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How do!

Apologies to the Mods if this perhaps belongs in Off Topic, as I genuinely wasn’t sure, but I consider my contributions geeky.

But this is a thread to list the stuff you’ve seen, with your own eyes, that perhaps most Dakkanauts haven’t. Not as a flex, but as a reminder this is a world full of wonder, and to perhaps inspire the next reader to seek out similar treasures and that, and that you feel genuinely privileged to have visited.

In no particular order, except perhaps personal chronology?

1. The Terracotta Army. Came to Edinburgh in the early 80’s, way before I was old enough to appreciate just what I was seeing, and that this was a rare opportunity.

2. Treasures of Tutankhamen. Again, came to Edinburgh when I lived there. This is a particularly fond memory, as my Dad came home from work, collected my brother and I, and took us to see it on maybe its last day.

3. Skara Brae. A Neolithic settlement found on Orkney. And older than the Pyramids. The most mind blowing thing of that trip to Orkney was seeing Kirbuster Farm, the sort of traditional farmhouse not terribly distant (early 20th Century) ancestors lived in, and seeing the commonalities of the building technique and layout.

4. Ground Zero. The remains of when my future and more importantly, a great many people, died. And it’s genuinely upsetting, in exactly the right way.

5. A Star Wars prop display on tour, probably late 90’s early 00’s, in the same space as I saw the Treasures of Tutankhamen. I was particularly taken with the by then broken Ree-Yees headpiece, as that was the first vintage Star Wars figure I remember picking out for myself again in Edinburgh.

...Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...

Seeing a total eclipse, while in the totality, was a sight to see. I’d see partials before (and after), but it was worth going out of the way for the 100% experience.

Comets, the moons of Jupiter, other astronomical things. It’s easy to look up what’s in the sky, or when things are due to come around. The trick is good weather and getting far enough away from light pollution to see things. You don’t need much of a telescope or pair of binoculars to really bring things into view.

Probably more things, but that’s where my brain is at this point for getting a list.

On a more down to earth level, I’d recommend just traveling if you can. See different places, eat different food. Really broadens your mind to see other parts of the world.

This year I took my family down to see the eclipse just north of Indianapolis, Indiana. We were maybe 10 miles from the center of the path of totality. It was intense. I think it took almost 4.5 minutes from start to finish. My wife and I are both 42 and My kids are 7 and 9, and I cant believe they will be almost 30 when it will happen again in the continental US.

A month and a half later I drove my dad the 600 miles to go tour the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields. He is a huge Civil War buff, and his health is failing. Years back we used to reenact together, and he had lots of stories from when he went about 10 years ago, and I wanted to go out there with him. Hard to imagine all the death and destruction that happened in the places where I was standing.

My wife and I had our honeymoon down in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, one of the largest cave systems in the world. The furthest point down we got was almost 300 feet below the surface, down near the river that runs through it, in such darkness that the fish do not have functioning eyes and you can se their organs through their skin.

This year during a camping trip for the 4th of July, it also became a side-hobby of keeping the kids up a bit late to watch the International Space Station go over occasionally.

I'll agree totally with Skara Brae, so strange to imagine it all that time ago with such recognisable furniture and stuff

Orkney also has Maes Howe, The Ring of Bodgar etc which are also inspiring in a similar way

I saw that car with an extra seat that pops up from the trunk, outside the cabin, for the mother-in-law.

We’ve been spending our spring breaks and summers visiting all the national parks we can drive to, and even some in Hawaii and Alaska. We’ve also seen some incredible ruins at places like Bandelier, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde and Pecos Pueblo. We visit Vazquez Rocks, Death Valley, Joshua tree and Anza Borrego every year or two to take in the tremendous landscapes, butterfly migrations and the superblooms.

While my wife is less interested in weird places, we’ve at least spent the night in a “haunted” hotel, seen Roswell and Area 51, tour the Winchester Mansion, and walked around some cryptid hangout areas (without seeing anything).

