Dinosaurs are becoming a “thing” for us. Makes sense…they’re BIG after all! Last year, we went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC for its temporary exhibit, “The World’s Largest Dinosaurs.” This spring, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is presenting a similar program, “Giant Mysterious Dinosaurs,” through April 15.

I now know more about the Jurassic era than I ever thought I would. Or ever really wanted to…

Where we went, and who was coerced into going:

Visiting Philly earlier this month, we were drawn to The Franklin Institute for this dinosaur exhibit, as well as the giant walk-through heart. In the end, another unexpected BIG thing turned out to be the highlight of our visit.

Okay, what was so cool about it?

We would have loved this place more if we had: A) less whiny children; and B) a few more hours to cover all three floors of science and technology exhibits. We missed out on the planetarium, IMAX theater and 4D flight simulator.

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“Dino Trio.” Sounds like a smooth crooner group from the ‘50’s. “Singing live tonight at the Starlight Lounge…it’s the Dino Trio!”

Last week, on our post about the Jurassic dinosaur collection at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, I mentioned DinoMite Days, a 2004 public art project which resulted in 100 uniquely decorated dinosaurs, made of fiberglass and weighing 200 lbs each. They were temporarily installed throughout the city, but most have since been sold to private collectors.

However, several can still be found on public display. We found these BIG beauties in front the “Wintergarden” building at PPG Place!

They are, from left to right:

Philiposaurus. Artist: Gary Mesa Gaido

Ketchupsaurus. Artist: Kristina Martinez

Mr. Dig. Artist: Glennis McClellan

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In our quest to indoctrinate the world with the “Go BIG” message (MWAH HA HA!), we have ventured off in a few different directions of late. For “Show and Tell” today, may we present:

appSmitten.com

The first exciting development we’d like to share with you is that Matt and I are the new – and only – travel app reviewers for appSmitten.com! This site hand-selects the best apps in several categories (food, kids, health, news, education, etc.), then sends you weekly or daily recommendations via email to help keep you organized, entertained, productive, etc.

Our first reviews describe the brand new app for the iPhone and iPad, the Travel Channel Layover Guide With Anthony Bourdain, and a handy Android app, Packing List. Stop by and check us out on appSmitten! (Disclaimer: we receive a small commission each time someone we refer to the site signs up to receive the e-mail service.)

Kelley’s Break Room

Kelley’s Break Room is a really funny humor blog I’ve been following for a while. I was tickled – and a bit like “who, me?” – that she considered me humorous enough to write a guest post last week! In my oh-so-compelling post, 5 Ways to Create a Family Vacation You Can Actually Afford, I offer some ideas to incorporate fun into cheap (sorry, “budget-friendly”) family travel. While bringing the funny. I hope I succeeded; what do you think?

The Azumano Travel Show

The Azumano Travel Show, a radio program on AM860 radio in Portland, OR, interviewed me last week about our strange compulsion to visit BIG roadside attractions! The best question they asked me: “If you could build a world’s largest, what would it be?” Hint: My answer involved food. Naturally.

You can listen to the five-minute program right on their website. Mom says I sounded “professional.”

Have you heard about the “7 Links” meme going around among travel bloggers? It’s a Tripbase project to share some of our previous posts, with the benefit of hindsight. If you’re new to Go BIG or Go Home, I’m about to highlight the seven posts you should read to get caught up on all this quirky insanity.

I was nominated by the lovely ladies at Road Trips for Families, who share my compulsion for quirky travel, with no qualms about forcing their kids to visit retro roadside attractions.

So, here I go:

Most beautiful post:

The Alpine Garden

There’s not much tear-jerky, emotional “beauty” going on here. I’m saving that for the moment I cast eyes on the world’s largest ball of twine…sigh. But in terms of physical beauty, it doesn’t get prettier than Montreal’s botanic garden. It’s the world’s second largest botanic garden, with many smaller themed gardens within. This post described the day we played explorer in the Alpine, Chinese, and Aquatic gardens, rode the tram, ate lunch al fresco, and enjoyed a low-fi visit on a perfectly sunny and cool day.

Most popular post:

When I look at this blog’s traffic, I always get a giggle when I see what posts are getting the most visits. That’s because two of the most popular posts are about the world’s largest toilet and world’s largest Rubik’s Cube. Both were guest posts, because I send my minions out for all the “choice” assignments. And I’m guessing the term “world’s largest toilet” is an “SEO” bonanza.

