Time for a CD board road trip......

[Andy]

Star gave me a great idea! Let's get on one of our awesome getaways.

I love the idea of two vans/busses (luxury of course) - one wine and cheese, mellow/relaxing music and the other junk food and fun. We can mingle between the two as we feel like it.

Our destination: Odd or different things to see.

So, as you jump aboard, you tell us what near your home is a place that others may like to visit - an out of the way tourist attraction.

Since the entire country seems to be COLD - bring your warm weather gear and let us know if something else is need while picking you up.

O.K. I will start - Northern Minnesota - we can visit an otter statue and walk a hidden river walk that is down town and takes people years sometimes to know we have. Oh, and weather, High 22 - 32 the next few days with lows of 14 - 21 (above zero just for you).

Next ...............

 

[Calista]

Hey Andy, can we jump over from Minnesota to LaCrosse Wisconsin and look at all of the beautiful painted lady houses?

Then down to my neck of the woods where we make the country's best ice cream...BLUE BELL. We can go for a tour of the creamery and get a free scoop at the end of the tour!

 

[Shari]

Cruise on down here and we'll take a relaxing buggy ride to a little restaurant in a shack in the middle of nowhere that serves THE BEST food....then we can cruise on over to the biggest tree in the state, and finish the day at the winery on the bluff overlooking the river...

 

[Marguerite]

Zap your way over here, there is a lovely spot just south of us (a few minutes' drive, that's all) with a tropical-looking lagoon running into the pacific. Lots of lovely white sand, palm trees fringing the lagoon, a waterfall cascading into the lagoon. The rock there is sandstone so it's smooth, no sharp edges. The Aussie wildflowers fringe the road going down to the lagoon. The only access by road is to the back of the lagoon. No houses there at all, no shops. To get to the beach there is a boardwalk through temperate rainforest. Or swim through the lagoon.

And from there you can drive south through more rainforest and emerge near Wollongong. More picturesque beaches and an amazing bridge that curves and wraps itself around the sheer sandstone cliffs.

There are caravan parks all round this area, where you can wake up in the morning and go for a swim or stroll along the beach. I'll treat you to an Aussie burger - they have a lot of salad on them as well as the basic meat, plus (if you want) egg, bacon, cheese, pineapple. Takes two fists to hold it. Bring your appetite! You can sit on Stanwell Beach and watch the hang gliders right above.

And remember - it's full summer here! Bring your swimsuit and your floaty caftan. No need for anything more formal.

Marg

 

[ThreeShadows]

I'll grab a seat on the wine and cheese bus (type casting myself). I think we should all go to Difficult Child to see how the government is spending our money. Then we could go visit the Hope diamond at the Smithsonian to see western ostentation, then proceed to the Freer Gallery of Asian Art to admire eastern understatement. The Smithsonian is freeeee! What a great museum.

 

[gcvmom]

And of course, a road trip wouldn't be a road trip if y'all didn't head out WEST to the Chicken Coop to see MEEEEE!!! The weather's been great (mid to high 70's) but ya better hurry 'cuz we get rain tomorrow, then a break, then possible a couple weeks of rain!

I'll take you to see Ahnold, our Governator. And we can visit Mickey at his place in the Magic Kingdom. We've got a couple of presidents buried here. We're also home to Yosemite, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Giant Redwoods and the Bristlecone Pines (oldest living things in the WORLD), not to mention the LOWEST point in the continental U.S. (Badwater, Death Valley) as well as the HIGHEST point in the contiguous U.S. (Mt. Whitney) both within 100 miles of eachother as the crow flies! And of course, a trip out here would NOT be complete without a walk down Hollywood's Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Griffith Observatory (where they filmed Rebel Without A Cause)... oh gosh, I could go on and on and on, but there are lots of other fab places to visit in this country... so where next?

 

[flutterby]

Come pick me up in Ohio, but then we'll just keep on going. It's Ohio. Nothing to see here....

 

[AnnieO]

Heather!

Well let's see - we can revisit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, COSI, the "Museum of the United States Air Force", Cincinnati's Union Station and for those who like to shop - we have FIVE outlet malls! Then we can watch the Penguin Parade at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Dress warm. It's flippin' COLD here in Ohio. Right now it is 7 degrees though it's supposed to break freezing today for the first time this year. Layering is essential due to people overusing their heaters!