For big events, we attended Comicon for years, a couple World Cons, lots of local conventions, and a few Castro District Halloween parties, back when they were off the wall crazy.

Did a road trip around Iceland for our honeymoon. Amazing waterfalls and Jokulsaerlon were the highlights.

A bit closer to home, we had some amazing aurora action recently

Back in my early teens, me and my two brothers would spend the summers with our grandparents in Florida. They would spend two weeks with us and then at the end of the summer my parents would come down and spend two weeks in Florida and then back home in time for school to start. We'd always have a special day trip when we were all together: Since it's been almost 40 years, some of my memories are a bit fuzzy

1. Kennedy Space Center - My clearest memory is of the Rocket Garden where you can walk up to and around the bases of the rockets that put America into space. Seeing them in person really shows you how massive these truly are.

2. Mammoth Cave - Being young, we took the most popular (and easiest) tour of the cave and it was impressive. Well worth the visit if you're in the area.

3. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base - Home of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, seeing some of these aircraft in person was a real treat.

Hm... Saw Halley's Comet in 1986. We didn't have a telescope or anything, so the view wasn't amazing. But my brother and I could see it out our bedroom window, and that was pretty cool.

Also around the mid-80s (although that's not particularly relevant) while I was playing at the park behind our house at the time, I saw a willy wagtail (small Aussie fantail bird, for those from countries unlucky enough to not have them) chasing a magpie, which was chasing a young wedge-tailed eagle. Not really earth-shattering, but to my 10-or-11-year-old self, it was a hilarious example of the natural order turned on its head.

As part of Australia's bicentenary celebrations in 1988 a string of thousands of bonfires was lit, starting in Botany Bay and traveling all the way around Australia, finishing up back in Sydney 14 hours later. The army cadet unit I was in back then took part in lighting a beacon on the central QLD coast. It just looked more or less like any other bonfire, but was a cool thing to be a part of.

And a very small one - my previous job sent me over to Perth to run a stocktake in the warehouse over there. After work on the first day, I drove out to Freemantle to watch the sunset over the ocean. Not really a big deal... something millions of people see every day. But the sun going down into the ocean is an odd sight for someone who spent most of their life living on the east coast.

1. Waterloo Museum - I saw it when I was like 3 or 4 and it's one of my earliest memories. Looking up the panorama images triggers half-forgotten memories. It probably sparked my initial fascination with 40K/WHFB and wargaming in general. It's stunning. I also saw several gorgeous castles in France, Luxembourg, and Germany around that time. Absolutely stunning.

2. Star Trek Exhibit in Seattle - I'm not sure if it's still there. Saw it as a child. My dad was a hardcore enough Trekkie to know to the distance between the Earth and the Klingon homeworld. I grew up on Worf, La Forge, Data, and Sisko so seeing this when I was young was amazing.

3. DMZ of North and South Korea - Less nerdy, but it's an interesting site that few people (relative to the global population) have seen in person. Definitely eerie.

4. Grand Canyon - This isn't nerdy at all, but I feel like it falls into the category of awesome nature that drives some fantastical authors. Denali in Alaska would be in the same vein. Viewing it reminded me heavily of LotR.

I feel like I have missed out on a lot of things, being located in central Missouri, one of the most boring places in the entire United States, and far from any coast. I mean, I haven't even seen the ocean with my own eyes (only time I've seen water to the horizon was at Lake Michigan). But I have seen a few neat things:

1: Solar Eclipses. I've been lucky enough to be in the path of totality for not one but TWO solar eclipses. The one that happened in August 2017 happened to have its path go right smack through where I live (it was almost spoiled by cloud cover at the last minute though, thank God I still got to see it), and the one earlier this year had its path of totality be a mere 3 hour drive away, which I gladly did. Clear skies for that one, and it was amazing. If you ever get the chance to go to the path of totality for a solar eclipse, you should absolutely do it.

