Tourist For A Day

Stratadrake · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject:

I live in a town with a MAJOR tourist attraction.

But I got to thinking yesterday, why do I never actually go there anymore? Is it because I live not five miles from it, and I can visit it any day?

So, then, why don't I actually take time to visit it occasioally?

That's what I said yesterday, so I grabbed my backpack, my bike, and rode on down.

Me without a bike lock, and the rack highly visible about 100 feet from the main entrance. A parking lot only about 1/4 full -- definitely not the tourist season. Hey, what better time to visit than the middle of January?

So I walked in to the cheese factory and looked around for like 40 minutes.

The good news? My bike was still there when I left. I'd taken the librety of removing all valuables from it (lights, spedometer, so on), and I made sure my backpack was empty before leaving home, because I left my pack out along with the bike. I figured, if I'm unable to lock it up, I can at least minimize any potential losses.

Saw some interesting wooden piece puzzles/kits at the gift shop, looked at the various dioramas describing the factory's history, took a free sample of cheese, and bought some curds for the way home.

So, all in all I had some fun being a local "tourist".

Anyone else have a similar story to share?
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Kaiser_Envoy_of_The_End · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:14 pm Post subject:

Eons ago I went to L.A. to visit my father's.......other family, anywho no matter where I went, everything and I really mean everything was crowded. Stores, parking lots, dressing rooms, streets, bathrooms, which were quite dirty and nasty I might add. But the worst part was waking up to the annoying sound of a horn and some old lady yelling, "Tamales!" I lothe L.A. even if everything's cheaper there and there's a guy selling five dollar bootleg movies on every corner.
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Hawk4444 · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:32 pm Post subject:

wow heh heh.

story here. b/c our town is definetly a tourist town. *ahem* W00t!

well first of all i have a cuz in pheonix and he and i rarely get together. i told him mom and dad that he was more then welcome to stay our out house anytime. she would never take up my offer.

but finally on one fateful day i got a call from my cusion eric. he said we was able to stay for a week. and he would be there after out graduations's from high school.

i planed it out. there was gonig to be a concert with the graham colton band and train.

my godfather is the number one dude and got us backstage pass's. i taunted the screaming girls with them and went backstage. heh heh i'm teh evil. Cool

the concert was his birthday and his grad present.

then i took him all over out town. to experience all the stuff our lil town had to offer. of course it only took about a day or two but he saw everything.

i even took him on the queen mine tours. where you go about 1000 feet underground into the copper mine's of ol Bisbee. But we shut down and we take tourists down under with helmets and coats and its all really dark and wet down there.

i don't have any pic's though Sad

sorry guys. maybe some other time Wink

you guys should see this town if your ever in Arizona. Very Happy

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Razeal · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject:

[quote="MathinumDragon (Byphron)"] [quote]The good news? My bike was still there when I left.[/quote]

Your lucky you live in a place with minimal crimes (like stealing bikes). On the other hand, if you were here your bike, (or anything for that matter) it would'nt last five minutes left alone. So meny scabs and assholes in our town, if they find your bike, they will unfailingly try to steal it, if they can't (i.e. if you lock it up strong), they will trash it. It's happened to so meny friends of mine, and worst of all, police don't do crap all about it.

About the tourist attractions we have nothing here, So do yourselve's all a favor, DON'T come here :(

Unless you can afford to go 200 miles further from our town and reach a city with had a lazer reality studio (like be in a studio and play in a game world thing with lazer guns etc). That is the best attraction I know of. [/quote]
Lol @ Johno reference.

We have Wadlata, Bird Lake, the Power house, the Foreshore, the Gulf and the crossroads :3
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Ogrim_Doomhammer · Oldbie Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2116

Costa Rica has lots of tourism, but almost all the tourism is because of the beaches and the nature, its not so much about the museums.

To get to anyplace worth visiting I need to go at least an hour on bus, so either I am a local tourist when I go to the beach and go to do canopy in the rainforest and stuff (about once every two years) or when I go somewhere with school, like national reserves or stuff like that (once a year).

The last time I actually was a local tourist was when I went to Barva with the school. We went to look at some guys that were sculpting right there in the park, it was a contest and there were people from all Costa Rica. They were using some weird marble. There was a guy who based all his work on medieval alchemy, his work inspired me to draw my Barva's Monk, wich by the way I should re-draw or at least re-scan.

