OT The Most Amazing Experience You've Witnessed In Person

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ABM

ABM

Happily Married In Music City, USA!
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Isreal.jpg Israel2.jpg Israel3.jpg For me, probably the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. The whole experience evoked tremendous emotion, respect, and awe. Actually, the whole Jerusalem experience was awesome in and of itself.

Isreal.jpg
 
To add to my list:

The glaciers of Alaska.
The view from the top of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty
Being in the Rose Garden the night that Maurice Cheeks helped that little girl sing the national anthem.
Seeing Elton John and Billy Joel tour together.
 
Not what I would call an “amazing” experience but I did have an experience 4 years ago that blew me away and really showed how small and interconnected the world is……..I was in Vicksburg MS and went to my car (hotel parking lot) to have a quick and quiet doobie. There was a younger guy who was also going out to his car (for a cooler of beer). When he saw my license plate, he asked me what part of Oregon I was from. So I told him and he told me he had also lived in Oregon for several years, but closer to Salem. So I told him I had worked for the city of Salem but actually worked in Keizer. He told me that Keizer was where he had actually lived. So I told him I had worked at the treatment plant. He said his dad (originally a MS native) had worked at the treatment plant(??!!!???). Turns out I had supervised this kid’s dad for 8-9 years. The dad was an ironclad asshole and a chronic problem the entire time he was employed at the plant. It took forever to pry that barnacle loose. So I told the kid I had known his dad, that we hadn’t gotten along and that if his dad knew we were talking, he would expect the son to punch my lights out. I was actually prepping to run like crazy if things went south. The kid laughed like crazy, shook my hand and told me that he had never gotten along with his dad either and was glad to finally meet the devil he had heard such terrible things about as a kid. Then we sat in that parking lot shooting the breeze until his beer was all gone……..interesting experience 2500 miles from home.
 
Birth of my kids!
Championship Parade
Watching St. Helens pop it cap while on the Columbia
Jumping out the cargo door of an Horizon Dash 8 that made an emergency landing at SeaTac
When I was a teenager and seeing a set of hooters and some for the first time
 
I've got a few:
1. Shaking the hand of John F. Kennedy;
2. Shaking the hand of Richard M. Nixon;
3. The Apollo landing on the moon;
4. The tearing down of the West Berlin Wall;
5. The flight of John Glenn;
6. A street fight at an Oktober Fest in where each guy had a hold of the other guys hair and as they rolled in the street they tried to bang the other guy's head into the concrete curb. I was stoned and all I could think was no, no, no:
7. Driving through the redwood tree when I was a toddler and again on my honeymoon;
8. Seeing the Redwoods the most awesome sight second only to a visit to the Vista House on a clear sunshining day;
9. Looking down on the face of Hoover dam;
10. The video of the World Trade Center getting attacked by two airplanes;
11. Looking out over New York City from the top of the Empire State Building;
12. Watching a show at the Radio City Music Hall with the band rising up and playing before some show;
13. Seeing the truly giant sturgeon at the Bonneville fish hatchery before some vandal got in there at night and killed the giant fish with a knife;
14. Catching my first steelhead;
15. Visiting the South China Beach in S. Vietnam;
16. Watching the dive bombers and 50 cal. machine guns during the Tet in S. Vietnam.
I will think of more later.
 
Tyrant of Ants said:
Man, witnessing the dinosaurs go extinct and seeing Christ on the cross didn't even make your top 16? What about your Go matches with Confucius?
Click to expand...
Or puking over the rail of the Santa Maria (probably too embarrassed to admit that one). Or surviving Krakatoa……

Wow……we could overwhelm the Coronavirus and Carmelo threads combined just on this alone………
 
It took my sister and I 7 years to scatter my dads ashes; mainly me being at a place where I was ready. He died on my 22nd birthday (5/11/2011), while I was on my way to pick up his ashes from the memorial center that morning, I found myself behind this car.

Edit: Almost my birthday thought 8 years - will be 10; but this was taken in 2018 not 2019. Was only 7 years.
yKMbXAI.jpg
 
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Aside from cats?

