60s-70s. We went to the Coca-cola plant, Wonder Bread bakery, local firestation, Mississippi River cruise on the “Memphis Belle”, “Pink Palace” museum (home of Clarence Saunders–founder of the first real self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly), Shering-Plough the drug company, and Cleo Wrap (they used to make nearly all the wrapping paper in the U.S. until the world decided to only buy Chinese wrapping paper). In high school in Mississippi we went to the Space thingy in Huntsville, AL (we members of the JAFROTC). I actually met Werner Von Braun there, and saw the illustrious space monkeys Miss Baker and Abel.
This is from the early 90s up to 2006 (senior year of high school)
Early schooling (preschool to 2nd grade)
My house (to look at my cows and my neighbor’s llamas)
The part of our farm that isn’t at my house or my aunt’s house (to look at those cows, and my sort-of aunt’s horse, and I think she still had goats then)
pumpkin patches
Northwest Trek
the zoo (definitely Point Defiance, which is closer and cheaper; possibly Woodland Park)
the Odd Fellows Park at Puget, several times
Later elementary:
a Godfather’s Pizza (but not the first one we drove to, the other one on the other side of town, that was embarrassing) where we got to help make our own pizzas
pumpkin patches
other people’s farms, not for pumpkins OR cows but to see a farm in springtime
Olympia Junior Programs (matinees of touring shows mostly)
the better playground/park in the subdivision across the street
Department of Natural Resources to see the map-making stuff and learn about working in offices
Pioneer Farms (but I was sick that day)
Museum of Flight
5th and 6th grade only: Outdoor Ed for a weekend of sleeping in cabins, swimming in a lake, riding horses, and doing chapel with Lutheran school kids from around the state
Washington State History Museum, Washington State Capitol
Middle school:
plays at the same theater that hosted OJP, but through a different program
the Mission to Mars simulator at the Museum of Flight
Washington State History Museum, Washington State Capitol, Farmer’s Market, and points in-between
The EMP
in both 7th and 8th grade, my entire class walked to a pizza joint about a mile away, ate pizza, and then came back to school
Millersylvania Park (end of year trip, 7th grade)
Wild Waves and Enchanted Village (end of year trip, 8th grade)
High school:
Theater retreat all four years (might not count as a field trip, exactly)
Theater trip to Bellingham for Thespians conference, junior and senior year (could have gone freshmen and sophomore year, but didn’t) (might not count as a field trip, exactly)
other Thespians trips (might not count as a field trip, exactly)
McAllister Springs (Olympia-Lacey area water source)
end-of-the-year physics/calculus barbecue at Tolmie (junior year)
Ok, we went to…
Eckrich Sausage Factory - (which I missed)
Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum- The best museum in the U.S. after the Smithsonian.
COSI in Columbus.
International Club field trip to German Village in Columbus.
Equine tour of Findlay U
Shit, forgot my International Club weekend train trip to Toronto. Can’t do that anymore here in the land oif the Free and Brave, thanks to the Republican Economy and the Patriot Act. I live in a country of irony and deceit.
I grew up in Nova Scotia and there were slim pickins in the class trip department. We went to Shubenacadie Wildlife Park a handful of times, The Nova Scotia Museum every year and went orienteering in the park once or twice. In high school I think the french class got to go to Quebec City. sad really.
Living in London, my kids have a totally different experience. They’ve been to practically every museum, synagogue, mosque and Hindu temple in the city. They’ve been to an Amish-type community, gone mud larking on the Thames at low tide, went to both Wales and Oxford for a week each, sang in a choir at Royal Albert Hall, toured the House of Parliament. There won’t be anywhere left to go by the time they grow up!
My school was so bad, when they bought 10 computers, nobody could use them. Every class in the school was only allowed to walk through the computer room.
That was a field trip.
I grew up in Canada, but our cable came from the US and we got the Puyallup Fair commercials every year. “You can do it at a trot, you can do it at a gallop….” Unlike you I never got to go though, it looked like fun!
I was also taken to my towns sewage treatment plant. Part of the plant was housed in a domed structure that had the same triangular metallic panels as the Epcot Center (but obviously was smaller and flatter and generally less cool), so we always referred to the plant as ‘the happiest place on Earth’, which makes me wonder if that’s why our teacher took us there - because we seemed to think it was so great. Anyways, the only thing I remember about going is that the tour guide made us all put in those disposable foam earplugs before we went in, and then stopped by every machine to give us a little spiel about it. Which we couldn’t hear (or at least I couldn’t). So it was just a series of stops during which I watched the guys mouth moving while nothing came out. I’ve gotta assume the guy didn’t give many tours.
The best field trips we ever went on though were to Drumheller, dinosaur capitol of the world. *That *was pretty damn cool.
A day trip to Hadrian’s Wall when I was 10, I think
2 weeks in Switzerland a couple of years later - this would have been 1970 or so. 
A trip to see round the Grangemouth Petrochemical plant 4(?) years later…
Odd trips to the cinema te see Shakespearean films.
A day trip to be a ‘beater’ in some woodland 40 miles away, to drive the deer into catch nets for some research project.
Grew up in Chicago suburbs.
Most of our trips were to the museums in Chicago - the Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium was a common double-header as they’re two blocks apart - for all practical purposes, they’re at either end of a parking lot.
The Field Museum of Natural History was pretty common, as were trips to the Art Institute.
But, what everyone waited ever so impatiently for was the trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. I’m sure I’ve never seen the whole place - you could probably go there every day for two weeks and not see it all.
You could count on a trip to each of these museums each year. Scattered throughout were other “one-off” trips. I recall one trip to the Salerno cookie factory, a trip to the Chicago Tribune newspaper where everyone got to make their own souvenier pressman’s hat out of newspaper, and a walk over to the Lawry’s seasonings factory to see them pour spices into bottles. (Yes, on certain days, the whole neighborhood smelled like seasoned salt.) There was also a trip to the phone company to learn about having to wait for the dial tone and a quick walk through the switching office itself, which back then, was a din of clicks and clatters.
Some that I can remember -
Turtle Back Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island
Philadelphia Mint
Liberty Bell & Independence Hall
The Franklin Institute (2 or 3 times and always a favorite of mine)
Monmouth Battlefield
And a couple of Broadway plays (Annie and Peter Pan)
And there were other smaller trips to local farms and businesses and things like that.
Central Jersey, 70s-80s
As a wee Chile in Minnesota, I remember going to a farm, where we saw cows, probably kindergarten. It was a farming community, no surprises there.
A year or so later, we went to a fire station and saw the fire trucks and all the equipment. I think there was a visit to a bank, too; I remember this huge mosaic-type medallion in the lobby that was made of local granite; that might’ve been the same day as the firehouse visit. There were also several trips to Little Falls, which had BUFFALO in a really low-rent zoo, plus a park with a playground and probably some other stuff I’m not remembering.
After moving to Seattle, my class participated in the district-wide tradition of going to Camp Waskowitz for a week. I wasn’t much a fan of sleeping in a big room with a whole bunch of other people, or of taking communal showers. It was kinda fun, though.
We also went to Tillicum Village, which involved a trip across Puget Sound on a wee ferry-type boat. My Mom came along as a chaperon, and the kids in our group were little brats, which did not please her at all.
There were some trips to see plays with my AP English classes in HS, and a trip to Woodland Park Zoo with the Early Childhood Development class (each HS student was partnered with one or two kindergarten kiddies and we taught them Important Stuff™ like jumping rope).
snerk When my Mom was in 7th or 8th grade, her class took a field trip to the Hormel factory. After the tour, they offered the kids hot dogs as a snack. Even though she was a farm girl who was experienced with butchering and all sorts of other animal-related jobs, Mom was not at all interested in eating anything that came out of that factory. shudder
OMG!!!:eek:
HOW did I not remember that we DID SO take a great field trip in middle school? (I tell ya, Oldtimer’s Disease is creeping up.)
We went to Cooperstown, NY on buses and there were three things. The Baseball Hall of Fame, The Farmers Museum (just what it sounds like, animals, farm implements) and the best, to me, the Fenimore Art Museum. I was smitten then and there with a deep, lifelong love and appreciation of American Folk Art. … So, there was something memorable, in a good way, that I got out of middle school!
I don’t remember much. I remember seeing Rodeo at the Cathedral of Tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls, the biggest venue at the time; Julius Caesar at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in Akron; and Zoar.
Growing up and going to school around DC meant frequent trips downtown to the Smithsonian museums and various Federal government institutions like the Archives, Library of Congress, White House, etc. There is no shortage of field-trip worthy sites around this city, probably the highest concentration of such places anywhere, and we went to them all. Seems like we went on a field trip at least every month, from 1st grade all the way through high school, seldom going to the same place twice.
Other than the local spots, the most notable trip was also big 8th grade trip to New York City for a week.
Salinqmind, Iwas reading through this and I remembered Cooperstown and the Farmer’s Museum. But you forgot the big thing at the museum,literaly, the Cardiff Giant.
We also went to a sewage treatment plant and then to the Solvay waste beds. Interesting in a disgusting sort of way. Espcially were the raw stuff comes in.
In 7th grade when studying medieval Europe we got to go to all te old churches around the area(Manlius, outside of Syracuse)to see the stained glass in the churches.
I was just catching-up on this thread when I remembered my one and only high school field trip.
It was 1970 or 71 and the Scarborough Board of Education was very liberal. One of my teachers thought it would be an educational experience for the class to hop on the subway and head into downtown Toronto, pretty much unsupervised, to see a movie. We were supposed to see “Tora Tora Tora” but for some reason, (I think the run had ended) a group of us decided to attend a screening of"Joe" instead.
I found it profoundly disturbing and probably should have counselling soon after.
You were a large film studio or a Vegas casino as a child? 
Trips I remember:
Pre-school: A hotel, I think? I definitely remember a bagel shop, and getting to eat delicious fresh bagels.
Elementary school: Historical bits and pieces of Philadelphia (Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, etc), the Franklin Institute, the Camden Aquarium, a week-long environmental education trip out in the Pine Barrens. We were supposed to go to an amusement park at the end of 6th grade but it rained, so we went bowling instead.
Middle school: An indoor soccer game is the only one I can remember, unless we count the part where we started 8th grade at a Jewish summer camp out in the Pine Barrens because our school wasn’t quite built yet.
High school: A ton. We went and saw various plays/museums/consulates/etc in NYC. We went to the Camden Aquarium (again). More plays/museums in Philadelphia. Somehow, my Spanish teacher one year justified a day-long trip into Philly so we could eat at this amazing hole-in-the-wall Puerto Rican restaurant…in this amazingly high-crime neighborhood (we spent the rest of the day mucking about center city). We did I think two science-related trips down the shore, and one science trip to a local swimming pool (admittedly to conduct some research). Somehow, we went to an afternoon major league baseball game as a field trip for I think history or English. There were a couple trips to ballets and concerts.
Lest you think it was all fun and games, we also went on the Worst Field Trip Ever. Our destination was a sewage treatment plant. Vaguely interesting; incredibly stinky, and us 10th graders were going just to help 11th graders with a project. On the way back, we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch or something. Then the bus broke down! So we spent a total of about two and a half hours sitting in McDonalds in Camden, NJ, which combines all the fun of sitting in a McDonalds while your bio teacher freaks out for two and a half hours, with all the fun of sitting a terrible crime-ridden ghetto. So that trip kind of sucked.
My school wasn’t very big on excursions. I recall one to a museum, and one to Parliament House. That’s about it.
What I remember about high school field trips in Los Angeles in the mid-70s was that for some unfathomable reason they were always called concerts. It didn’t matter whether you were going to a play (I think I remember The Sound of Music at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), a University visit (I did not endear myself to our counselor by announcing in our Cal host’s hearing that after this trip I would never go to Cal), a ballet or a whatever, it was always called a concert. “Please sign this so I can be excused from class for a concert.” “Can we schedule the newspaper editor’s meeting for a different day? Several of us have a concert.” It was almost as though the noun included the bus ride…you didn’t say you were “going” to a concert, but that you “had” one. I guess it was synonymous with “field trip”, which I don’t remember anyone saying.
This wasn’t some sort of student slang…“concert” was the recognized term used by everyone, teachers and administrators as well as students. For all I know it was printed on our permission slips. I wonder whether it has continued to this day?
I also remember that the parent’s version of the permission slip promised that the parent would instruct the student to follow all instructions, not be a nuisance, I don’t remember quite what all. I think it embarrassed my mother as much as it did me, but being a conscientious signer, she always said “behave yourself” when she signed it. I was sure no other parent actually read and complied with the wording of the slip they were signing.
In sixth grade we spent an entire week at the Lorado Taft Field Campus. It was much anticipated and was every bit as much fun as expected. I especially remember hiking along the Rock River up to where the statue of Chief Black Hawk is. I don’t remember the trail being like it is in the second picture when I was there. It was more of a rustic path and I was a little afraid of falling into the river.
I can’t remember what year it was we went to the Museum of Science & Industry and the Art Institute in Chicago. It was a treat to stop at the Belvidere Oasis on the way. I don’t know how we packed all of that into one day.
In 8th grade we spent a few nights in and around Springfield, IL to see the state capitol and Lincoln stuff. We also made a side trip to an indian burial site. It seems too far out of the way but I’m pretty sure it was Cahokia Mounds. I was way too young to appreciate it. I bought a white rabbit skin with the word LOVE on it in the gift shop.