Go BIG or Go Home
What Happens When A Small-Town Family Visits The "World's Largest"... Whatever!

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One Last Hurrah….

We’re headed to Pennsylvania this weekend for one last getaway before school starts next week. As giddy as I am for the return to school days (cue angelic harp music), I’m sad that our traveling will be curtailed for the next several months. The Boy begins middle school, so it’s even tougher on him now to miss days and make up all the work.

So we’re going out with a bang and a BIG cow (or two)! The focus of our trip is the new Turkey Hill Experience in Lancaster County, an interactive, museum-ish tour that the ice cream company opened this summer. The kids will get to milk some (not real) cows, and we’ll all get to stuff our faces with ice cream.

Turkey Hill

Credit: TurkeyHillExperience.com

Speaking of face-stuffing, we’re also going to visit several other food factories in the area. York, Lancaster, and Chester counties are full of them; the area is known as the “snack food corridor.” So, Points Plus be (temporarily) damned, here’s the calorific countdown for the next several days:

Revonah Pretzel Bakery, Inc.

Snyder’s of Hanover

UTZ

Herr’s

Martin’s Chips

Wolfgang Candy

Turkey Hill Experience

Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery

Wilbur Chocolate Co.

Hey, on an unrelated but exciting note, have you seen us profiled on SecondAct.com? Please take a look at our Florida trip on the “My Vacation” page! Our photos of Splitsville and the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club in St. Pete, and the Sea Screamer speedboat in Clearwater live on in this article on our road trip over the holidays. We were thrilled to be included, despite the fact that it’s a site for “Boomers.” I guess at 41, I’m encroaching on that phase, huh?

Speed boat

Remember our freezefest on the world's largest speed boat?

 

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Virginia Beach: World’s Longest Stretch of Pleasure Beach

 

Shark week

BIG teeth at the Virginia Aquarium (in honor of Shark Week)!

Where we went, and who was coerced into going:

Over Memorial Day week, we drove down to Virginia Beach, VA and Williamsburg, VA. We were game for a road trip, and The Boy got to miss four days of school. He starts middle school next month (hold me), and I figured this may be the last opportunity to pull him out of school for such a long stretch!

WHY did you go there, exactly?

Virginia Beach holds a Guinness World Record as the “world’s longest stretch of pleasure beach.” The 35-mile coastline is comprised of the Virginia Beach resort area, the Chesapeake Bay beach, and Sandbridge beach (our favorite spot!)

It’s always convenient when a beach vacation fits with our BIG theme!  Plus, we were on the hunt for several BIG attractions I had read about, including a giant gorilla, a 30-foot statue of Neptune, and an oversized sea serpent!

Okay, what was so cool about it?

Beyond the beautiful beaches, there were several attractions and activities we all enjoyed, especially the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, and the Ocean Breeze Waterpark. I’ve already written broader descriptions of Virginia Beach for other family travel sites. If you would like info on family–friendly attractions, activities, and dining in Virginia Beach, please visit FamilyVacationCritic.com and FamilyTravelNetwork.com

But I know what you REALLY want to know more about – Hugh Mongous, the giant gorilla; Neptune, the King of the Sea; and Isabel, the sea serpent!

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PHOTO FRIDAY: Isabel the Sea Serpent, Sandbridge Beach, VA

We’ve been visiting Virginia this week, and I will have some great intel to share with you over the next few weeks! But for Photo Friday, I chose this image of Isabel, a 60-foot long sea serpent crafted from driftwood, with coconut shell eyes.

Sea serpent

She lies in the front yard of a rental home right on Sandbridge Beach, which is about 15 minutes south of Virginia Beach. A local sculptor, Scott Dilatush, created her in 1999.

When we found her, it was somewhat serendipitous that we discovered a public access path to the beach just to the left of her yard. And a (free) street parking space. The four of us had a glorious day on that beautiful, uncrowded beach, wading over the sandbars, looking for shells, flying kites, building the requisite sandcastle, etc. I’ll remember it for a long time.

Sandbridge Beach

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PHOTO FRIDAY – Easter edition

So, I was going to color Easter eggs with a “Go BIG or Go Home” message, similar to what I did with the Christmas cookies and the Jack O’Lanterns. I would like partial credit for the idea. The wrinkle in that plan is that the eggs would be colored on Thursday, and they would have to stay fresh until Sunday.

I’m happy and relieved to have found something MUCH better to share with you for our Easter post! A really BIG basket! This is the Lorain Easter Basket in Ohio.
DDK_20110105_0219.jpg

Many thanks to Dominique King for sharing her photo with us! Dominique is the blogger behind Midwest Guest. A travel writer at heart, Midwest Guest allows her to share stories about the often underappreciated Heartland region of the U.S.

Dominque reports that Lorain’s big Easter Basket draws scores of visitors to the park on Ohio’s Lake Erie shore each spring to take photos of their families in their Easter finery. City parks employee David Shukait created the 7-foot-tall concrete sculpture, and the City of Lorain installed it as part of a public works project in 1941.

See more photos and get more info on her blog today.

Happy Easter!!