Not counting anything seen on TV so moon landing not on my list.

Seeing things I had known existed but had never previously seen as they were very small or very far away. My senior microbiology class when I saw viruses through electron microscope and took micrograph. I still have that photo.

Looking through a telescope at Saturn's rings and the two moons of Mars.

As far as entertainment, seeing the Beatles in concert and being in the stands when the A's won the World series.
 
1. Standing near Ellis Island and just imagining all the people that came from such terrible situations to find a better life.

2. Waking up on the train as the sun comes up over glacier national park.

3. Mackinac Island, Michigan.

4. The wave.

5. Coming in to Gastown in Vancouver, BC on the watertaxi.
 
UncleCliffy'sDaddy said:
Not what I would call an “amazing” experience but I did have an experience 4 years ago that blew me away and really showed how small and interconnected the world is……..I was in Vicksburg MS and went to my car (hotel parking lot) to have a quick and quiet doobie. There was a younger guy who was also going out to his car (for a cooler of beer). When he saw my license plate, he asked me what part of Oregon I was from. So I told him and he told me he had also lived in Oregon for several years, but closer to Salem. So I told him I had worked for the city of Salem but actually worked in Keizer. He told me that Keizer was where he had actually lived. So I told him I had worked at the treatment plant. He said his dad (originally a MS native) had worked at the treatment plant(??!!!???). Turns out I had supervised this kid’s dad for 8-9 years. The dad was an ironclad asshole and a chronic problem the entire time he was employed at the plant. It took forever to pry that barnacle loose. So I told the kid I had known his dad, that we hadn’t gotten along and that if his dad knew we were talking, he would expect the son to punch my lights out. I was actually prepping to run like crazy if things went south. The kid laughed like crazy, shook my hand and told me that he had never gotten along with his dad either and was glad to finally meet the devil he had heard such terrible things about as a kid. Then we sat in that parking lot shooting the breeze until his beer was all gone……..interesting experience 2500 miles from home.
Click to expand...

I liked this. But as your son, I was still disappointed by your response.
 
PDXFonz said:
It took my sister and I 8 years to scatter my dads ashes; mainly me being at a place where I was ready. He died on my 22nd birthday (5/11/2011), while I was on my way to pick up his ashes from the memorial center that morning, I found myself behind this car.

yKMbXAI.jpg
Click to expand...
My father died less than a week before I turned 21. Then on the plane back from Vietnam for his funeral, they played a song on the piped in radio about how great my dad is and it had me sobbing. Some asshole 2nd. Lt. chewed me out for not having my cunt cap in the Guam airport while we refueled. I left in a bit of a chaotic hurry and lost my hat before leaving country.
Turned 21 on the airplane going to Alabama to be with my relatives down there so we could console each other.
 
UncleCliffy'sDaddy said:
Not what I would call an “amazing” experience but I did have an experience 4 years ago that blew me away and really showed how small and interconnected the world is……..I was in Vicksburg MS and went to my car (hotel parking lot) to have a quick and quiet doobie. There was a younger guy who was also going out to his car (for a cooler of beer). When he saw my license plate, he asked me what part of Oregon I was from. So I told him and he told me he had also lived in Oregon for several years, but closer to Salem. So I told him I had worked for the city of Salem but actually worked in Keizer. He told me that Keizer was where he had actually lived. So I told him I had worked at the treatment plant. He said his dad (originally a MS native) had worked at the treatment plant(??!!!???). Turns out I had supervised this kid’s dad for 8-9 years. The dad was an ironclad asshole and a chronic problem the entire time he was employed at the plant. It took forever to pry that barnacle loose. So I told the kid I had known his dad, that we hadn’t gotten along and that if his dad knew we were talking, he would expect the son to punch my lights out. I was actually prepping to run like crazy if things went south. The kid laughed like crazy, shook my hand and told me that he had never gotten along with his dad either and was glad to finally meet the devil he had heard such terrible things about as a kid. Then we sat in that parking lot shooting the breeze until his beer was all gone……..interesting experience 2500 miles from home.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely amazing! Hahahaha that is freaking HILARIOUS! The fact you had no idea and then low and behold his son sees eye to eye with you.
You probably relieved him. He will now understand you are a baller and his dad was being a BARNACLE!!! ROFL!!!