2: Space Camp. When I was 14, I went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Basically I got to do neat space-related things and hang around the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for a week. They have some actual space capsules and rocket parts there to look at, and plenty of life size replicas too, and you appreciate space technology all the more when you see just how big it is, or how small the crew space was in the Mercury capsules (talk about claustrophobic!).

3: Colorado. Back when I was 6 years old, my family (including my parents, my grandparents on my dad's side, my brother, and myself) took a trip to Colorado. Among the things we did were drive to the top of Pike's Peak (6 year old me thought it was wild to touch snow in the middle of July and to be standing higher than the clouds), visit Royal Gorge (hell of a view from the bridge), explore Mesa Verde National Park (awesome Native American ruins that I would probably appreciate more if I went back nowadays), and we rode the Durango & Silverton scenic train ride. Truly some of my favorite childhood memories.

4: Adepticon 2018. This is the only very large wargaming event I've ever attended, and it absolutely blew my mind. Being able to hang out with fellow wargaming enthusiasts from literally all over the world was an amazing experience that I can recommend to any wargamer.

5: National World War 1 Museum. The museum is located in Kansas City, and is very well appointed, with lots of artifacts and explanations of everything. One half of it details the events of the war before the US got involved, the other half focuses on US involvement. I live a mere two hours away, so I've been to the museum three times, and enjoyed it each time. I need to go back, it's been almost 10 years since the last time, and I know they've added more stuff.

I got to know a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp. One of the many reasons I have a particular aversion to tattoos.

I've got to see a wild Orca slowly and silently sneak up to our small fishing boat just to scare the gak out of us, then sit looking at us about an arm's length away for quite a while.

I got to spend about 30 minutes hanging out with Ted Nugent at the St. Louis airport. Took me about 10 of those minutes to realize I was sitting across from him.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ZergSmasher wrote:

2: Space Camp. When I was 14, I went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Basically I got to do neat space-related things and hang around the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for a week. They have some actual space capsules and rocket parts there to look at, and plenty of life size replicas too, and you appreciate space technology all the more when you see just how big it is, or how small the crew space was in the Mercury capsules (talk about claustrophobic!).

Oh? I also went to Space Camp (technically called Space Academy for my age group) in Huntsville back in the Fall of 1995. Loved every minute of it, but was depressed I was one age group too young to do any of the stuff in the dive-tank simulator.

A good way to remind me how blessed I've been with the many things I've seen and done. Other than the first one in no particular order:

1) I swam with and touched some whales. I was working in Angola. Saturday afternoon we'd be off, and the beach was literally next to the hotel, so that's where we were when a whole bunch of excited locals came running along the beach pointing to the sea. Two whales were just lazily swimming slowly towards us not 25 meters off the shore. I hesitated for a bit, then jumped in the water to meet them and just touched them with my fingers as they drifted along by. Unbelievable experience.
2) Cape Canaveral and Houston Space Center. The first we actually went back the next day to watch a launch as well.
3) Dolphins playing in the deep ocean (Atlantic). And a manta ray off the coast of Nigeria. And a sea turtle in the deep looking over the side of the vessel, as well as a shark.
4) Climbing a mountain in Scotland shrouded in mist. That wasn't particularly interesting, but when I reached the summit the sun just finished burning away the fog, and I got the whole fantastic view in one go. Overwhelming is the word.
6) Seeing a 16" steel pipe get rolled up as if it were a thread going on a spool.

I've seen tree-climbing goats in Morocco, and I've done a great white cage dive in South Africa. They were both pretty cool - although I got too sea-sick on the latter to properly enjoy it... :(

Sunrise from the peak of Mt Toubkal (highest peak in N Africa) was pretty spectacular.

Also, did myself a wee Ghostbusters tour of New York.

Found and saw the Library, Fire Station, Dana’s Apartment and the restaurant where Vinz Clortho catches Louis.

Not exactly the Seven Wonders of the World, but happy to say I’ve seen them. And I’ll be doing more on my next visit.

