My wife and I vacationed in Hawaii back in 2000 and we had the privilege and honor to visit the Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial. I will never forget the drops of oil still floating to the surface from the ship's sunken hull. I also spent two days in Washington, D.C. a few years back with my son on his school field trip and Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial were just a few of the revered sites that everyone should have the opportunity to see in person.

I would like to visit the historical places in Jerusalem, Rome and Athens in that order.

Kings Mountain Battleground is a local historical site from the Revolution I've been to numerous times. I've also been to Gettysburg, Sharpesburg, Fort Sumter and Fort Fisher. I hope to visit Pearl Harbor and Normandy one day.

I consider myself pretty lucky to have grown up in and visited some neat, historic towns on the coast. Here's some of the places I've visited (check out the hyperlinks for more photos):

North Carolina:
All of the NC Lighthouses


Wilmington - historic port city - former capital of NC:
USS North Carolina


Fort Fisher (1861-1865)

Moore's Creek Battlefield - Feb 22, 1776

Tryon Palace- Old NC Governor's house - New Bern - historic coastal city, former capital of NC


Biltmore estate - largest private estate in America - Ashville


Old Greenville tobacco market (largest in state-country?)

Wright Brothers First Flight Memorial- Kitty Hawk NC


Fort Macon - Built in 1826 - Morehead City, NC


South Carolina:
Charleston - historic port/coastal city - large historic district, old houses, roads, etc.:
Charleston City Market

Georgia:
Savannah (amazing pictures) - historic port/coastal city. Like Charleston, the city itself is a goldmine of history, but a lot of it isn't nationally known. It's like being back in the antebellum south:
Resting place of Nathanael Greene


WWII Memorial

Ft. Pulaski

Savannah's Famous Squares

Washington DC:
Pretty much everything that tourists do:
Washington monument
White House
Jefferson memorial
Lincoln memorial
WWII memorial
Holocaust museum
Vietnam memorial
The U.S. Mint (not that historic)
Arlington National cemetery - actually got to lay the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier with three other classmates.
the Capitol

Tennessee:
The Hermitage - resting place of Andrew Jackson


The Grand ole Opry house

Kentucky
Mammoth Cave- geologic history. Largest cave system in the world. Wikipedia says human interaction with the cave dates over six thousand years...I don't remember that from the tour and they didn't list the source, so who really knows.

I would like to visit Philadelphia and Boston some day to see some of the historic sites. Long-term I'd like to visit Ireland and Scotland to see some old castles and villages.

Visiting Carthage is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. In terms of something that is just cool I'd probably have to say Napoleon's tomb. Finally, if you are in any way spiritual the Vatican is something you'll never forget.

If you go to Ireland, don't kiss the Blarney Stone, as kids we used to jump the fence and pee on it.

(06-14-2014 03:17 AM)ncbeta Wrote:  I consider myself pretty lucky to have grown up in and visited some neat, historic towns on the coast.

Not native to North Carolina, I am gradually visiting many of the places you mentioned. Biltmore and Wilmington were fantastic. One area that remains on my NC to-do list that I want to take my family to visit is the Outer Banks including Kitty Hawk.

With the exception of a few mentioned above, I have seen the balance, including Pompeii, Rome, Mt Rushmore, Sturgis (that's historical/unforgettable).

I hope to see more of the Western part of our country and I would like to see and experience Normandy!

I've seen so many historical landmarks all over the world, it would take me days to list them all, and I'd probably forget a few. But I would love to go back to Berlin to see all the changes that have occurred since the wall was torn down.

No one talks during the entire Arizona Memorial tour, the only sounds
one can hear is the shuttle boat motor and the clicking noise of cameras…
Same with Dachau, except for the eery sounds of people weeping.

(06-14-2014 07:47 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  No one talks during the entire Arizona Memorial tour, the only sounds
one can hear is the shuttle boat motor and the clicking noise of cameras…
Same with Dachau, except for the eery sounds of people weeping.