Because I know you want to see it again.

Most controversial post:

There was quite a heated exchange of comments following this guest post about the world’s largest candy store. This was also the first time an attraction scored a lowly “2” on our ten-point scale, where 1 equals “snoozefest,” and 10 equals “add to your bucket list.” Our guest reviewer Tom thought Daffin’s Candy Store was sorely lacking appeal, although he did give props to the taffy selection. Candy afficionados weighed in to defend this long-standing institution.

Most helpful post:

With our aforementioned scoring system, we try to steer you toward – or away from – each of the BIG places we visit, so you don’t waste your time. But this recent post went a step further, describing great, affordable places for families to eat on the road instead of traditional restaurants. We visited the world’s largest Wegmans supermarket, which has an amazingly extensive food bar and seating area. Other road warrior family bloggers offered their suggestions, as well.

A post whose success surprised me:

Second to the About Us page, the single page which gets the most traffic on this blog is about our short walk along the world’s longest continuous sidewalk, Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, FL. I need a professional SEO analyst to tell me why this post, which appeared over a year ago, still attracts so much traffic. Any takers?

The source of most visits to this page is via Google, so I guess there are hundreds of people every month searching for info on the “world’s longest sidewalk?!” It wasn’t even that great a story. Our walk was cut short because 1) It was 210 degrees that day; and 2) The Girl got sunscreen in her eye, a drama which rendered her unable to stand upright on her own two feet.

A post which didn’t get the attention it deserved:

I would like more eyes to see these posts on the world’s largest collection of glass at the Corning Museum of Glass, and the world’s largest light bulb at the Thomas Edison Center. Because we’re not JUST about BIG toilets, ya know! These were visits to places with educational value, where my kids experienced “hands-on” science and history. And we have fun video clips on both posts, so there’s that!

The post I am most proud of:

I get nostalgic for historic sites which are still open to the public, keeping their story alive. The Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club in St. Petersburg, FL is not only the world’s largest shuffleboard club, but also the nation’s oldest. We were fortunate to have a “behind-the-scenes” tour from the president of the club, which works to not only preserve it as a historic site, but also promote the sport. Shuffleboard Friday nights are now popular events for local families, who come for a night a wholesome fun. We learned to play shuffleboard the right way. I’m ready to go pro.

Recently, the city of St. Petersburg accepted bids from restaurants to come in and take over the 1923 Art Deco clubhouse. I would hate to see this charming spot taken over by a capital venture, especially when there’s no lack of restaurants in St. Pete! The locals have been vocally opposed, so hopefully there will be a positive resolution.

So much fun...such a wonderful place.

The bloggers I’m nominating for the next round are equally enamored of offbeat road trips; some with kids in tow, some without. They’re all really groovy!

Tina at Ploho on the Road

Dana at Feasting on Americana

Carly at Bloggin’ America

Elizabeth at Livin’ to Drive

Tanya at Driving and Dining

Mama always said, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” Actually, my mama said “don’t wear that safety pin as an earring.” I did it anyway (I was 13), and boy, was that a nasty infection. Anyway, last week I did some “online research” about the BIG roadside attractions we discovered on our Virginia Beach vacation.

And the info I dug up about Hugh Mongous, the giant gorilla? Wrong.

Hugh is older than I thought!

I got the real scoop yesterday from the nice folks at Ocean Breeze Waterpark, who scanned and emailed me what was a yellowed backgrounder page, typewritten in the 80’s. From the looks of the font, I can tell their info is authentic!

So, for the record, Hugh Mongous is, in fact, the 45-foot tall, 11,000 lb. mascot standing in front of the Ocean Breeze Waterpark. He’s actually been here since 1977, when the park was called Jungle Falls Waterslides. The original sculpture was created in 1977 out of Styrofoam, wood, and urethane by sculptor Demetrios Mavroudis. The work was commissioned by the publisher of New Dominion Lifestyle magazine, and was hoisted to the top of the magazine’s office building in downtown Richmond, VA, as a promotion. He only lasted up there for two days until city officials declared it a violation of several codes. The water park purchased him for $5,000, and moved Hugh to his current home. He WAS damaged by fire in 1989 and restored.

