For me It's our National Parks. I've been to @12 of them.
Ok we are angry, I get it but can we maybe talk about something that we like?
- Thread starter Red Hills Nole
- Start date
I really like Costco beef and salmon.
Some time ago, @FSUTribe76 had mentioned that sometimes the beef at Costco was SO fresh that it actually was better if you don't prepare it the same day. However, I don't usually plan that far ahead, so I almost always buy it and grill it the same day.
However, recently circumstances fell that I ended up buying some steaks on Wednesday that I didn't grill until Saturday. In fact, I might have cracked the package a bit because when I pulled them out to prep on Saturday, I was just starting to get a slight browning oxidation on a couple of their edges that I had to trim off.
I swear, I really like Costco steaks, but those were like 25% better than usual. Like really, really fantastic, and I immediately thought of that suggestion. I don't know if it was just getting some extra fine steaks by luck, but I'm going to try to plan ahead a couple days going forward and see.
Some time ago, @FSUTribe76 had mentioned that sometimes the beef at Costco was SO fresh that it actually was better if you don't prepare it the same day. However, I don't usually plan that far ahead, so I almost always buy it and grill it the same day.
However, recently circumstances fell that I ended up buying some steaks on Wednesday that I didn't grill until Saturday. In fact, I might have cracked the package a bit because when I pulled them out to prep on Saturday, I was just starting to get a slight browning oxidation on a couple of their edges that I had to trim off.
I swear, I really like Costco steaks, but those were like 25% better than usual. Like really, really fantastic, and I immediately thought of that suggestion. I don't know if it was just getting some extra fine steaks by luck, but I'm going to try to plan ahead a couple days going forward and see.
A video channel called The Dodo on Facebook. Tons of heartwarming animal rescue videos never fail to restore my faith in humanity.
I balance that out by having it tore down again coming onto HROT. 🤣
I balance that out by having it tore down again coming onto HROT. 🤣
Our family has visited Rocky Mountain National Park
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons,
Saguaro, Badlands and, Shenandoah. Each was an
exciting adventure and a majestic display of God's
beautiful creation.
Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons,
Saguaro, Badlands and, Shenandoah. Each was an
exciting adventure and a majestic display of God's
beautiful creation.
I do enjoy egg yolks. I would add I rather enjoy swimming in my pool on a hot sunny day, preferably with a cold icy drink perched near the water on the poolside decking.
Yep, at least at Tallahassee the meat is cardinal red. So I let it wetage at least a week and preferably two or three in my fridge before using it.
And I love to get the flap steaks from Costco. Usually I end up carving one into four large individually sized steaks and two or three small chunks perfect for cooking and then slicing thin for tacos, burritos, beef stroganoff, salads etc…
Try and age them on a rack in the fridge overnight/24 hours. You won’t be disappointed.
it’s what I do.
What TarponSpringsNole was trying to say in the
above post:
When my rack gets too hot.... I stand next to
the fridge for a hour. I am not disappointed
and neither is my partner.
above post:
When my rack gets too hot.... I stand next to
the fridge for a hour. I am not disappointed
and neither is my partner.
So far I’ve been to and I’ll give it a ranking of 1-10 for parks with 10 being mind blowing must do’s, 9 being some of the best parks in the US, 8 being well worth doing, 5 being mediocre/not much more than a typical state park in the area and there’s not going to be anything below 5 that got National Park Status.
Acadia 9/10
Arches 9/10
Big Bend 10/10
Biscayne 8/10 (but requires snorkeling or scuba diving to enjoy, without it this is a 5/10)
Black Canyon 7/10
Bryce Canyon 10/10
Canyonlands 10/10
Capitol Reef 8/10
Carlsbad Canyons 9/10
Channel Islands 8/10
Congaree 5/10
Death Valley 5/10
Dry Tortugas 8/10
Everglades 9/10
Gateway Arch 6/10 (the museum at the arch as well as the ride to the top are great but the rest is lacking)
Grand Canyon 10/10
Grand Teton 8/10
Great Basin 7/10
Great Sand Dunes 10/10
Great Smoky Mountains 8/10
Guadalupe Mountains 5/10
Haleakala 10/10
Hawaiian Volcanoes 9/10
Hot Springs 7/10 (9/10 if you do a spa on site plus nearby Garvan Gardens with the famous open glass chapel)
Joshua Tree 6/10
Mammoth Cave 7/10 (the caves themselves have very little formations compared to Carlsbad, Luray and other great caverns in the word like Glowworm and Jenolan but they are big….just empty)
Mesa Verde 7/10
Mount Rainier 8/10
New River Gorge 7/10
North Cascades 7/10
Olympic 7/10
Petrified Forest 7/10
Pinnacles 6/10
Rocky Mountain 8/10
Saguaro 7/10
Shenandoah 8/10
White Sands 10/10
Yellowstone 10/10
Yosemite 10/10
Zion 7/10 (The most overhyped NP IMO. It’s hyped to be as amazing as Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canton but it’s either the worst of Utah’s NPs or at most just ahead of Capitol Reef but well behind Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce and GC plus Goblin Valley, Dead Horse, Antelope Canyon and Grand Staircase are all better as well).
The following list of state and federal protected areas I’ve been to deserve to be upgraded to National Parks as the “worst one” would be in the middle of the pack of the actual National Parks: Dinosaur National Monument (CO & UT), Cumberland Island National Seashore (GA), Grand Staircase National Monument (UT), Gulf Islands National Seashore (FL & AL), Florida Keys National Sanctuary (FL), Goblin Valley State Park (UT), Niagara Falls State Park (NY), Valley of Fire State Park (NV not NM), Craters of the Moon National Monument (ID) and DuPont State Forest (NC).
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I've got free tickets to see the Avett Brothers this weekend. The family of a young lady who works with my son is close friends of the Avetts and they can't use the tickets so Emily (no pic) gave them to my son. 
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These are great but someone needs to post sad panda from Penn state.
Curious if you did Pololū Valley Lookout and then hiked down the trail to one of Hawaii's black sand beaches. To me that was a 10/10, but I haven't really traveled all that much.
Nice reply, The Ones I see you missed were Lassen Volcanic N.P. and amazingly Crater Lake ! and since you mentioned areas that are not "Parks" how about Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Sleeping Bear Dunes In Michigan?
Yeah, I haven’t done any of those. The NPs I’m missing are a couple in California and Oregon, the Alaska parks, Virgin Islands, Samoa and most of the Midwest parks. I am planning a driving trip from Tally to Glacier in Montana plus at least Badlands in the Dakotas. I’ll be looking to see if I can fit any others in.
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Yes, but I could have been oversensitized to how beautiful the area is. Cases in point are the many giant beautiful castles in Wales and many, MANY tremendous large waterfalls in New Zealand. I’d point one of those out and my wife would just yawn. Same thing with the beauty of Hawaii. Once you’ve hiked out to the red beach of Hana, taken a bouncy suv trip out to the Green Beach on the Big Island, climbed Diamondhead and walked the Lanai Lookout on Oahu, driven a four wheeler around “Jurassic Valley”, scuba dived on Molokini and with Mantas outside the Big Island airport, etc…the National Parks are just one more beautiful spot in Hawaii. Not the MOST beautiful.
Meh, he gave Joshua Tree a 6 and Zion a 7. He's got some blindspots/biases. Mostly he doesn't wander too far from the road/main trails so his ratings are usually based on what you see from your window.
Fair point. We didn't make the green or red beach, but did see quite a bit of the big island, including driving through clouds up and down the the middle of the island to/from Hilo. Snorkeling with the manta rays at night was probably the most vivid memory I will have of the trip, but the beauty of Pololū Valley took the cake for me aesthetically.
I spent 6 days in Yellowstone and 3 in Big Bend. I do a LOT of hiking when I’m out in a NP, just seldom do I camp (especially out west with Brown bears) or take multi day hikes. I’m pretty sure I posted on here how Big Bend blows away Zion yet is attended by maybe 100x less visitors maybe 1,000x less with side by side shots of the respective canyon narrows, the grand vistas, spots from the highest points like Angel’s Landing etc…. Zion is just ridiculously overhyped. And Joshua Tree NP doesn’t look much different from the rest of the surrounding area. That’s how I judge National Parks. If there’s no “wow” factor or single awesome thing/spot/whatever and it just looks like a pristine copy of the surrounding area then the best I give out is a 7 or 8. They’re pristine, perfect examples of that particular geology and ecology but there’s nothing dynamic about them. Meanwhile places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Big Bend, Bryce Canyon etc…have truly amazing, truly special features and views.