In a similar vein, albeit “grew up there so didn’t seem such big shakes” Edinburgh Castle of course, where a distant relative’s name can be found on the wall of remembrance.

We had a brilliant trip to Edinburgh Castle. It was about 16 years ago, when my wife was pregnant with our eldest. She had major pelvic problems during the pregnancy and was using crutches to help her get about. Security clocked her at the bottom of the hill, and next thing we knew a big blacked-out Range Rover pulled up next to us and gave us a lift up to the top up the tunnel used by the royals etc...

Oooh! Very fancy!

Pretty sure they’d just run me over for being a nerky little Herbert 🤣🤣

Flying into Newfoundland from Iceland I saw a pod of narwhals.


In Baghdad I saw the Cross-Sabers monument.


In Germany I saw the Dachau concentration camp memorial site.


In Nassau I saw several spots that were filmed in James Bond movies. The disappointment when trying to order a "vodka martini: shaken, not stirred" and the waitress wouldn't allow it was soul-crushing.


Went to the Huntsville, AL Saturn V rocket museum.


My brother, however, got to go to Pompeii and was standing in the coliseum where Pink Floyd filmed "Live at Pompeii" at.

This talk of whales reminds me of one summer when we were visiting my grandparents in Florida. My grandfather took us fishing off of a small pier in the Intracoastal Waterway. While we were fishing a herd of manatees passed by, surfacing in front of the pier.

One I guess that I take for granted is that the area that I grew up in was a relatively rural area at the time and our neighbors raised a small herd of cattle and a small flock of sheep (the sheep were very unusual for the area). For a while, they even had a goat to protect the sheep. The problem is that the goat preferred play with the calves and leading them around the field getting them into trouble (breaking fences, etc). The goat also slept on top of a table the neighbors had just inside of the gate to the fields. He even slept on top of the table when it rained. Goats can be weird...

On the way back from the aforementioned shark dive, the minibus driver pulled over into a layby on the coastal road and pointed out a couple of humpback whales pootling around just by the shore a few hundred metres away. That was nice.

Same South Africa trip (it was a big 3 week holiday for my brother's wedding) we went to some wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre, and as part of the tour round we got to go into the enclosure with the cheetahs - so the group of about 20 of us (not including my wife and kids, was too dangerous for the boys to go in) were stood together in the enclosure while 3 cheetahs padded around us maybe a couple of metres away. Amazing animals. Not sure I'd do that again though.

These are a bit smaller in scope, but I still like them:

- Various "war" memorials in the Minnesota River Valley for the US-Dakota War of 1862. Most of them are mostly forgotten about, and you literally just stumble across them as your travel.

- Various Indian Burial Mounds in the Mississippi River valley.

- Driving the Great River Road from the source of the Mississippi to Illinois.

- Exploring Mayan ruins

- Manatees wintering in the Springs in Florida

- City Museum in St. Louis

- Waterspouts on Lake Superior

I live outside Yellowstone, so there is a lot of great stuff to see there. I probably take it for granted. Wolves, moose, bison, elk, coyote, antelope, bald eagles, etc.

Glencoe after snowfall with a shining winter sun, a clear blue sky and an empty road.

The closest I've come to visual perfection in my life I think.

Touring the Painted Desert and petrified forest at sunset is something that will live with me for a long time.

The polar ice cap or Mars through an amateur astronomer’s telescope. The image and trying to comprehend the distance to our nearest neighbour is mind boggling.

The city of New York from the top of the World Trade Centre.

Staying near Uluru, seeing it fade from and return to view as the mists move in and retreat. Being near the rock is quite remarkable.

I work as a field archaeologist it is my day job so Idoget inured but I spent 3 weeks working within Norwich Castle and 3 months working just outside Oban. Kilmartin Glen and Iona are some of the most beautiful places to visit. I also can't get over seeing Red Kites they're so common now but at one point their were only 6 in the country....