The “kids” haha are responsible for their airfare, rental cars, and any before/after lodging.
We haven’t done a family trip with SIL and BF, but we’ve all stayed together at our second home & we all get along.
My hope is we are still getting along at the end of our 2 weeks together.
Sounds like an awesome time!
I guess I just look and see. The ones I’m talking about are real tourist attractions where they are located, and not in amusement parks.
Coney Island has a great ferris wheel. I think it’s called Wonder Wheel. You can park a car there too, plus a zillion subway lines and buses go there.
Not looking for ones at any amusement park.
Chicago!
What I really like about Coney Island is that it’s not an amusement park. There are groupings of rides, etc. but theu front on city streets (sometimes on the boardwalk too), and just 1000 feet away are two-family houses, large rental and condo buildings, and NYC housing projects. Storefront (and bigger) churches, supermarkets and bodegas, public and parochial schools at all levels.
There’s a big-business-backed casino bid (opposed by the people who live there) and a minor-league baseball team too.
The new one in Auckland is maybe 40’ so not so great! But a big deal, apparently.
There is one in Munich (we were in the city but did not go on it)
There you go:
We had a similar thing going with revolving restaurants. If there was one in a city we visited, we ate there. Seattle, Las Vegas, Berlin, Vancouver, Honolulu, and 2 in Atlanta.
I have the best childhood memory of eating in the revolving restaurant overlooking Niagara Falls.
Ah yes…the revolving restaurant. We were on a business trip with colleagues of DH. We went to the top of the Marriott Marquis for after show drinks and dessert. I left to go to the restroom, and when I came out, my table was GONE. I didn’t realize how that place revolved. (I’m not sure it revolves the same way anymore). My table had revolved away…
Happy! I’ve been idly keeping an eye on flight prices for our NZ-Oz trip next February and saw the outgoing Delta flight went down in price (Premium Select). It’s the first time in two months that the price was lower instead of higher than what we booked. So I messaged online and she rebooked us at the lower price and now we have $273 credit each. It was very fast and efficient!
We’re flying into Auckland and do not plan on going on the ferris wheel, although we may go to the non-revolving tower restaurant for lunch. 
Edit to add that the restaurant does revolve! But only open for dinner so we’d have to do the all day grazing menu at the Sky Bar, which does not appear to revolve.
When Rick Steves films in Europe, it’s like a ‘kid in a candy store’
Making an episode of “Rick Steves’ Europe” is a 12-hour sprint.
gift link (although you may need to register)
https://wapo.st/41hBsIn
I sounded out husband this morning if he might be interested in a short road trip in late October to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Not much response, and I thought he wouldn’t be interested because we have our big NZ/Oz trip in February. Then he came home from playing tennis and to my shock and delight, said he’d given it five minutes thought. And came up with the idea to drive up to Monterey, stopping at Solvang one way and Santa Barbara the other. Works for me!
We’ve been that way before but not in years and years. I mainly want to visit two places again: Monterey Bay Aquarium (where we qualify for the 70+ senior rate, yay?) and Hearst Castle.
Now I can start checking out inexpensive lodging and interesting restaurants. We used most of our HHonors points for our Sydney hotel so don’t need our usual Hilton properties habit. I like this kind of research!
We debated taking advantage of a really good timeshare deal in Solvang this fall, but we haven’t booked it yet. It looks like a nice area.
The weather will be great in October. I think September and October are the best weather months for the central coast.I like the other Santa Ynez valley towns but they are all super close to each other. We like to go to Cambria in Oct (where I’d stay for Hearst castle). The weather is usually good and we enjoy the scarecrows around town. Morro Bay is a nice stop for lunch and a walk around the waterfront. Another option is staying in Paso Robles and also going to Sensoriothe light show. I think Paso has better food options than Cambria.
Adding you can’t drive Hwy 1 from San Simeon to Carmel. I think you can go as far as ragged point only due to landslide.
Thanks, I thought there was a closure. We’ll keep track of the news. We’ve stayed in both Paso Robles and Morro Bay about 18 years ago.