Once more the calendar grinds around to Thursday, and once more we slather upon the viewing public yet another Axis of Weevil Thursday Three! Today we’re going to talk about hometown landmarks, so all of you get your pencils ready and answer the following three questions:
1) If you only had one hour to show a visitor something interesting in your hometown, where would you go?
2) If you then had to find that friend a great place for a quick bite to eat, where would you go?
3) Now that you’ve entertained and fed your friend, it’s time to send him on his way. You’re not sure which way he’s going, but he’s got a fast red convertible, and you want him to see something nice as he drives. What route from your home to someplace else, either to the north, south, east, or west would you recommend to him as the most scenic drive?
Man, I wish I was the friend in this story! ANYway, go and answer those and either leave a link to your blog in the comments below, or the actual answer itself.
As for my answers…
1) Well, I guess we have to decide if we’re talking my actual community or the whole metro area. If we say the whole metro area, I think we’d go to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. If we had a bit more time, we’d do the whole zoo-gardens-Vulcan tour, but that takes more than an hour.
2) This one’s tough, since the place is swollen with great eating joints. I think for something hot, fast, cheap, and good, what we’d do is just pull out of the parking lot at the Botanical Gardens and stop at the first place we saw. I think a shot in the dark like that would turn out to be pretty darned good. (There is a fancy restaurant at the gardens, but it’s fancy and not necessarily fast or cheap.)
3) Hmm. I’m gonna cheat and combine north and east and tell him to drive State Highway 79 all the way to Guntersville. Beautiful mountains and stuff, and not a lot of interference from the constabulary.
So there you go!
Posted by Terry Oglesby at March 15, 2007 10:48 AMI'm in.
Posted by: skinnydan at March 15, 2007 11:26 AM1. Well, the Baltimore Zoo, in Druid Hill (pronounced droodle) Park, would take too long, as would the Ft. McHenry monument, the B-more Museum of Art and Walters Gallery.
Starting at my house, I'd go to the Inner Harbor using surface roads, not I-95, so the visitor could see real row house neighborhoods. The route also goes by the B&O museum, Oriole Park and the football stadium (whatever its name is currently).
2. There are plenty of places to get a quick meal at the Inner Harbor, but I'd loop around, go through a few more row house neighborhoods, to Polack Johnny's on Patapsco Ave. I believe their slogan is "The unburger, errp!"
3. Any route that doesn't go to DC. The absolute least scenic is US 1.
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at March 15, 2007 11:41 AMI'm playing Ogden Visitor Center today!
Posted by: Nate at March 15, 2007 12:44 PM1. Rosalie sits on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. From the grounds, you might have a view like this. General Grant liked it.
2. In other days, I would have suggested the Ramada, which sits above Rosalie and has picture windows overlooking the river. It is in transition.
Now I'd suggest crossing the river to the Comfort Suites Inn, or Slough-Daddy, where there are open porches to watch the river flow. Meals run $8-$10.
3. Well, hon, which direction do you want to go? West is not so great. Those are farms. And Dallas. North will take you to Vicksburg (where I still haven't been). You can take the Natchez Trace on over to Tennessee. Or you might like to run down to St. Francisville.
If you're of a mechanical mind, you might like to go downriver to the Old River Control Structure.
Posted by: Janis Gore at March 15, 2007 01:30 PMI like that last one--some more sort of a precarious solution when you think about what would happen if it failed.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 15, 2007 01:55 PMThere is also a hydraulic model of the Mississippi basin at Vicksburg, but I haven't figured out how to visit it yet.
Posted by: Janis Gore at March 15, 2007 01:59 PMThere used to be a hydraulic model of the Chesapeake Bay. It's gone now, since I guess computer models are cheaper (or maybe breeding those teeny-tiny oyster for the model was too much trouble).
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at March 15, 2007 02:33 PMJust imagine how hard it must have been to shuck them, Steevil.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 15, 2007 03:06 PMTerry,
I like your answers--very close to what I would pick in real life for most people I could ever imagine hosting. I guess that if I had anyone I REALLY wanted to impress (so badly I went above and beyond my usual haunts cuisine-wise) I'd try this:
1) take them to the
Posted by: Stan at March 15, 2007 03:58 PMHere is my little boostering for the Richmond metro area.
Posted by: Sarah G. at March 15, 2007 04:01 PMDrat! I hit the wrong button. Oh well. To pick up from where I left off:
1) The Birmingham Museum of Art, which is actually a pretty good museum--it competes fairly well with a lot of others I have seen;
2) If in a BIG hurry, the Museum has a Terrace Cafe and we could dine there; else I'd take them to the Highlands Bar and Grill and let them have a sampling of that. (Again, this is not a likely event, but only for someone I REALLY wanted to impress or owed a big thank-you.)
3) I can't come up with any route better than yours, so I'd keep that.
Posted by: Stan at March 15, 2007 04:05 PMThe Museum is an excellent choice, Stan, as is the cafe. And it really IS a very good museum--we tend to downplay it due to our overwhelming inferiority complex when comparing ourselves to other cities, but it's a gem.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 15, 2007 04:32 PMYou think you have an inferiority complex? Baltimore has a bigger and better inferiority complex!
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at March 15, 2007 07:41 PMSo we're already on the tram and then you tell me about red convertibles.
Posted by: kitchen hand at March 15, 2007 08:37 PMOf course, I'd take them to see Big Lizzie, which has a top speed of 2mph, but she is 600 kilometres away. Yes, she took a long time to get there.
Posted by: kitchen hand at March 15, 2007 10:32 PMTHAT is one big vehicle.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 16, 2007 09:04 AM