Show & Tell - Interesting Things Near You

Remember 'Show & Tell' at school?
Well, let's have one here. Simply, show (pictures) and tells us about some interesting things that are nearby to where you live.

(Only show one thing per post so we can all take it in one at a time)
I will start this off.

Today I will talk about "The General Sherman Tree".
This tree is found at Sequoia Park, about 45 minutes from where I live. It is the largest living thing and was here around the time Jesus Christ was born. The tree is huge and it is hard to get a good picture that really tells you how huge it is.




From the sign in front of the tree reads:



The General Sherman Tree stands as the ultimate example of the growth potential of a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Other types of trees are taller, or thicker at the base, but no other living thing on this planet exceeds the volume of this giant sequoia. The General Sherman Tree owes its immense size not to great age (many other sequoias are older) but rather to its very rapid growth rate. Fore over two thousand years this tree has survived numerous fires, climatic change and even the coming of modern man. Today it remains not only the world's largest living thing, but also one of the fastest growing.

Estimated Age: 2300-2700 years
Estimated Weight of Trunk: 1385 tons (1256 metric tons)
Height Above Base: 274.9 ft (83.8 meters)
Circumference at Ground: 102.6 ft (31.3 meters)
Maximum Diameter at Base: 36.5 ft (11.1 meters)
Diameter 60 ft. Above Ground: 17.5 ft (5.3 meters)
Diameter 180 ft. Above Ground: 14.0 ft (4.3 meters)
Diameter of Largest Branch: 6.8 ft (2.1 meters)
Height of First Large Branch: 130.0 ft (39.6 meters)
Volume of Trunk: 52,500 cubic ft (1,486.6 cubic meters

*Here are some more pictures. As you can see.... we humans seem like little fairy people in this giant forest. I've seen this tree w/ sunrays coming through it, surrounded by snow, surrounded by fog... it just looks magnificent all the time.
A lot of people from all over the world come to this park. I've seen people from China, Japan, India, Argentina, Russia and couple others...

Wowza, big trees! They look awesome Carol.

C'mon guys... start posting about interesting & neat things or places near ya! :sillySmiley:
Okay, another neat place near me ... well not really near, but 2 1/2 hours drive and I'll get there... the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).



I have only driven only part of this spectacular winding road along the rugged coastline and one day I'd like to drive it all the way. It is just an awesome drive and can get distracted by the panoramic ocean views, the waves thundering against the high cliffs, the varied vegetation and all the colorful little flowers on the cliffs... the seabreeze blowing through your hair... the views are just incredible and it really makes you love life while riding there.

A video can only capture so much but to give you an idea... here is a video someone posted on youtube which shows him driving in a convertible... pretty awesome! I recommend seeing the 1st video about 1/2 way through, pause it around 2:55, see the 2nd video and then finish the 1st video

Whoa! Nice pics.

Here goes...

Giant Cross

The cross is 198 feet high, with a 113 foot crossbar. The First Baptist Church of Effingham formed the Cross Foundation to raise $1.1 million to erect the cross. The inspiration came when congregation members saw the immense cross in Groom, Texas. The Cross foundation is working to add Ten Commandments and Life of Christ stations along a meditation walk at the base of the cross.

In civic promotions of the past, the town of Effingham had proclaimed itself the "Crossroads of America."



The Rosebud Theatre
The Rosebud is amazing! So many big acts have come here. For a small hick town like Effingham, that's a big thing.[


FUNFEST 2008
This is such a big weekend for Effingham. Over 15,000 Corvettes and over 45,000 Corvette enthusiasts participated in Corvette Funfest 2007. Each year it keeps getting bigger.

This a great topic Carol.

Cool pics everyone.

Wow, Savannah, that pic of bald eagle is amazing! What a great guy your neighbor is to care for all the injured eagles!

Susie, My friend Drew owns 3 vettes, and he's a member of our local corvette club (Long Island Vettes). I'll have to ask him if he had ever gone to Funfest.

http://www5.hamptons.com/licorvette/photoidx.htm

Okay... Now this is getting fun! With more people posting stuff, the funner this is. :sillySmiley:

Okay, why don't we extend this to not just places near you... but interesting places or things in your STATE... or talk about one of your state landmarks...

Susie, that is the biggest cross I have seen! Wow!
And to see all those Corvettes all together at one time... pretty awesome! :CoolSign:
Savannah, that is so cool how that man cared for that Eagle... really neat!

Okay, today I will talk about a neat farm geared towards everyone really but specially the kids. It's located in California's central valley and it's called



One of the tours they offer there is 'The Hamburger Farm Tour'.



Basically, kids learn that Everything in your favorite hamburger comes from the farm!

This special educational program provides a guided tour of a farm that grows all the crops needed for a hamburger. Even the farm is shaped like a hamburger!
The trip to the farm will include the following:

Guided tour of a farm that grows all crops needed for a hamburger-

--- including hands on activities such as grinding wheat into flour
--- digging potatoes and slicing them into French fries

--- milking a "cow" to get milk for cheese.


In addition to information on each crop, discussion topics include: "good" and "bad" insects; and amounts of water needed to "grow" a hamburger.