 

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BIGGISH – Billboard People of AZ and CA

We don’t get out to the west coast as often as we’d like. Our last trip was to Anaheim and Carlsbad, CA in 2008 to visit Disneyland and LEGOLAND. Our last post featuring the west coast was over the summer, when my very own Dad reported “from the field.” My parents went to several BIG sites: San Francisco’s Chinatown; the tallest waterfall in North America at Yosemite National Park; and the world’s largest tree in Sequoia National Park.

This month’s guest post brings us back out to California, as well as Arizona. Tiffany and her hubby are a young, adventurous couple traveling full-time in their little painted Airstream, “eddie.” (p.s. Did you know that “Eddie” is also the name of the World’s Largest Kid? And that I like to insert shameless links to other posts on this blog to increase page visits?)

Their blog, WanderingAirstream.com, chronicles their journeys in their beloved 1973 Argosy Airstream. I just love that they’ve lovingly restored and renovated eddie. I’m a sucker for before-and-afters (too much time watching HGTV!)

This is what eddie looks like inside.

airstream

The "Go BIG" family would last about an hour together in this space.

I take issue with them for removing the avocado oven, but otherwise, COOL! And compact. I think Tiffany and her husband must have a VERY healthy relationship to spend all their time together in this vehicle!

Here’s Tiffany’s report about two larger-than-life billboard installations they found during their travels:

Traci invited me over today to share a couple of BIG roadside attractions that my husband and I found on our travels. We love the biggest, tiniest, quirkiest of just about anything, and as we are traveling the country full-time in our vintage airstream,  we are always on the lookout for the unusual.

But these caught us out-of-the-blue. We had no idea of their existence, and were just lucky to have stumbled across them.

Billboard

The first is a giant cut-out family outside of Temecula, CA. It is very close to Diamond Valley Lake, off of Hwy 74 East towards Hemet, CA. Turn right on Winchester Road, South towards Temecula, go about 10 miles and you’ll run right into them!

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BIGGISH – World’s Second Largest Botanic Garden, Montréal, QC

Montreal Botanic Garden

The Exhibition Gardens

Hear that? It’s spring approaching. The daffodils have broken ground, and they’re a relief to see! Not to push things along too much, but it’s a good week to revisit our trip to the Montréal Botanic Garden. It’s not the world’s largest — that title belongs to the Royal Botanic Gardens (or Kew Gardens) in Great Britain – but it’s the world’s second largest botanic garden. Perfect for our “Biggish” category!

Where we went, and who was coerced into going:

We went to Montréal last summer, mainly because Matt had a business trip, and it’s only a five hour drive. This was the kids’ first international travel, and this small, bilingual city was the ideal destination; a perfect combination of fun and cultural immersion. While we were there, we risked our lives (not really) riding to the top of the world’s tallest inclined tower, and discovered the secrets of poutine in the world’s largest underground pedestrian network.

WHY did you go there, exactly?

I had my doubts that the kids would be jazzed about the Montréal Botanical Garden, with nothing remotely virtual, electronic, or 4-D to offer. We all enjoyed it though, mainly because we didn’t try to push our luck to see all 180 acres, 10 exhibition greenhouses and 30 outdoor gardens.

I must also point out that the weather was – surprisingly – perfect, and this further convinced us to spend the day outside.

Okay, what was so cool about it?

Within this immense garden are several smaller themed gardens; each more fascinating than the one before. The kids would tell you that their favorites involved water features – how surprised are you? Given the “all clear,” The Girl would have immersed herself in any one of the pools within the Aquatic Garden.

The Chinese Garden, surrounded by a bright blue koi pond, was also a hit, especially with its opulent walk-through pagoda and an exhibit of impossible-not-to-touch bonsai trees. (Me: “Don’t touch those. Please don’t touch them. See the sign that says “don’t touch” in both French AND English?! DON’T TOUCH!!”)

Pagoda

Chinese garden pagoda, with the Olympic Tower in the background. We went to the top of that!

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The Go BIG Road Trip Itinerary!

So, we have an itinerary for the Go BIG or Go Home Road Trip Extravaganza next week.  Now we’re getting excited! Southbound, the plan is to take I-81 through VA, then I-77 and I-20 south through the Carolinas and into GA. Finally, we’ll catch I-75 to take us to Tampa. On the way back, I-4 to I-95. That route is more direct, but there seems to be less to see in terms of “world’s largest” sites within proximity of the highway.

It’s not an ambitious schedule by any means…did I mention The Girl is only three years old? There are just enough stops to get her out of the car (and out of my hair) once in a while.

My mapping method is very old school. Matt is embarrassed to his very core by this rudimentary system, so lacking is it of bits and bytes.

Map

I ♥ highlighters.

He started a shared Google map, and basically threatened not to do any of the driving if I didn’t enter our coordinates on it. Matt is Tech Boy. Have you seen his post listing all the travel tech gear we bring on trips? Would it surprise you to learn he was the President of the A/V club in high school?

Mapping method 2.0:

Look how I did a "screen grab," oh yeah, uh-huh!