Did you share the doobie?
Did he ask you why you didn’t get along with his dad?
Was he significantly cooler than “pops”? Sometimes it works out that way!
:biglaugh:
 
Strenuus said:
2. Waking up on the train as the sun comes up over glacier national park.

4. The wave.

5. Coming in to Gastown in Vancouver, BC on the watertaxi.
Click to expand...
What a f***ing adventure!

Global warming sure has been something, hasn’t it?

Glacier is beautiful; probably super cool taking a train through there.
 
Hoopguru said:
Birth of my kids!
Championship Parade
Watching St. Helens pop it cap while on the Columbia
Jumping out the cargo door of an Horizon Dash 8 that made an emergency landing at SeaTac
When I was a teenager and seeing a set of hooters and some for the first time
Click to expand...
Whoa!!!

details! Details!
 
Swimming with icebergs in alaskan waters.

climbing to the top of pikes peak in colorado.

hiking the continental divide for a few weeks.

Visiting 911 days after. Hell, living in ny during 911. The candles on all the porches driving back home in upstate... very emotional.

waking up in the middle of the night during a camping trip in Moab to be looking up at a wild cows’ nips as he stood over me. That was crazy!

The best was meeting and marrying my wife.
 
Orion Bailey said:
Swimming with icebergs in alaskan waters.

climbing to the top of pikes peak in colorado.

hiking the continental divide for a few weeks.

Visiting 911 days after. Hell, living in ny during 911. The candles on all the porches driving back home in upstate... very emotional.

waking up in the middle of the night during a camping trip in Moab to be looking up at a wild cows’ nips as he stood over me. That was crazy!

The best was meeting and marrying my wife.
Click to expand...

All fantastic, but the last was certainly the best!! I concur regarding meeting/marrying my wife, 1,000 percent!!!

Groom.JPG wifey.JPG
 
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So many. Hard to say the "Most Amazing".

Lt Gen Steiner pinning a Silver Star on me was up there.
Finishing the Ironman Triathlon was pretty awesome!
Climbing Mt Hood and Mt St Helens (Before the Eruption) is one of my personal favs.
I get to turn out students every year which go on to make some very fine men and women which is as rewarding as any of the above.
Flying out of Saudi Arabia/Kuwait for the last time.
Actually sky diving rather than jumping out of a C-130.
Watching Lillard make the "Wave" shot live was an experience.
Building stuff is always amazing. Figuring out how to pick 1,000,000 lbs and move it is always amazing.

As i write this the sun is rising and it is glistening through the leaves on the tree out front of my house. The windows are open and i can smell the rain from last night. My dog is at my feet and I'm healthy. That is pretty amazing.
The cat is looking at me from outside and wants in.....
 
Orion Bailey said:
Whoa!!!

details! Details!
Click to expand...
Flying from Vancouver BC to Seatac we hit a wind shear and the plane suddenly dropped like a rock. On a dash 8 there is only one door up front, and the stewardess was serving drinks when it happen and hit her head so hard on the ceiling it knock her cold and she was lying in front of the door. The guy next to me was having chest pains/heart attack. There was zero communication from the cock pit. That pissed me off big time and I let the airlines know it. I was in a window seat and had been flying for 40 years, was absolutely amazed at how the wings stayed on that plane from the sudden impact of the fall and stop. We were 5 minutes out form SeaTac and made an emergency landing with emergency vehicles following us down tarmac. They immediately brought Seattle heart paramedic on board and addressed both the stewardess and gent next to me who they immediately hooked. to heart diagnostics. They had all 40 plus passengers exit the plan through the back cargo door gave us $50 vouchers to get cleaning done, as there was drinks and stuff everywhere. I had to jump immediately on another Dash 8 to Portland and I was amazed at how I was a bit jumpy and white knuckled as flying never bothered me a bit over the years even in bad turbulence.
 
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