Sad fact: the last time you discovered something in your city, it was probably because it hadn’t been GMapped yet. Oh look, honey. Another Olive Garden. Huzzah.
Leave the buffet behind and unearth your city’s lesser-known secrets on the first-ever Field Trip Day.
A free discovery adventure running tomorrow in six major cities, FTD’s org’d by Atlas Obscura. “If you’re looking for miniature cities, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, or bone churches,” the site reads, “the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them.”
During FTD, intrepid citizens will explore their city’s oft-overlooked recesses while learning new skills, interacting with local characters and historical role players, and, at day’s end, convening for celebratory bacchanals.
All you’ll need: a reservation, a bike, and Obscura’s free Android app. Thus equipped, you and your friends are free to wander, e.g.:
- New York: Drive miniature boats in Greenpoint, learn to tie nautical knots, and restage a Civil War ironclad battle
- San Francisco: Explore the remains of a medieval monastery, examine fresco murals, play horseshoes, “make friends with a bison”
- Chicago: Discover the bohemians and anarchists of the Polish Gold Coast, play poker alongside a “dead award-winning novelist,” enjoy some burlesque
Field Trip Day, which also takes place in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Boston, runs from 2 p.m. until the afterparties close down.
After that, hey, there’s probably an Olive Garden nearby.
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