I think this is such a neat thing because after the kids finish touring the farm, they then get to eat lunch and of course the main course is a hamburger. :sillySmiley: A lot of the kids tend to eat more vegetables since they have seen them on the tour. Kids that normally don't like lettuce will choose to include lettuce tomato and pickles.

This is great stuff. I love the Pacific Coast Highway videos, Carol. Not to mention the General Sherman.

I don't have pictures but I work for one of the oldest state ran day care centers in the state of California. It was established in 1906. And I graduated from one of th eoldest high schools as well. It had its centennial in 1992 an di graduated in 1994.

This kind of goes along with Susie's, but it was the first thing I thought of when I started contemplating 'my area'. It's up North, about 4 hours from me, in a town called "Indian River". I went there as a little girl and then again a few years back. It is just a gorgeous place and a beautiful crucifix. It was an amazing experience. If you get a chance to read the story of the shrine, it is pretty neat.

http://www.crossinthewoods.com/


Carol, I can't get over those pics of the Sherman! What an amazing site that would be! Great topic idea!

Rhonda wrote:

This is in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, just an hour up the road from me........It is absolutely beautiful there and the chapel below is so peaceful and calming......

Thorn Crown Chapel

Make sure you take the virtual tour.... Take the Tour

Then there is also The Great Passion Play and before you get there, you see the Christ of the Ozarks statue....
Christ of the Ozarks

Eureka Springs is a wonderful place to go and spend a few days and just relax.......You can get around on a trolly and enjoy wonderful food and wonderful entertainment......Myself, I like to just hang out in the little cabins you can rent.....beats a motel any day..........
I stayed here in October 2006

Rhonda, I just love Eureka Springs!! I was there on a bus trip in Aug 1994. The Passion Play was amazing and The Christ of the Ozarks is sooo beautiful. My brother and I took a trolly ride through town while the rest of our group went to the Ozark Mountain Theatre. I think we had the better deal, saw more and had a great day to ourselves. I'd love to go back.

These are a couple of pictures from Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio. It is Ohio's largest living-history museum.

Eureka Springs sounds great :sillySmiley:

Today I will talk about The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, CA... but I'll let the video do the talkin'.

LindsayCrouseFan wrote:

Cool pics everyone.

lol

Ah nuts. That's your sig, not a post.

Well, it was still funny.

Savannah wrote:

WOW! Carol, thanks for posting those!

I hadn't even seen this before, so I'm glad you bumped it. I'll try and think of something from my area to post. Unfortunately, being a small town....about the closest we get to interesting is the fact that a person can get pulled over by the police, and by the time they get home, their family already knows about their ticket. :Hahaha: But I'll try.

Boy, Savannah! You life in Nixon/Leesville, too? :faint2:

Here is a site near us that we visited during vacation a few years ago. They have expanded it since we had been there.

Here is the link:

http://www.crossministries.net/

well the Mellon Arena is about 45 minutes from my house. it is the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It is the oldest arena in hockey still being played in.

Ok I'm adding some of places in my state. I have no pictures of the beach here so I can't show that as part of it but I do live in "Surf City" (Huntington Beach). Which we do have a surf museum. Here is a link to that http://www.surfingmuseum.org/index1.html I will post some pics here though of a place about 20 minutes from me and has been a part of my life since I was a child and now basically is for my kids. Its Disneyland. I wanted to show pics of the carrousel there. Reason is that it has a nice history to it when you learn about it. So here goes.
One of the largest in the world, the carrousel originally featured a menagerie of exotic animals. But when Walt Disney purchased it for his new Park, he decided an all-horse look was more in keeping with the medieval theme he was going for. So the rest of the creatures were placed in storage and the search for additional equine mounts was on to take their places. Eventually, Walt and his team were able to assemble a heard of 72 steeds-procured from Sunnyside Park in Toronto and Wards Kiddyland on Coney Island.
First, Walt had all the "non-leaping" horses altered to leaping position (for dramatic effect), then he had each of them repainted in one of six colors: black, gray, chestnut, white and tan or amber. All of them would be repainted white in 1975. And 1 lucky horse, Jingles, was painted gold during the 50th anniversary celebration (which I had a pic of my younger son on but hubby's computer lost that and I'm still sad about) and then it was redecorated and rededicated again earlier this year in honor Julie Andrews (which I tried to get a pic of it last time there and my LCD screen broke so couldn't). An interesting note, no two horses are identical and some are more then 100 yrs old.

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And yes those are my kids. The pics I have of the carrousel all have one or more of my kids on it. LOL I could go on and on about different interesting facts about Disneyland and its history. LOL

Ok here is another place in South Cali that is pretty neat. My husband, John, loves tall ships so we took time during an adult only weekend down there to go see them a couple years ago and get some pics. They are in the bay at the Maritime Museum (http://www.sdmaritime.com/index.asp).

Star of India

This one below you can sail on for a bit and as you can see they shot off a cannon on it as well

Russian sub (if I remember right it is...to lazy to look it up. lol)

This ship below was in the movie Master and Commander with Russel Crowe

Wow, Anna, those pics are amAzing!!! Just beautiful!

I love that general store picture, Lori! It looks so inviting!