Strange and wonderful places near us...

[taxguykarl]

The Rail Fan Park adjacent to my commuter train station.

[drunkenwildmage]

Gays, Illinois has a 2 story outhouse.

[Seshat]

if you want to see Southern Ocean critters, come to Melbourne Newcastle High Street Brunswick St, Fitzroy on a Friday night.

Fixed for ya

Fixed your fix.

[AccountingDrone]

Gays, Illinois has a 2 story outhouse.

And back in 1989 when I drove from Virginia to Fresno via Oregon the first rest area on the way in from Idaho on Rt 20 was a 2 hole outhouse. To wash ones hands you jumped the fence into the pasture and used the trough. Sisters is pretty though.

[wolfie]

Wow! You sure didn't take the direct route, considering U.S. 20 is significantly north of I80 (which terminates in San Francisco), and Virginia is significantly south of I80. Any reason for taking the backroads and a long detour?

[AccountingDrone]

Wow! You sure didn't take the direct route, considering U.S. 20 is significantly north of I80 (which terminates in San Francisco), and Virginia is significantly south of I80. Any reason for taking the backroads and a long detour?

Husband's family lived in Eugene and we waned to hit Portland for the bookstore.

Last road trip we took we came back from San Bernadino via Key West to Connecticut.

[mathnerd]

Husband's family lived in Eugene and we waned to hit Portland for the bookstore.

Last road trip we took we came back from San Bernadino via Key West to Connecticut.

I drove from Seattle to Miami via San Diego, Fort Worth, TX, Houston and Atlanta.

[bhskittykatt]

The village is traffic free-nothing wheeled is allowed unless you're a resident and then you have to park it in the pub car park.

On nearby Eliza Island, only those 55 or older can legally use any sort of motorized transportation. Bicycles are still okay, though. Of course, this is a tiny island with a grand population of 10 during the peak season.

They have a coffin race every year. Emma Crawford was buried on top of one of the mountains, and I guess, during a storm, the coffin came down the mountain. So now they race hand built coffins.

We race pianos. According to legend, one of the town's founders, "Dirty" Dan Harris, became so enraged over debts he was owed by a bartender that he took the piano from the bar, pushed it down the hill, and shoved it right off the pier into the ocean. So during "Dirty Dan Days", teams decorate their pianos and race them up Harris Ave.


I know we have lots of weird stuff around, but for some reason I'm drawing a blank. I know there's a restaurant downtown called Pel'Meni that has a grand total of 2 items on the menu: meat or potato dumplings. It's not like a tiny food stand...it's an actual restaurant with a dining room and everything, and it's been in business forever.

I was telling someone who had recently moved to the area over the summer that I was excited for the opening of Artist Point up on Mt Baker, and she thought it was weird that it doesn't get plowed until July, so maybe that's weird? They don't start plowing until they start to see the roof of the restrooms up top. One year there was so much snow it didn't even open, but the last two years it opened early in July. Usually mid July at some point is when it opens. It opened July 2 or 3rd I think this year and just closed last Thursday, so that's a pretty long season; usually early October is when the snow closes it again.
This last year it was all foggy when we went up, but last year we made it up opening day (July 1st last year) just as the last bit of snow removal equipment was being removed, to give you an idea of what the parking lot looks like in the middle of summer:


By the end of the season, all that snow is melted BTW. Here's the parking lot, same year, 29 days later (different angle, but you get the idea):


And a few weeks ago when I was up there (early Oct), there was NO snow (though again, still too foggy for pics). There is just SO MUCH snow, it takes an entire summer to melt it all.

.

[Seshat]

There are lots and lots of awesome places in most parts of Australia.

at Philip Island, the fairy penguins (okay, okay, 'little penguins') come in to their nests at a predictable time every night. If I recall correctly, they're the smallest type of penguin. I do know they're incredibly cute.

Actually, the little penguins do it along most of the south coast of Australia and the South Island of New Zealand. But Philip Island has specially constructed viewing platforms and an education facility (and yes, a gift shop), to enable curious humans to squee in delight and observe the phenomenon without in any way hindering or upsetting the penguins.

You can be within touching distance of the penguins in some parts of the viewing platform - though, of course, it's asked that you not touch them. And if they get that close to you, it's asked that you stay still. (They're completely harmless to humans. Sadly, humans are not harmless to them.)

[Chromatix]

Only 30 trains a day? Helsinki gets about that many per *hour* for most of the day. But that's the difference between a passenger railway and a freight railway.

There are two particularly interesting attractions in Helsinki itself:

One is one of the two surviving wooden rollercoasters *without* upstops, which requires a trained brakeman on board for safety - otherwise you could literally go airborne and derail, which would be bad.

Another is the island fortress Suomenlinna - literally "the fortress of Finland". It was built in the days when the Kingdom of Sweden ruled Finland, as the ultimate defence against the Russian navy - which in those days was quite a credible threat. In the event, the Russians attacked it from the shore, which rendered it basically useless. The main fortifications are still there, with a collection of old cannons from the 19th century (with Cyrillic markings) and anti-aircraft guns from WW2, still in position. Also Finland's last surviving military submarine, which was basically the prototype for the German Type II U-Boat.

[KatherineB]

In the right power chair that would be a snap. There is a Bounder that does 11 MPH/17.5 KmPH. Just put the knobbly tires on it instead of the slicks.

It's actually the extremely steep angle rather than the stones or the narrowness that causes the problem. There are also large steps all the way down to break up the slow which would cause more problems for someone in a chair, even if they were tied in. The drop from the top of the parking lot to the pier is 400 feet (120m) and is challenging even for people on two feet!

[Antisocial_Worker]

I live two counties away from the Brown Mountain Lights.

I also happen to live in what is reputed to be the fifth most-haunted city in the United States. Some of our more interesting haunts include a highrise apartment building downtown where people have actually called 911 freaking out because they saw people falling off the roof and vanishing as they fell, and a headless orange cat that shows up in the gardens at Biltmore House. For extra fun, consider that during World War II, an organization formed here whose goal was to offer magical assistance to Hitler -- according to legend they opened an interdimensional portal through their efforts and released some sort kangaroo-like creature that was last seen bounding down a street on the south side of town.

Also, just for an extra special touch of creepiness, the city is rife with old tuberculosis hospitals and insane asylums that have been converted into apartments.

Meanwhile, it's a day trip to go visit the Bottomless Pools. The trip there takes you past Chimney Rock State Park which is known for a rock formation that looks like a gargoyle's head, as well being the place where on two separate occasions in the early 1800's, local residents witnessed what appeared to be two warring armies of angels duking it out above the Chimney Rock itself. Meanwhile, the gorge in which you find both the rock and pools is supposedly so haunted by fairies that the Cherokee Indians wouldn't set foot there.