If you had an out of town

[Dan Murphy]

Went to Disneyland (of course)

Hey, you took me there.

 

[LSUmiss]

The French Quarter
Commander’s Palace
Streetcar ride on St. Charles Ave

 

[Walt's Dream]

Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum
San Xavier del Bac - Mission
Presidio Walking Tour

 

[AndreaDM]

Rock & Roll HOF (although I've never been there)
Football HOF
Amish Country

 

[BLAZEY]

Buchart Gardens (the Victoria Gardens in Epcot Canadian Pavilion are a miniature version)
Hatley Castle ( X-men Mansion Xaiver's school for the gifted)
Maybe a whale watching or High Tea at the Empress Hotel

 

[kamik86]

Let me preface this with I live in the middle of no where and commonly drive more then 50 miles away to do something fun on the weekend... However I was able to come up with three:

1. The Clark Art Intitute - This is an actually pretty famous art mueseum and I really like it.
2. A hike probably up mount Greylock with if geeky bonus stories about how that is supposively where the american version of Hogwarts is. Most fun in fall but still awesome unless its too cold.
3. Tangelwood concert - This is three just because what is playing is up in the air at anytime but sometimes there is really cool stuff.

If the person liked art then two additional options are Norman Rockwell museum (not first choice as it has just his stuff and one guest artist so much more likely that someone could not care for the pieces there) and Mass Moca (modern art that most people wonder if its really art type art... I don't get this place). Or if more into outdoorsy and physical stuff there is a really cool ropes course place. But for a random list that is probably it.... well unless I could put my real answer of picking a nearby other place to make as a home base, which place again dependent on what they like.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Hey, you took me there.

The memory of you sitting in the passenger seat in my little RAV4 always gives me a smile.

It's been too long, my friend.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Ugh. We have out of town guests at least once a quarter, and they all want to go to downtown Chicago. Crowded, hot, and EXPENSIVE. They come for a fun weekend getaway and have money to spend, we are just at home and budget for a normal regular weekend.

So, IF we had our way, we would take them to these places, or at least strongly encourage it!

1. Cantigny - Wheaton IL
2. Starved Rock, Utica IL
3. Morton Arboretum - Lisle IL

If we had to go downtown, we try to take them to free/slightly less-expensive places, (then send them off on their own for day 2):

1. Millennium Park/Grant Park
2. Science and Industry Museum or Field Museum (because those are the only two museums we are still interested in after living here for 8 years)
3. Magnificent Mile

Been in the NW suburbs for over 20 years (and I commute downtown every day). The Art Institute never gets old.

Sightseeing really depends on who's visiting, and their interests. The Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium are good (one time...), if they're interested. My MIL and SILs are coming in early August, and we're doing the Art Institute, Museum of Science and Industry, and Millenium/Grant Park.

We do take visitors to our library -- it's really well done (Elgin).

We're also doing a Ravinia CSO concert. Again, it depends on the interests of the visitors.

 

[NYCgrrl]

The Cloisters and/or Wave Garden
Arthur Avenue in the Bronx or maybe a city bus ride to City Island
Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, eat at Junior's Restaurant, meander to Bklyn Hghts and take some of the best pictures of the harbor from the Promenade and then jump the subway back to Manhattan.

They can visit Times Sq (yuck....soooooo boring!), Empire State building/WTC, etc with no assistance from me for different reasons.

 

[arminnie]

The French Quarter
Commander’s Palace
Streetcar ride on St. Charles Ave

That's pretty much my list, but I'd use the streetcar ride as just transportation with a view and add the World War II Museum.
And all of that for me is less than a 5 mile radius.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

With the in-laws we did Stone Mountain Park, Zoo Atlanta and the local train museum (FIL loves trains).

We also offered up the Georgia Aquarium and Coca-Cola Museum but they didn't want to do those. We've got a few more things within 50 miles like the Atlanta Botanical Gardens but they weren't interested in that either.

 

[ols386]

More than 50 miles, but 1-2 hour drive:

The town of Frankenmuth. Looks like a slice of Germany. Quite picturesque too.

Detroit Tiger’s game

Greenfield Village

Detroit Zoo

 

[NYCgrrl]

1) Essex Steam Train
2) Gillettes Castle with a side trip to Devil's Hopyard to see the pretty falls
3) Mohegan or Foxwoods

Love your area and state!
Don't forget the Connecticut River Museum, Goodspeed Opera House, the Seaport and Aquarium, Bishop's Orchard, The Place, and Lobster Shack over in Branford.

 

[Dan Murphy]

The memory of you sitting in the passenger seat in my little RAV4 always gives me a smile.

It's been too long, my friend.

I will never forget that evening either. So many fun times, so many laughs over a few days an nights. Maybe some time again. I can hope. Please say hello to the kids.


Back on topic now, Jason.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

The Harley Davidson Museum
Miller Park (Brewers baseball)
Summerfest or one of the great Ethnic Festivals( IrishFest my FAV!)

 

[georgina]

Stood in the rain for 80'ish minutes just to get on and then lurched violently along with no view except butts and armpits, scared silly one of the "danglers" would get pitched off the side while the "conductor" yelled and swore at traffic. So, so not what I was expecting from iconic scenes on tv and in movies. We got off downtown and took a cab back to Fisherman's Wharf.

We had a fun cable car ride too - we were hanging on the outside, it was cold in March! Driver stopped in the middle of an intersection, got out and said his shift was over. We must have waited 15 minutes, with cars struggling to get past us, for another driver to show up!

For Pittsburgh, we would have to do -

the incline ride up the side of Mt Washington for the view of downtown/3 rivers
Falling Water (may be outside 50 miles, but a pretty ride)
something in the Oakland area, depending on their interests - art museum, Phipps Conservatory, nationality rooms at Pitt

I grew up in Cleveland, but had moved before the Rock and Roll HOF was built. In all my trips back to visit family, I have still never been there. And now I have no more close family there, maybe I'll go back for a HS reunion.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Michigan Avenue
Chicago River boats
Millennium Park/Grant park/Buckingham Fountain

For a widescape view of the city, Hancock (now the 875 Building) 360 Observation Deck. Better views than Sears, and closer to the above 3.

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

Stood in the rain for 80'ish minutes just to get on and then lurched violently along with no view except butts and armpits, scared silly one of the "danglers" would get pitched off the side while the "conductor" yelled and swore at traffic. So, so not what I was expecting from iconic scenes on tv and in movies. We got off downtown and took a cab back to Fisherman's Wharf.

Rice A Roni....that San Francisco treat!
I remember this commercial with the cable cars

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

Boston
Cape Cod
Plymouth

 

[LSUmiss]

That's pretty much my list, but I'd use the streetcar ride as just transportation with a view and add the World War II Museum.
And all of that for me is less than a 5 mile radius.

Good idea. I had a hard time picking just 3!