I feel compelled to set the record straight, because we had a wonderful day at the Ocean Breeze Waterpark. THIS is why:

And this is why:

But, this…this made it ALL worthwhile.

Disclaimer: Ocean Breeze Waterpark hosted our visit.

Still one of our most popular posts!

It’s been a BIG year! The Go BIG or Go Home family travel blog has reached its first anniversary of chronicling what happens when our small-town family visits the “world’s largest…” whatever! To celebrate, we have a BIG giveaway prize!

The year began with reports from the world’s largest light bulb in NJ, and the world’s largest rotating globe in ME. Sometimes we were cultural and high class, with visits to one of the world’s largest botanic gardens, and the largest Buddha in the western hemisphere. But we know what the masses REALLY want, so we also ran reports of the world’s largest Rubik’s Cube and the world’s largest toilet!

Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has followed our posts from the beginning, and those loyal fans who contribute to the conversation with fun comments! Thanks to everyone who has shared their photos of BIG things they’ve spotted on the road! We love to see these on our Facebook page. We especially appreciate everyone who has contributed a guest post, sharing stories of BIG things in places our family hasn’t reached yet.

And now, the fun part! We’re giving away A PAIR OF TWO pre-paid, 3-day adult Go City Cards for the city of your choice, courtesy of Smart Destinations!

Smart Destinations is the premier provider of unlimited sightseeing and attraction admission passes in 15 major North American travel destinations. Smart Destinations’ Go City Cards and Explorer Passes offer pre-paid access to over 425 museums, attractions, and tours for one low fixed price. Smart Destinations products not only allow travelers to save money while seeing the sights but also allow them to skip the lines.

Go City Cards save visitors up to 55% off the cost of regular admission to top attractions and things to do in 11 major destinations including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Oahu, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Go City Card offers unlimited admissions to most of the popular attractions in each city for a pre-selected number of days, as well as local dining and shopping discounts.

Do you have plans to visit any of these cities in the next year? You can enter to win the Go City Cards in three different ways. 1) If you haven’t done so before, you can sign up to receive our e-mail notifications when new posts go live. All new e-mail addresses we receive from today through next Friday (7/22/11) will be entered into the drawing. Sign up in the box in the upper right column of this page. 2) Post a photo of a BIG attraction you’ve visited on the Go BIG facebook page. 3) Tell us in the comments below what your favorite Go BIG post has been so far.

Our winner will be notified on or before Wednesday, July 27th, and will be asked to provide a mailing address anywhere in the world. The prize will be mailed directly to them from Smart Destinations, Inc.

Good luck!

Fireworks are great and all that, but the highlight of our holiday weekend was watching a group of 12 hot air balloons lift off during the 2011 Dutchess County Balloon Festival. It’s one of our favorite annual events here in New York’s Hudson Valley, where we’ve lived for over 10 years. What made it really special this year was watching it from the span of the Walkway Over the Hudson, which is the World’s Longest Elevated Pedestrian Bridge.

We’ve now been up there several times and have described it here on the blog.  While it’s the span — 6,767 feet, or 1.25 miles – which breaks the world record, it’s the height which gets to me. The span ascends 212 feet above the water at midpoint. This was the first time I went up there and didn’t get weak-kneed. Open heights are NOT my thing. But the perspective of watching the balloons lift off from below us, rise to our level and then float higher, was amazing.

Overcoming my fear of heights — and getting up at 4:30am for the 6:00am launch — was worth it for this view.

And this one, facing away from the sunrise, was nice too.

Sigh. I love living in the Hudson Valley!

December 26, 2010

Can we get back in the warm car now?!

It was an Armageddon-like scene: packing the car with clothing and food, setting out in the dark of night, and racing against time to get out of state. We were escaping the blizzard, of course, which would have put an end to our Go BIG or Go Home road trip to FL.

We made it out just in time, as the northeast got socked in. Our miserly (cheap) decision to drive to FL rather than drive worked to our advantage, as the airports closed or canceled the flights we would have been taking.

Keeping it interesting was the snowfall in the south, which is both a novelty for the locals and an emergency situation, as roads become treacherous from lack of plows and lack of seasoned winter drivers.

We're not even getting out of the car this time...

Used to much worse, we shrugged our shoulders at the dusting. With front wheel drive, we looked quizzically at the cars which spun off the roads. And we were just plain irritated upon finding out that the Cracker Barrel in Jonesville, NC wouldn’t be open for dinner because the employees couldn’t make it in for work due to the two inches of snow. Matt’s mouth was set for chicken-fried…something.

