little museum across the road, and some repro mining stuff down the way, but the actual location…the actual spot on the river? Well, you walk down the trail about 50 yards, push your way through some weeds, and there it is. The flat muddy bank of a calm river. That’s it. Nothing. Nuuuu-thing.
I can see it almost daily from my living room window. For something that I have seen almost daily my whole life, I still find the mountain awe inspiring.
Things that did not impress me: Just the opposite of Mount Rainier is the Colorado Rockies. Although high in elevation compared to sea level, they look like hills compared to some mountains in the Cascade range.
Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. I’ve never seen so many t-shirt vendors in one spot. I loved the rest of San Francisco.
Pike Place Market in Seattle. A whole bunch of vendors selling tourist trap stuff in an old building. Use any of the restrooms before noon and you have to wade through a variety of homeless folks getting their begging faces on. They even hit you up while your sitting on the toilet (no doors, supposedly to keep the homeless away).
Places I really liked: The Oregon coast between Coos Bay and Astoria. I have spent a lot of time on the Washington coast and I was amazed how much different the Oregon coast really is.
Victoria B.C. Truly amazing especially the gardens in the springtime.
Lake Shasta. My wife and I rented a pontoon house boat for 3 days and enjoyed every minute of it. Spent each night at a different spot. I don’t think I have ever been as relaxed for a 3 day period.
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
Bill Clinton** - I was shocked at how large that man is. Some men are tall, some are stocky but these descriptions don’t really apply to BC. He is like a man that is scaled up in every way. His hands were HUGE. I am 6’1" 200 pounds and he dwarfed me.QUOTE]
That is the same thing that I thought! I remember from meeting him at his book signing in Boston and it stuck me how large he was in his frame and built. It may have been in part because of who he is and that he naturally commands attention, but I cannot attribute it all to him being “larger than life”. The difference between seeing him on the TV and in person is striking.
Before they were destroyed by the Taliban, the giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan were amazing. The dedication of those who carved them brought tears to my eyes.
OK, I have another one. Someone else mentioned Alcatraz earlier. I too was a little surprised at how small the actual prison part of the island was when I went there for the first time last year. When I thought about it though it made sense that the prison population could never have been really big.
What really struck me about the island was how beautiful it was. Many parts of it are now being taken over by vegetation, and vines and flowers cover much of it. It is also a protected bird nesting ground (although I would have liked to have seen some namesake pelicans nesting out there). Virtually every square inch that people don’t walk on has a bird nest on it. Finally it is in what is generally agreed to be one of the most beautiful settings in the world, San Francisco bay with views of the whole city and Golden Gate. We went on a fairly cloudy morning in May but by the afternoon the sun had come out and the whole effect was just stunning.
In a way it is probably a good thing that the island was used for a federal prison. If not it would probably now be some kind of private enclave with zillion dollar homes on it.
Meteor Crater, Arizona. Much bigger than I had expected. About 4,000’ across, IIRC, and the result of a relatively tiny asteroid. An excellent object lesson in applied physics.
I visited the WTC site in mid November 01. I was wholly unprepared for the sheer sqare footage of destruction. I know by that time they had removed a huge volume of material, and there was very little left but a hole. The surrounding buildings hadn’t quite been dealt with yet (huge plastic/fiberglass sheets covered the faces of the buildings), nor had the sidewalks, which were timbered over to protect all the new temporary water, sewer, electric, steam and telecommunications pipes that had been recently laid. An incredibly sobering, humbling experience.
But there were a few restaurants still open, and a few bars too, which oddly made me feel happy.
Seeing the Statue of Liberty across the bay for the first time the same day just took my breath away.
I had no idea how intensely, thoroughly, meticulously covered with design the Sagrada Familia is. Every single part of that building has a meaning. Everything in it is there for a reason – not just structural or aesthetic, but to make a specific, intellectual point about the religion. It’s quite astonishing, even though it’s only half done. It’s staggering to ponder what it will be like when it’s finished – which may be as soon as 12 years from now, given the rate of donations.
I’ve only ever seen this from the air. At 35,000 feet, it was much smaller than I thought it would be; just a tiny pinprick on the face of the planet. The Grand Canyon (which I’ve also only ever seen from the air), on the other hand, goes on for miles and miles.
I’ll second the Hope Diamond – when I saw it in person, it was pretty, but a lot smaller than I expected. I guess I expected something that was credited with causing as much trouble as it has to be a lot bigger.
The painting “The Spirit of '76” is much smaller than I expected as well. It was about 9" x 12". But it is really cool in person.
And I was actually pleasantly suprised by Graceland. By the time I went there, I’d been warned so much about how unbelievably horrible and tacky it was inside, I think I was shocked that it wasn’t covered in black velvet paintings of dogs playing poker and day-glo shag carpeting.
The Moon Rock that they have on display at The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, OH is just a normal looking, medium, grayish rock. But man, it sure has a heavy psychic impact when you stand before it and realize its origin and the incredible and tenacious story behind its journey. This is made all the more tactile and remarkably surreal, by the museum’s exhibits, particularly NASA artifacts. I was surprised that I would marvel for as long as I did at a rather unremarkable(appearance) rock.
Being from New York, it’s surprising to read everyone’s comments. I’ve seen Miss Liberty as long as I can remember, and I used to work 3 blocks down the street from the Empire State Building (and my Dad worked in both the UN and the Chrysler Building.) My roommate from Texas visited me, and he said that somehow he always believed that it never rained in New York - it didn’t dare to.
One thing that impressed me more than I imagined - a Saturn V taking off. We went down to see Apollo 17, the night launch, and camped on the beach. We were miles away of course, but the way the flames lit up the night, and how the sound didn’t reach you until seconds after you saw ignition was truly marvelous. Plus, you could track it for a long time until it went out of view. We all said “we want to see that again.”
I loved Mona Lisa in the Louvre, but seeing the statues in three dimensions, especially Winged Victory, impressed me more.
I was actually disappointed with the meteor crater–it was far smaller than I expected it to be. I don’t recall being very impressed with the Grand Canyon (possibly because it was too crowded) and I wholeheartedly recommend Yellowstone Canyon over the Grand. Yellowstone Canyon has trees and a pretty waterfall and is so deep that if you fell off the scenic overlook your next of kin would have time to write your obituary before you hit bottom.
Albuquerque surprised me when I first saw it at age 17. I noticed there was very little grass and, remembering from my high school history class a few vague details about the bomb, I concluded that Albuquerque must have been the place where they had tested it.
Lincoln Memorial- Beautiful and very moving. Much bigger then I expected.
White House- Maybe it’s because I can go to Beverly Hills and see mansions any time, the White House just looked tiny.
The 4th of July Celebration in DC- Very cool, exciting, and HUGE. I loved it.
Arlington Cemetary- Every part of it was just so moving. From the endless rows of graves to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to the Kennedy graves- everything was very moving.
Pearl Harbor Poignant and very moving. The ships were much bigger then I ever imagined.
Fort Tejon- Maybe this is more of a local thing, but when I was growing up I was taught the long history of Fort Tejon. Tejon Ranch is beautiful, but the Fort itself is rather unimpressive.
Alamo- Speaking of unimpressive forts…the walls around the Alamo are like 8 feet high…how did it take the Mexicans so long to take over?
I want to second (third…fourth) Bill Clinton. He is what you think a president should look like. Tall, big hands (soft, too), good posture, nice handshake, perfect hair, pretty eyes. Alright, maybe that’s just what I think a president should look like.