One thing that still stands clear in my memory when we visited the memorial in 2000 was there were some American kids talking and not completely taking in the reverence of the place. One group I noticed remained completely silent and respectful the entire time...Japanese tourists.

(06-14-2014 07:53 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 07:47 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  No one talks during the entire Arizona Memorial tour, the only sounds
one can hear is the shuttle boat motor and the clicking noise of cameras…
Same with Dachau, except for the eery sounds of people weeping.

One thing that still stands clear in my memory when we visited the memorial in 2000 was there were some American kids talking and not completely taking in the reverence of the place. One group I noticed remained completely silent and respectful the entire time...Japanese tourists.

I don’t even remember any kids on my tour, not even teenagers.
But I too noticed how reverent the Japanese tourists were.
I guess the Japanese save all their rudeness for the streets of Waikiki.

(06-14-2014 09:11 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 07:53 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 07:47 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  No one talks during the entire Arizona Memorial tour, the only sounds
one can hear is the shuttle boat motor and the clicking noise of cameras…
Same with Dachau, except for the eery sounds of people weeping.

One thing that still stands clear in my memory when we visited the memorial in 2000 was there were some American kids talking and not completely taking in the reverence of the place. One group I noticed remained completely silent and respectful the entire time...Japanese tourists.

I don’t even remember any kids on my tour, not even teenagers.
But I too noticed how reverent the Japanese tourists were.
I guess the Japanese save all their rudeness for the streets of Waikiki.

Folks can't handle that darn Sapporo and Sake.....

(06-14-2014 09:49 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 09:11 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 07:53 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 07:47 PM)AngryAphid Wrote:  No one talks during the entire Arizona Memorial tour, the only sounds
one can hear is the shuttle boat motor and the clicking noise of cameras…
Same with Dachau, except for the eery sounds of people weeping.

One thing that still stands clear in my memory when we visited the memorial in 2000 was there were some American kids talking and not completely taking in the reverence of the place. One group I noticed remained completely silent and respectful the entire time...Japanese tourists.

I don’t even remember any kids on my tour, not even teenagers.
But I too noticed how reverent the Japanese tourists were.
I guess the Japanese save all their rudeness for the streets of Waikiki.

Folks can't handle that darn Sapporo and Sake.....

Beer and Sake are pretty hard to handle together for 99% of all people.

The Globe Theatre... so much literary history was done in there, it literally felt at times like I was standing in Mr. Shakespeare's shoes..

(06-14-2014 11:25 AM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  

(06-14-2014 03:17 AM)ncbeta Wrote:  I consider myself pretty lucky to have grown up in and visited some neat, historic towns on the coast.

Not native to North Carolina, I am gradually visiting many of the places you mentioned. Biltmore and Wilmington were fantastic. One area that remains on my NC to-do list that I want to take my family to visit is the Outer Banks including Kitty Hawk.

Kitty Hawk is a pretty cool spot. I love fishing, surfing and camping...some find it funny that people from the beach like to visit/vacation at other beaches...but the outer banks is a prime spot for all three activities I mentioned.

The lighthouses are pretty cool too. I have family history that dates back to the founding of the US Life Saving Service in NC, which merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to create the U.S. Coast Guard. Several ancestors have been lighthouse keepers and surfmen. The tradition continues with some of my living relatives....it's the only cool thing about my family history.

Been to a lot of places listed above. Battlefields seem to have a big impact on me:
Shiloh, Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, Lexington, Concord, Yorktown, Fort Sumter, Appomattox Courthouse, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Arlington, Chalmette (Battle of New Orleans) to name as few.

Other places include Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral (Magna Carta), Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, British Museum (Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone), Hadrian's Wall, Edinburgh Castle, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace, O'Connell Street in Dublin, Blarney Castle (did not kiss the stone), Panama Canal, Lockport (on Erie Canal), Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, WY, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Deadwood, SD, Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam.