What famous thing surprised you when you saw it in person?

[orderandlaw]

The Alamo.

1. It's tiny. It looks like the Alamo's doghouse.

2. It's completely crowded into a chaos of downtown buildings and junky tourist shops...

And The Mona Lisa...it's smaller than I thought it would be.

[PZelda]

The Empire State Building. It's freaking HUGE. Of course, I was in NYC long after 9/11... If I had been able to go to NYC before 9/11, I would have been amazed at how huge the WTC towers were.

Also, the Big Ben in London. It's freaking beautiful in person, and even more beautiful when you can see it at night. I was also a little disappointed by Abbey Road, because it's a REALLY busy street. I was hoping to have someone take a picture of me crossing Abbey Road.

[Ireneparalegal]

THE GRAND CANYON. Pictures don't do it justice. It is magnificent and gorgeous. It goes on forever. It is something that you need to see in person. I have seen many pics and documentaries on it, but it is surreal even in person. It is so quiet out there. The air is so still. I swear, it had to be heaven.

HOOVER DAM. HUGE!!!!!!!!

Mt. St. Helens is another beauty that should be seen in person.

[Kazza]

The Pentagon.

[PZelda]

Originally Posted by Kazza

The Pentagon.

Oh yes, that's right. I was able to go by the Pentagon when I was in DC five years ago. Seemed rather plain to me. I was a little disappointed with the monuments, as well. (At the time I went to DC - April of 2002 - they were still rebuilding the side of the Pentagon that got hit in the 9/11 attacks. We were able to see the side that was hit. That was definitely an experience.)


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Oh, I just remembered. I did get to see the WTC site when I was in NYC, too. Holy cow - the site is HUGE. They say it's 16 acres, the size of three football fields. It was very mind-boggling to realize that six buildings once stood on that block, two of them being huge towers.

[PZelda]

Originally Posted by _Jen_

Capitol Hill - that was really cool to see. The fact that we were allowed in and got to look around was awesome. Of course this was back in July 1997. The National Press Club was cool too. That was four years before 9/11. They probably don't even let tourists in the White House, Pentagon, National Press Club or Capitol Hill anymore. We were supposed to get a tour of the White House that year, but that fell through.

As mentioned before, I was in DC in 2002... Only seven months after 9/11. In fact, the seven-month anniversary occurred while I was there (I was in DC from April 7 to 13, 2002).

Don't know about tours of the Pentagon, as we didn't have time to stop there, just go past it... But they still do Capitol Hill tours, because I got to go inside, too. Really ****ing beautiful, too. I believe they still give White House tours too, but only to a very limited # of people every day. Of course, I'm just relying on info from five years ago.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

THE GRAND CANYON. Pictures don't do it justice. It is magnificent and gorgeous. It goes on forever. It is something that you need to see in person. I have seen many pics and documentaries on it, but it is surreal even in person. It is so quiet out there. The air is so still. I swear, it had to be heaven.

HOOVER DAM. HUGE!!!!!!!!

Mt. St. Helens is another beauty that should be seen in person.

Irene, you are totally right about Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. You have to see them in person, and I'm happy I was able to.

I went to a taping of Whose Line is it Anyway? back in 2001, and was totally surprised to see how tiny the set was. It looked like a miniature of the real set. It looks so much bigger on TV!! I was also pleasantly surprised to be hugged by Wayne Brady!!

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

The skating rank by rockefeller center is freaking tiny. It always looked so big on tv, I was shocked.

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Irene, you are totally right about Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. You have to see them in person, and I'm happy I was able to.

I went to a taping of Whose Line is it Anyway? back in 2001, and was totally surprised to see how tiny the set was. It looked like a miniature of the real set. It looks so much bigger on TV!! I was also pleasantly surprised to be hugged by Wayne Brady!!

I LOVE WHOSE LINE and continue to watch it in syndication. I really love Wayne Brady, such a talent. You lucky lady you.

[treky]

the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.
Not the statue, but the wall with all the names. I had always thought it was this series of big "panels", but it's not. It starts out with 1, close to the ground then it gradually gets bigger and bigger with the monument at the end. It's really very moving, you go along reading all those names, then you get to this big statue. See it, if you haven't already.


The Smithstonian-I had always thought it was one HUGE building; but it's not.

Hollywood, Calif.-It's really not very big, and only one TV network is open to the public-NBC. And only one movie studio-Universal.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by treky

the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.
Not the statue, but the wall with all the names. I had always thought it was this series of big "panels", but it's not. It starts out with 1, close to the ground then it gradually gets bigger and bigger with the monument at the end. It's really very moving, you go along reading all those names, then you get to this big statue. See it, if you haven't already.


The Smithstonian-I had always thought it was one HUGE building; but it's not.

Hollywood, Calif.-It's really not very big, and only one TV network is open to the public-NBC. And only one movie studio-Universal.

In 1998 I went to see a taping of Jay Leno and took the NBC studio tour. It was a lot of fun!

[Jrnygrl]

Originally Posted by treky

the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C.
Not the statue, but the wall with all the names. I had always thought it was this series of big "panels", but it's not. It starts out with 1, close to the ground then it gradually gets bigger and bigger with the monument at the end. It's really very moving, you go along reading all those names, then you get to this big statue. See it, if you haven't already.


The Smithstonian-I had always thought it was one HUGE building; but it's not.

Hollywood, Calif.-It's really not very big, and only one TV network is open to the public-NBC. And only one movie studio-Universal.

I agree about the Vietnam Memorial, it is very heart wrenching. When I went there was this guy at the end, and he was crying so hard, it was just sad. I went looking for the name of a friend of my mother's who died. The White House was disappointing, it is really small. I was impressed by the statue of the men raising the flag on Iwo Jima and I was impressed with the Lincoln Memorial, I was invisioning MLK standing there and looking out on all those people during his "I Have A Dream" speech.

[sweetdiggity]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I went to a taping of Whose Line is it Anyway? back in 2001, and was totally surprised to see how tiny the set was. It looked like a miniature of the real set. It looks so much bigger on TV!!

I know what you mean!
I recently went to a taping of The King of Queens, and I was so surprised to see how small the set looks in person!

[PZelda]

Originally Posted by catlover79

In 1998 I went to see a taping of Jay Leno and took the NBC studio tour. It was a lot of fun!

I was just at Universal Studios last week, and took the studio tour...really neat. I even went down the street where Desperate Housewives is filmed. That was really REALLY cool to see. The Cleaver house from Leave It to Beaver is next door from the DH houses, as is the Munsters house.

I saw the original DeLorean they used in the Back to the Future movies, and it looked rather small.