I enjoyed the trip but it isn't what real tourism is in Costa Rica, so next time I go to the beach I am going to take note.
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fallenangel · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:49 pm Post subject:

[quote]Eons ago I went to L.A. to visit my father's.......other family, anywho no matter where I went, everything and I really mean everything was crowded. Stores, parking lots, dressing rooms, streets, bathrooms, which were quite dirty and nasty I might add. But the worst part was waking up to the annoying sound of a horn and some old lady yelling, "Tamales!" I lothe L.A. even if everything's cheaper there and there's a guy selling five dollar bootleg movies on every corner.[/quote]

Lolz, where did you go? LA proper or like...Hollywood/Santa Monica/Venice/Westwood/etc? Sounds like trashy Hollywood. I live in Westchester/Marina del Rey/Santa Monica, s'really not that crowded (except rush hour traffic. And weekends). But there's constant traffic noise and LAX is right next door. I don't notice anymore. And actually, I've kinda always liked traffic noise.

I live five minutes from Venice Beach and have only been once, though just for lack of time.

Man, it's a sad sad sign when an Oregon tourist attraction is the cheese factory. Although I've driven by it before. I went to the Astor Column a few times in Astoria when I used to live there. Lived ten minutes from the End of the Oregon Trail Center but never went to it. I did go to the other Oregon Trail center near my grandma's. Is it in Baker or Pendleton, though? Like it matters. Middle of nowhere towns.

Oregon tourist attractions suck. The waterfront in Portland. Ghey.
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Sonner · Rookie Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 36

cheese factory is MAJOR? lol

man see i cant stop puttin lol after my messages! 2 much funny stuff heh

KeheiZero · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:13 am Post subject:

Meh, tourism's a big part of this city. I've been to see a lot of it already, like the castle and stuff like that.

But a couple weeks ago me and a few friends went all "touristy" and went on a ghost walk. All it is is a guide takes you round the old parts of town and tells ghost stories. Nothing odd happened, except when you're underground and a couple candles get blown out, but that was it. The atmosphere was a bit creepy in Mary King's Close though. It's a maze of underground rooms that was closed off for about 200 years then re-opened in the eighties for the public. Good laugh though.
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Stratadrake · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:34 am Post subject:

[quote]cheese factory is MAJOR? lol[/quote]
Seriously, it is. Self-guided tour (complete with historical displays and informative/educational videos playing on TV kiosks, desribing how the process works), observation of the factory floor (massive cooking vats, pressure towers to compress the curds into solid cheese blocks) and packaging rooms... free samples, gift shop.

You mean you've never heard of Tillamook Cheese? (The actual tourist area is only in the front part of the building, with the blue stripe and yellow logo on it. The rest is factory area -- the large white building in the back is a giant, refrigerated storage room)

Oh well.
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fallenangel · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:45 am Post subject:

Ugh, just reading about it is making me sick. I hope whoever invented cheese died a slow, painful death. I don't remember, does it smell like cheese near it? I think I'd prefer driving through the cow fields in eastern oregon. Or mushrooms. Or...just about anything else. Skunk farm, whatever.
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SmilinJuanValdez · Member Joined: 11 Feb 2004 Posts: 63

I live in a valley where there is a BIG indian casino up on the hill that lights up the night. I went there once, and I was only sort of impressed by it. This was of course before they built the 7 storey parking garage and obtained a wine/liquor license. My narrow road is now inundated with drunk casino traffic. This casino monstrosity has turned a sleepy little agricultural nook into one of the most dangerous areas in the county. We got lots of lost casino goers wandering onto our farm, and worst off, a casino visitor (not paying attention to her driving) caused me to get into an accident!!! I was okay just a few cuts and burns, and I also lost part of my hearing in my right ear (it came back) from the airbags. Consequently I have no need or love for our local tourist attraction. Actually, it's not the attraction that pisses me off, just the visitors.

