"Is that it?"

Waikiki Beach. Been 25 years but I still remember the feeling of let-down.

but Hanauma Bay lived up to expectations and was a wonder!

Amethyst
 
Bestwifeever said:
And sorry, Texans, but the Alamo, too.
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Yeah, I was pretty underwhelmed with the Alamo too. That said, when I was much younger, often when visiting various places, I would feel "is that it", but now everthing is much more appreciated and impactful.
 
Ronstar said:
The petrified forest in Arizona - a large part of the trees are gone
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I saw an analysis by the National Park Service how a century of souvenir-pickers have wiped out the landscape. "But it's just one little piece!" multiplied by about a hundred million. For this reason, NPS actually encourages the bad-luck legends about taking volcanic sand/rocks from Kilauea. They've even closed off large parts of Haleakala Crater just because the environment can't handle the human traffic, let alone souvenir hunters.

Amethyst said:
Waikiki Beach. Been 25 years but I still remember the feeling of let-down.
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About the only time we locals go down there is when we're meeting friends who feel obligated to vacation down there. Sometimes when the south shore surf is really big-- over 15 feet-- I get the urge to go surf the same waves that Duke Kahanamoku and Rabbit Kekai and the other early 20th-century surfers made so famous. But then I remember the hour's drive, the parking hassles, the long haul to the beach, the crowd jostling in the lineup... and I go 30 minutes to park 100 yards from the White Plains Beach break.
 
Graceland. Elvis is larger than life (the KING!) but his house is just meh: cramped and tacky.
 
Marita40 said:
Graceland. Elvis is larger than life (the KING!) but his house is just meh: cramped and tacky.
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+1 I couldn't think of anywhere, until you mentioned Graceland. I had exactly the same reaction. It was a very small house, for someone so famous and wealthy. And tacky beyond belief!
 
When I say small, I mean cramped and small rooms for someone who had a family and entourage hanging around all the time.
 
Nords said:
About the only time we locals go down there is when we're meeting friends who feel obligated to vacation down there. Sometimes when the south shore surf is really big-- over 15 feet-- I get the urge to go surf the same waves that Duke Kahanamoku and Rabbit Kekai and the other early 20th-century surfers made so famous. But then I remember the hour's drive, the parking hassles, the long haul to the beach, the crowd jostling in the lineup... and I go 30 minutes to park 100 yards from the White Plains Beach break.
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Hmmmmm. For some reason, I always pictured you surfing on the N shore. Guess I assumed that's the side of the island you lived on.
 
Biloxi, MS beach


Granted, i did not do my homework before i booked the condo. After the trip was planned, several friends warned me. (Thank goodness for Ship Island).

We visited San Antonio last March on an Elderhostel trip. One of our stops was the San Jose Mission, which allows one to better grasp the scope and size of the missions, including the Alamo before those banks, etc. took over part of the Alamo's space. What we see now is such a small part of what it was at the time. :(
 
Huston55 said:
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Hmmmmm. For some reason, I always pictured you surfing on the N shore. Guess I assumed that's the side of the island you lived on.
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North Shore surfing in the winter (storms from the northern Pacific) and south shore surfing in the summer (storms from Australia). We live in Central Oahu, where it's only 30 minutes to White Plains and 35-45 minutes to Pua'ena Point, Jock's Break, Chun's Reef, & Sunset.

White Plains is regarded as a "beginner" break, with surf spread out across a couple hundred yards and plenty of inner & outer breaks. It's common to meet people who are out there for their first time, who don't know how to turn or otherwise mingle with the crowd. No problem, lots of room. There are plenty of surfers there who will share a wave-- on slow days it's not uncommon for four surfers to take off, two turn left and two turn right, and everybody has a good ride. I know a dozen or so faces on the break by name, and I know how a couple dozen more are likely to take off or turn. During the summer I can get 2-4 any time, 4-6 most of the time, 6-10 once or twice a month, and a couple of 12-16. I think there's only one contest down there year-round: the military competition in early June.

North Shore has a reputation of being "locals only", which may be generally true of insanely popular breaks like Pipeline or Waimea. Winter also attracts a crowd of professionals and semi-pros from around the world, paying stupidly high prices for lodging and food. The breaks tend to be contained within a smaller area (yet still high quality) with everyone jostling for position. The guy who's paying $2500/week to share a 10'x10' concrete room and a bathroom is probably going to be a bit more aggressive on that wave than me. People also tend to want the whole wave to themselves (or think that they do) so that they can practice more complicated maneuvers. I can get 2-10 just about anywhere, 12-16 at Sunset just about anytime, and above that I'm smart enough to watch somebody else do it. But you have to pay attention to the competition schedule, too, so that there aren't a bunch of contest organizers giving you stinkeye for having the audacity to use the ocean in the middle of their heats. Assuming you could even find parking within a half-mile of the contest beach in the first place.

The North Shore is full of very generous and helpful local surfers who would certainly give you the break and help you with whatever you needed. Pancho Sullivan and Myles Padaca are two of them. However there's a much higher probability of meeting at least one jerk, and that's all it takes to ruin your day.

South shore still does OK in winter, with many weeks of 1-3 and the occasional 2-4. If I paddle out in my 10'0" and wear at least 3mm of neoprene then it's still pretty good. Not exactly off-the-lip, down-the-elevator, cutbacks-every-second heart-pumping thrills of the North Shore, but still pretty good. And I enjoy hanging out in the lineup and talking story with the regulars.

So I only go up to the North Shore once or twice a month in winter. A friend tells me that Pua'ena Point is pretty good at 4 PM, which is unusual for most surf breaks, so maybe I'll try that this winter... and I want to spend more time on Jock's Break and Chun's Reef.
 
The Arizona meteor crater. If you visit it on the day you leave the Grand Canyon, it looks like a small depression in the ground.
 
Ally said:
+1 I couldn't think of anywhere, until you mentioned Graceland. I had exactly the same reaction. It was a very small house, for someone so famous and wealthy. And tacky beyond belief!
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It made me realize that you can take the boy out of Mississippi but you can never take MI out of the boy. The added wing was impressive for the 60s.
 
kcowan said:
It made me realize that you can take the boy out of Mississippi but you can never take MI out of the boy. The added wing was impressive for the 60s.
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Especially if you've visited the family home in Tupelo.

(PS: MI is Michigan. ;) )
 
The Alamo was first to mind for me too. Probably like others I saw the movie before the Alamo itself, you could miss it if you didn't know where to look. I lived in San Antonio for 4 years too. Great joke REW.

I was also surprised at the small size of the Mona Lisa, though no less transfixed in seeing it, just stunning and magical.

First time I saw a Mercury space capsule in person I couldn't believe several astronauts actually orbited the earth in one. Wow!

Madame Tussauds (London) - creepy, yawn...

Many, but certainly not all, of the movies that have won the Oscar for movie of the year. Some were actually awful, but I guess I'm just too unsophisticated. :uglystupid:
 
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Coliseum in Rome.


Being in the middle of Rome during the Spain/Italy football match..lol priceless
 
Coliseum, really? I found it spectacular, especially when lit up at night. The fake Roman guards out front are another thing. . .

What people don't often realize is that Rome actually has two coliseums. Few visit the littler one, but it is just as grand.

A fun book to read when one travels in Europe is Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. To the Yankee traveler, nearly everything on the Grand Tour is vastly underwhelming despite all the hype. The book's hysterical--and not politically correct by today's sensitivities.
 
I agree about the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I was living in Rome one year and decided to take the train to Pisa to see it. It was a very long train ride. Got off the train in Pisa, walked a few blocks to a square, and there it was. It is actually quite small and unimpressive. As I recall the Cathedral near it was a lot more interesting. Hawkers and vendors of stupid tourist stuff packed the square. Got back on the train about two hours later and went back to Rome. Well, I can check that off my bucket list!

Bologna, one of my favorite Italian cities, has two leaning towers. So there.
 
Marita40 said:
I agree about the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I was living in Rome one year and decided to take the train to Pisa to see it. It was a very long train ride. Got off the train in Pisa, walked a few blocks to a square, and there it was. It is actually quite small and unimpressive. As I recall the Cathedral near it was a lot more interesting. Hawkers and vendors of stupid tourist stuff packed the square. Got back on the train about two hours later and went back to Rome. Well, I can check that off my bucket list!

Bologna, one of my favorite Italian cities, has two leaning towers. So there.
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Hmmmm. Wonder if all the engineers went to the same school?

They must have been sleeping in Soils class.
 
I enjoyed walking up the tower. So weird. But as an engineer I prefer to avoid such mistakes. Second/third time we went right on by.
 
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