 

[timer lady]

Head down to the Twin Cities & hit Mall of America - head over to the Mpls Art Museum (one of my favorite places). Heading west we must stop at the Corn Cob palace (I believe it's in Kansas or Nebraska.

Down in Milwaukee we have to head over to Wolski's - if you close down the bar you get a bumper sticker for your car "I closed Wolski's". A must have for living in Wisconsin.

I believe there's quite a few member we can pick up in IL & Wisconsin as well.

 

[tiredmommy]

We're not too awfully far from Niagara Falls here... and it's beautiful when the mist covers everything in ice (but bone-chilling)....

 

[witzend]

The Columbia River Gorge, then a trip to the Willamette Valley wineries.

 

[DammitJanet]

Well when the bus was in Difficult Child you should have run down south and picked up me, Fran, EW, Star and DaisyFace. We could have all gone to Myrtle Beach and then to Charleston. Oh and then up to the Outer Banks in NC to see Kitty Hawk where Wilber and Orville flew the airplane. I actually landed a plane there one time!

Then we could drive up into the Blue Ridge Mountains and back over into the middle of the country.

 

[SRL]

Then we could drive up into the Blue Ridge Mountains and back over into the middle of the country.

In that case since you've already met The Governator, you'll have to stop and have lunch with former IL governor, Blago. I'm sure he'll be...BLEEP...er...delighted.

 

[gcvmom]

In that case since you've already met The Governator, you'll have to stop and have lunch with former IL governor, Blago. I'm sure he'll be...BLEEP...er...delighted.

I think that dining experience would cause me to lose my lunch...

 

[GoingNorth]

I am from Chicago and have a funny Blago story of my own. Back when he was running for office, he did a lot of "pressing the flesh" gatherings outside of grocery stores and the like.

husband, who loathed most politicians, got stopped. He interrupted Blago in the middle of the photo-op, handed over his wallet, and said, "Why don't I just save us both a lot of time?"

Needless to say, THAT never made the news, even though several of the filming crew nearly died laughing.

How little did we know then that husband's words would strike so close to the truth.

 

[Mom2oddson]

Got to come to Seattle too. We've got the Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, the Underground City tour, the Space Needle. And we'd have to top that off with an Argosy Cruise to Blake Island State Park for the Native American Stage Show and Salmon Bake. The salmon is cooked over a fire according to tradition and is the best ever. Bring your umbrellas it's going to rain for at least the next ten days (that's how far the forecast goes).

 

[DammitJanet]

Ohhhhh Salmon...Im on my way!

 

[Suz]

It's chilly here too but blue skies at least.

Lots of options in this part of PA....we can take the train and visit the Liberty Bell in Philly, go to the outlets or Amish farms in Lancaster County, Gettysburg is always heartbreaking and interesting.......or smell the chocolate in the air at Hershey.

Suz

 

[Marg's Man]

I'm surprised Marg didn't mention that right now is the main event of the year in Sydney - The Sydney Festival. This is a major festival of Arts and Entertainment all over Sydney that goes from 9 Jan to the end of the month, with THE main event being the Australia Day celebrations on 26 Jan (this is our 4th of July). Here's the website http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/ You're pretty jaded if you can't find something to suit your taste and wallet.

difficult child 3 was born on Australia Day, 16 years ago. We still remember when the penny dropped for him about birthdays. The older three were performing at a school display and we had gone to the city to make a day of it when they finished their bit. We were wandering around in the whole holiday 'Happy Birthday' atmosphere telling him it was Australia's birthday too. A couple of American tourists overheard us and made a big fuss of it being his birthday on our national day. To this day we don't know what it was that 'clicked' with him, but since then he has looked forward to his birthday.

So CD Boarders, make sure you time the down under leg of your road trip for the 26th. We put on a fireworks show for ourselves just as good as the one we do for New Year! We'll chuck an extra prawn (shrimp) on the barbie for you.

Marg's Man

 

[KTMom91]

After visiting with gcvmom, head north on 99, pick me up, and then we'll head for San Francisco. Tons of stuff to see and do, lots of good eating...