dragonmom

Can you give us any travel advice?
OK, so my DH and I have decided to make up our own list of places we haven't been to and want to visit. The idea is that we can do some "bucket list" stuff during a weekend and start to enjoy being empty nesters.

If you want to play along - let's set up a format because so many of you have travelled so extensively and know so much about every location:

City: top 3 or so spots to see, one unique hidden gem You must be able to do all these things in one weekend without burning out. We aren't 20 any longer...

for example,

Seattle: waterfront tour, public market, drive out to mountain passes - hidden gem: eat at Aqua Verde and take a kayak lesson .

FallGirl

Chicago - Architecture boat tour, millenium park (actually anywhere on the lake), Art Institute

hidden gem - Food Planet Food Tour (we did North Side)

colmomto2

St. Augustine, Florida - St. George Street (history and shopping galore), Lightner Museum, Anastasia State Park (relax at the beach!)

Hidden Gems - Flagler College Tour (beautiful Tiffany glass EVERYWHERE) and the St. Augustine lighthouse (fantastic views of the city and historic buildings including a bird's eye view of Castillo de San Marcos), ocean, inlet, and the intracoastal waterway)

ucigrad

New York City

Besides the obvious stuff, do something more 'local':

See a Brooklyn Cyclones game at Keyspan Park.

Go to the Bronx Zoo.

Catch a free student recital / orchestra concert at the Juilliard School. It will save you potentially over a hundred bucks than something right across the fountain at the Met or at Avery Fisher, and you'll still get to hear quality music performed by some of the world's top trained young artists in an equally fancy and acoustic hall.

cottonwood513

Chicago area for horse lovers:

the Tempel Lippizzans in Wadsworth
Arlington Park Racetrack
Noble Horse Theater show and dinner
perhaps Medi Times if your city doesn't have one

musicamusica

Los Angeles

Weekend:
Friday night "informal Fridays" at Disney Center, concert and meet and greet with the LA PHILHARMONIC.
Friday evening apre-concert cocktails on the roof top of the Standard Hotel downtown
SAT Morning: breakfast picnic at Malibu's Matador beach
Afternoon at the Getty center and reservations for the balcony at their fabulous restaurant.
Sunday: Morning DIMSUM in Monterey Park at any number of crowded family dimsum joints and an afternoon stroll at the Huntington Gardens and museum. If the race track is running, then (free!)EARLY morning at Santa Anita watching the horses exercise and admiring the view of the San Gabriels.

Favorite hidden treasure? Depends on the season...but right now it's classic films and cocktails outdoors at Yamashiro in the Hollywood hills.

atomom

Alliance, Nebraska: Carhenge

ELY

New York:

* Ferry to Ellis Island & Lady Liberty
* "Top-of-the-Rock" observation deck high atop Rockefeller Square (same great view as Empire State Bldg with none of the wait).
* Bike tours of Central Park

Yes, these are obvious, but our family's favorites.

mathmom

Pasadena
Gambel House (Greene and Green architects)
Norton Simon Museum
Huntington Gardens (actually in the town next door, San Marino)
Caltech campus (it's gorgeous, old part design by Bertram Goodhue who also did West Point)

Hidden Gem: Pie n' Burger

New York
Central Park (all of it! Some of the best bits are way up north)
The Met
MOMA

Hidden gem: The Frick or the Cloisters or the Morgan Library

Boston
Freedom Trail
Fine Arts Museum
The Boston Garden (Make Way for Ducklings!)

Hidden Gem: Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum

ELY

^OOooo, mathmom. I forgot about the Cloisters. That's a great hidden gem!

musicamusica

MATHMOM.

Pie n Burger ahmmmmmmrrrghmmmm (yummy noise and slobbering)

Booklady

Philadelphia:
Independence Hall and surrounding neighborhood
Philadelphia Art Museum (not for the "Rocky" steps, but for the art inside)
Trolley tour of the Mural Arts Program
Reading Terminal Market

Hidden gem:
The Mutter Museum (for the medically inclined) or
The Barnes Foundation (not in the city, but soon to move there)

gloworm

To add to post #3, if you are in St. Augustine on Easter Sundaay and are Catholic, there is a beautiful outdoor sunrise Mass on the spot where Ponce de León supposedly came ashore for the first time.

Fall Girl took my Chicago in #2. I'll try to come up w/ another city.

BunsenBurner

A slightly different version of Seattle:

1. Ride the Ducks/Westlake Center/Pike Pace Market/yadda yadda...
2. Drive "around" Mt Rainier
3. The Boeing tour (in Everett)

Hidden gem:

Park by the Museum of History and Industry (free). Walk the boardwalk trail through the wetlands towards the Arboretum, stroll through the Arboretum and visit the Japanese Garden.

http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/docs/ArboretumMap.jpg

(^^start at the "-->N" sign)

Lafalum84

Boston:
Duck Tour
Fenway Park Tour (or JFK Library, depending on season/interest)
Whatever sections of the Freedom Trail you want to/feel up to doing (but I recommend Paul Revere's House)

Charleston, SC:
Horse-drawn carriage ride
"The Market" (open air market)
SC Aquarium