Despite the surreal weather situations bringing down the worlds around us, we managed to see three BIG attractions on Day 1 of the Go BIG or Go Home Road Trip:

The huge Benjamin Moore paint can in Shippensburg, PA; a huge storage tank pained blue, standing in front of a paint store. It’s IMMENSE. There’s not much more to look at or do there, so we stopped, jumped out and took the photos. It was fuh-reezing that morning, so a quick stop was all we were willing to tolerate anyway. Even The Girl, who will brave freezing temps to play in the playground, yelled “yee-OWW,” and jumped back in the car asap.

World's Largest Apple!

We were all so disenchanted with the weather that Matt was the only one willing to exit the car to get a photo of the large Coke bottle in Hagerstown, MD, which is perched on the roof of a bottling company a minute from I-81. I don’t think the kids even looked up from watching Bolt on the DVD player.

We had to drive off the highway several miles to see the world’s largest apple in Winchester, VA. It’s in front of an upscale gift shop which called my name so loudly I almost succumbed. (“Christmas décor, 50% off.”) Again, we were too cold to linger, so we took a few photos and drove around the town to enjoy the historic architecture.

Then we began to notice more large apples in front of other businesses, painted in different themes. We discovered three more, plus the world’s largest apple storage facility. Call it a hunch, but I think the town has a history as an apple producer.

Love the fine print on this sign. Classic "C.Y.A."

Starting this blog has been one of the best things about 2010…thanks to you for reading it, commenting, and assuring me that we’re not the only ones with an incurable obsession for BIG sites and roadside attractions!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR, from….

What? Don’t you also have a set of 100 assorted cookie cutters?!

We set out on our “Go BIG” road trip Sunday morning. Stay tuned for updates on this adventure. If anyone is placing bets on who arrives to FL in one piece — and who gets left at the World’s Largest Peanut in GA — let me know.  I may want “in” on that action.

The North American Midway is the world's largest traveling amusement park

There is a treadmill in our house. It does—occasionally—get used for something other than a laundry rack. So finding Matt running on it last week was not as much shocking as it was…suspect. In hindsight, I realized he was preparing for the Craz-E burger, the culinary creation born at The Big E, or the Eastern States Exposition. It’s the state fair of Massachusetts and several other New England states, and it’s where you’ll find the world’s largest traveling amusement park, the North American Midway.

Where we went, and who was coerced into going:

The four of us went to The Big E this past weekend, and brought along our appetites. After a few days cooped up inside with incessant rain, the sun shone on a clear, cool autumn day, and we happily hit the road.

WHY did you go there, exactly?

With a name like the “Big” E, we had to go. We wouldn’t be living up to the Blogocratic Oath (no such thing) if we missed it.

I learned about the Craz-E burger while doing my research, and that pretty much sealed the deal. Matt has never met a burger he didn’t like. The more beef, the better. He’s been known to eat the triple patty Baconator at Wendy’s, but has stopped short at the quadruple BK Stacker at Burger King. He prefers food which could seal his arteries in under ten minutes.

Yes, his life insurance policy is up-to-date.

I've read an unsubstantiated claim that this is the world's largest corn dog!

So when I reported that the Craz-E burger is a bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two halves of a glazed doughnut, he got a glint in his eye I haven’t seen since our first date. “Lustful” is an apt description.

Okay, what was so cool about it?

The Big E lives up to its name. It’s massive, and we walked miles that day. There’s a lot to do and see, and I’m sure we missed most of it. Of course we hit the expanse of midway rides. We also saw out first horse show, and visited some of the 4H pavilions. The Girl made friends with Doug the Llama.

We caught a hysterical show by Hilby, the Skinny German Juggle Boy. We’ve also—purely by chance–seen him at the Woodloch Resort and the Dutchess County Fair this year. So now we’re juggler groupies, I guess.

And of course, there’s the fair food, which never disappoints. Matt’s 1,500-calorie Craz-E burger held him over most of the afternoon, until it was time for the other specialty, the Big E Cream Puff, and its cousin, the E-Clair. We also made room for hot dogs, pierogi, samosas, and overpriced ($5.00!) milk shakes.

You’re dying to find out how the Craz-E burger tasted, aren’t you?

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