Paru · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:20 am Post subject:

I don't live near anything even remotely interesting. D:

But dude, Strata, if I were you I would most certainly go to that factory every day and bother the workers for delicious free cheese samples. Cool

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Squidman · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:29 am Post subject:

The town that I'm from exists soley for the needs of Manitoba Hydro, so tours of the dams are the only real sightseeing thing there. Almost every year that I was in primary and middle school they'd take us down for a "field trip" to one of the dams. Same boring thing every year (Children! This is a CRANE! This is what it sounds like when it's NOISY!)

However, a couple summers ago when I got my first summer job at Hydro, they were doing the safety training at that same dam. We had some spare time left at the end of the day and they asked us what we wanted to do, so we decided we'd go on a tour of the dam for old time's sake.

Instead of just being the same old thing, this particular tour was COMPLETELY AWESOME. They took us down into the Drainage Gallery underneath the dam, which is essentially a floor or two of catacombs deep underwater at the bottom of a poorly lit spiral staircase. It was like living in a Resident Evil game or something, it was great. Definately didn't regret doing the tourist thing at all that day.
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Stratadrake · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:55 am Post subject:

[b]QUOTE[/b] (fallenangel)

I hope whoever invented cheese died a slow, painful death.[/quote]
According to one of the dioramas, an early Tillamook County cheesemaker tried to create cheese without a recipe, through trial & error (and "mostly error").

[b]QUOTE[/b] (fallenangel)

I don't remember, does it smell like cheese near it?[/quote]
No, it smells like cow manure and silage, just like the rest of the county :lol:

(Seriously, that only happens occasionally, the air is usually quite clean)

[b]QUOTE[/b] (Squidman)

Instead of just being the same old thing, this particular tour was COMPLETELY AWESOME. They took us down into the Drainage Gallery underneath the dam, which is essentially a floor or two of catacombs deep underwater at the bottom of a poorly lit spiral staircase. It was like living in a Resident Evil game or something, it was great. Definately didn't regret doing the tourist thing at all that day.[/quote]

I went on a field trip to the Cheese Factory's inner workings in one of my college classes. We got to see the ovens up close, the control stations for the machines, the room with all the breaker switches, automated machines that fold out the boxes, a robot arm that automatically takes the 40-lb. boxes of cheese and stacks them like bricks on a palette... the [i]five-story[/i] refrigerated storage warehouse with two robotic gantries that can sort, store, and withdraw entire palettes of cheese on demand... THAT was quite awesome too.
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grimfairy
Still very bored

Joined: 17 Jan 2006
Posts: 300

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:20 am Post subject:

The major tourist area within 5 minutes of me is the beach. Disney, Busch Gardens, etc. are within 2 hours from my house but I don't go to those often. Funny thing is, I think I don't really go to any of these much anymore because I've always gone my whole life. I still like going to Disney just for DisneyQuest (the 3 story Arcade, pretty much) but that's Downtown Disney, which isn't really Disney at all. Anyway, heh. The beach is a 5 minute drive from my house, but I absolutely never go during the day. Sometimes a couple of friends and I go during the night and just sit in one of the lawn chairs the hotels put on the beach and chat. Never swim at the beach anymore. Never go out and tan... -_- I think it's just overexposure to these things when I was little. I was probably 13 or 14 that last time I went to the beach in the daytime. XD That's about all I have for a tourist trap story. I do think if I lived closer to Orlando though, I would probably spend loads more time in Downtown Disney or at CityWalk in Universal. Those are just more social areas than theme parks. Bars, movie theatres, restaurants. Just nice because they're all bundled together.

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Stratadrake
Elder Than Dirt

Joined: 05 May 2004
Posts: 13721
Location: Moo

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:55 am Post subject:

Ah, social hangouts. We don't have any around Tillamook... the closest we get to that is a YMCA, a small park with ramps & quarterpipes for skateboarding, and Fred Meyer. _________________ Strata here: [url=http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/242293]Nanowrimo[/url] - [url=www.fanart-central.net/user-Stratadrake.php]FAC[/url] - [url=http://stratadrake.deviantart.com]dA[/url] - [url=www.furaffinity.net/user/Stratadrake/]FA[/url] [size=9]Disclaimer: Posts may contain URLs. Click [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife]at your own risk.[/url][/size]

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Razeal
Still very bored

Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 395
Location: Ausfailia

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:32 pm Post subject:

We have like, 10 beaches here D: Pretty good, for a hole resembling town like mine :/ _________________ Cha Cha Chaaaa

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