Honey: Screen Shots are not 2.0 – Matt

So, here’s the list of places we plan / hope to see along the way. Stay tuned here, or on Facebook or Twitter to follow our progress!

December 26

Giant Benjamin Moore Paint Can, Shippensburg, PA

Giant Coke Bottle, Hagerstown, MD

World’s Largest Apple, Winchester, VA

Overnight in Jonesville, North Carolina

December 27

World’s Biggest Kid – Edventure Museum (also the south’s largest children’s museum), Columbia, SC

World’s Largest Peanut Monument, Ashburn, GA

December 29

World’s Largest Shuffleboard Club, St. Petersburg, FL

December 30

World’s Largest Speed Boat, Clearwater, FL

January 1

Giant 7-Up can,  Jacksonville, FL

South of the Border and the new Reptile Lagoon (the largest indoor reptile exhibit in the U.S.), SC

Overnight in Rocky Mount, NC

January 2

HOME to world’s most comfortable beds…our own!

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Where is it? Wednesday

Today’s “Where is it? Wednesday features a steel sculpture (I’ve said too much already) which measures 56′ x 46′ x 46′. Ten points if you can tell me where this is!

BONUS points if you know its name and who made it. No, it wasn’t created by “The Others,” and it’s not on the LOST island, although that’s what Matt thinks. He got a little too wrapped up in that show, if you ask me.

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42


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British Columbia’s Tallest Tree House

Good lord, it’s November! Who else has seen Christmas commercials on TV and has broken out in a cold sweat?

This month’s guest post is a FUN one, especially if you ever had a tree house when you were a kid (or wished you did)! Tanya Bennett is principal writer at DrivingandDining.com, which features great places to visit and eat at on the road. Check out her most recent post, “Happy Fried Day,” for a tantalizing peek at a deep-fried Mars bar…mmm…

Where we went and who was coerced into going:

tallest treehouse

I'm thinking that's a lot of stairs...

We rented a 22-foot trailer and hit the road for 8 days, traveling around British Columbia, Canada. Our itinerary included The Enchanted Forest, home to  British Columbia’s (maybe even Canada’s?) Tallest Tree House.

The adventurers: my husband (and, it turns out, expert trailer-backer-upper), me (roadside attraction connoisseur), and our two daughters (aged 3 and 10 months).

The route: We arrived at the Enchanted Forest via Vancouver, Bridal Falls (DinoTown! – just in time to visit before it closed forever), Kamloops, Salmon Arm, and Craigellachie (Beardale Miniature Land!).

The Enchanted Forest roadside attraction is located halfway between Sicamous and Revelstoke, in South Eastern British Columbia, on the side of a densely wooded hill. You enter through a fairy tale cottage (think Hansel and Gretel) and then stroll along windy paths. You pass settings that portray favorite children’s stories from nursery rhymes, fairy tales and literature. Kids (and flexible adults) can actually enter most of the small buildings, where they will see tiny little beds for the seven dwarves or a table set with three bowls for the three bears.

WHY did you go there, exactly?

To see BC’s tallest tree house, of course! During a previous visit to the Enchanted Forest I was 8 months pregnant and unable (or at least, unwilling) to climb to the top of BC’s tallest tree house. I’d been complaining about it ever since, so this year my husband agreed to go again. My daughter didn’t need to be persuaded – her response was, “Are we going right now?” “No.” “How about now?” “Not yet.” (Pause.) ”How about now?” (You get the idea.)

Okay, what was so cool about it?

The surrounding forest sets the scene and then you feel like you are entering a very special, magical place as you climb the twisty staircases to the top of the enchanting multi-level structure. My three-year-old daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed our exciting adventure to the top. The bunk beds there sparked our imagination as we pictured ourselves sleeping in the treetops, surrounded by the fantasy figurines below.

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World’s Second Largest Garden Gnome, Kerhonkson, NY

Worlds largest garden gnome

Meet Chomsky!

Up until April of this year, the world’s largest garden gnome was Chomsky, the jolly, 13’ 6” bearded fellow who welcomes you at the entrance of Kelder’s Farm in Kerhonkson, NY. Another feather in our Hudson Valley cap. I’ve learned there are two taller gnomes; one in Iowa, and the other in Poland.  I’m bummed. I have to categorize this post as “Biggish,” not “Biggest.”

Where we went, and who was coerced into going:

At the strike of midnight on September 30th, we begin the excited preparations for Halloween. It’s a long month of discussing, analyzing, and comparing costume choices; putting up decorations; watching Halloween TV specials (we own It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown) and reading our favorite books, most notably Jerry Seinfeld’s Halloween. Both kids can now recite the Halloween Three-Step Program by heart.

And of course, there’s the pumpkin picking. This year, we’re going to make Jack O’Lanterns, so inspired are we from going to the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.

So this year, we went to get our pumpkins about an hour away, on Kelder’s Farm in Kerhonkson, NY.

WHY did you go there, exactly?

We’ve been there to see Chomsky once before, but it was in March when the farm stand wasn’t open. We went to get a better look at the world’s second largest garden gnome, with the added benefit of getting our pumpkins and having some fun on the farm.

Okay, what was so cool about it?

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